16 hr review:

I'm maybe halfway (?) through Act 2.

So far I'm having a very good time with my sorceress.

PROS:
- Level design
- Art design
- Sound design
- Improved passive tree
- Can refund passive skills

PRO/CON?
- Refunding passive skills in early game is not adviseable - it's very expensive in gold to do and you are not swimming in gold at 16 hours and trust me, I visit town every 2 minutes to sell and disenchant everything that drops. For example, at level 25, I had saved up 12k in gold and it would cost me 465 gold just to refund a single node. This makes me unhappy because I feel that I want to better optimise my passive build but I would rather invest in gear then refund passive. At the same time, I'm not having issues progressing through content, so it's not a deal breaker that I can't refund skills, yet. I can definitely see that by 40th or 80th hour I will need to start saving a lot of gold (the cost scales with level) just to do a massive rejig of my passives. Overall I'm happy I have the option to refund which wasn't in PoE1.

CONS:
- Blood pools and poison clouds last too long.
- I'm glad portal scrolls are gone. How about getting rid of identify scrolls :)
- I'd rather get more thorns on my sorceress than have Light Radius. I'd like to see that stat dissappear.

OPINIONS:
- Difficulty is very good. There are some bosses I spend an hour on, and some bosses I can clear on the first try. When I'm dying, it's not because of the PoE1 cheese 1 shots because there's so much crap happening - it's because I need to either level more, or start using my currency to craft/upgrade.
- I find the currency very balanced. I never used the currency in PoE1 because loot would drop that didn't make me reach for currency to upgrade. I'm using my currency in PoE2 and saving currency for a good craft is rewarding.
- Leveling feels great. Not too fast, not too slow. I'm never more than 1 or 2 levels higher than the zone.
- I'm good with the size of the maps and I like exploring them. I don't need a mount of way to quick travel between checkpoints. Hard core people who want to zoom has spoiled my enjoyment of exploring in many games - I don't want it in this game.

CAN BE IMPROVED:
- The story in the game is better than PoE1, but it still lacks a level of storytelling and engagement that would really send this game into another tier of success. The way Diablo 4 integrated your character into the story with in-game cutscene (at least at the beginning of the game) is something I think PoE could get inspiration from. I don't feel connected to any of the NPCs in the story. The only time I started getting invested in caring was with the little chemistry happening between Una and Finn. But then Act 2 happens and you never think about them again. Perhaps this evolves more later in the game.

16 hr review: I'm maybe halfway (?) through Act 2. So far I'm having a very good time with my sorceress. PROS: - Level design - Art design - Sound design - Improved passive tree - Can refund passive skills PRO/CON? - Refunding passive skills in early game is not adviseable - it's very expensive in gold to do and you are not swimming in gold at 16 hours and trust me, I visit town every 2 minutes to sell and disenchant everything that drops. For example, at level 25, I had saved up 12k in gold and it would cost me 465 gold just to refund a single node. This makes me unhappy because I feel that I want to better optimise my passive build but I would rather invest in gear then refund passive. At the same time, I'm not having issues progressing through content, so it's not a deal breaker that I can't refund skills, yet. I can definitely see that by 40th or 80th hour I will need to start saving a lot of gold (the cost scales with level) just to do a massive rejig of my passives. Overall I'm happy I have the option to refund which wasn't in PoE1. CONS: - Blood pools and poison clouds last too long. - I'm glad portal scrolls are gone. How about getting rid of identify scrolls :) - I'd rather get more thorns on my sorceress than have Light Radius. I'd like to see that stat dissappear. OPINIONS: - Difficulty is very good. There are some bosses I spend an hour on, and some bosses I can clear on the first try. When I'm dying, it's not because of the PoE1 cheese 1 shots because there's so much crap happening - it's because I need to either level more, or start using my currency to craft/upgrade. - I find the currency very balanced. I never used the currency in PoE1 because loot would drop that didn't make me reach for currency to upgrade. I'm using my currency in PoE2 and saving currency for a good craft is rewarding. - Leveling feels great. Not too fast, not too slow. I'm never more than 1 or 2 levels higher than the zone. - I'm good with the size of the maps and I like exploring them. I don't need a mount of way to quick travel between checkpoints. Hard core people who want to zoom has spoiled my enjoyment of exploring in many games - I don't want it in this game. CAN BE IMPROVED: - The story in the game is better than PoE1, but it still lacks a level of storytelling and engagement that would really send this game into another tier of success. The way Diablo 4 integrated your character into the story with in-game cutscene (at least at the beginning of the game) is something I think PoE could get inspiration from. I don't feel connected to any of the NPCs in the story. The only time I started getting invested in caring was with the little chemistry happening between Una and Finn. But then Act 2 happens and you never think about them again. Perhaps this evolves more later in the game.