Take control of time itself in Last Epoch, an Action RPG that recently had it's 1.0 release! Choose your class, customize your build, then proceed to hack and/or slash your way to victory across various fantastical eras, wielding the power of the "Epoch" device. Jump around the timeline in an effort to save everyone from the encroaching Void!
Release Date: April 30th, 2019 (Early Access), February 21st, 2024 (official release)
Available Systems: Linux, Microsoft Windows (current at time of writing)
Developer: Eleventh Hour Games
Player Choice
Let's get right into it - I could mention the story, but this is an ARPG: you're not exactly here for the plot. Thankfully, the gameplay is simply wonderful. Fans of the genre, Eleventh Hour Games came together to build upon the games that came before.
Boasting five main classes, with the ability to specialize into one of three masteries per class a short ways into the campaign, Last Epoch is a paradise for a build-maker such as myself. The word on the street going into the game was that it finds the middle-ground between the infinitely-complicated Path of Exile, and the (much more) simplified Diablo IV. Let it be known that the rumors are true: the old adage "easy to learn, hard to master" would definitely apply here, as it's pretty straight-forward to set forth with a general idea of what you hope to achieve, tweak it along the way, and eventually come to an understanding on how to maximize it. The more you play, the more you realize the deceptive depths of the systems, and the more you are rewarded for your learning.
Each class comes with a passive tree, additional trees for each mastery, a good variety of skills to choose from, and the ability to customize the skills themselves (more on that later). As you level up and complete quests, you'll put points into the base tree before eventually branching out to a mastery, unlocking new skills the more invested you become. You can even dip a little bit into the other masteries as you proceed, adding another layer of possibility. Do I make my Sentinel a Void Knight, but pick up some Paladin passives so I can heal better? What if I play the Falconer, but dip into Marksman to make myself a master of bird and bow? Planning out my first character proved to be an enjoyable challenge. Of course, I could've just flown by the seat of my pants and figured it out as I progressed and been okay, but that's not the kind of player I am!
Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Rogue
I ultimately decided that I wanted to play a Falconer, one of the Rogue masteries that debuted in the 1.0 release. That said, how exactly I wanted to run the Falconer was another matter entirely. Narrowing my build down to five skills was an exercise in decision-making, because a lot of them seemed appealing. I almost went a fire route and combined flammable Decoys with Explosive Trap and a Dive Bomb attack, but eventually settled on making an aerial bomber, my falcon dropping Acid Flasks on the enemy while I throw poisonous Nets to trap them in the noxious pool. That said, Acid Flask could've been a part of either build, depending on how I customized it: that's the beauty of the system!
All of this build-making leads back into the gameplay itself, as the fruits of one's labor fall into place and you get that sense of accomplishment from kicking ass and taking names. That said, while the game does want players to eventually pick a direction and stick with it, Last Epoch is not against me changing my mind and/or tinkering with how my character operates. By clicking the Respec button in the top-right, I could remove a point from the tree - I would have to gain experience again to reinvest the point, so it's not completely free of consequence, but it's still an option should I decide I'm not enjoying the current path.
For example, I completely changed my Aerial Assault skill's functionality: my initial instinct was to add poison, like the rest of the build, but that required me to take "Featherstorm", which causes the falcon to stay in place shooting feathers at enemies below. Turns out, I hated that stationary setup, so I ripped up all my points leading to the poison node and now I'm much happier with Aerial Assault, dropping bleeding Caltrops and inflicting Frailty to reduce enemy damage. Net could also drop Caltrops, so I picked that up as well; ultimately, my dislike of Featherstorm changed a lot of the build around, but I still ended up with something I enjoyed. By time of writing, my Falconer has become a hybrid of Damage Over Time stacks and pure Minion Damage: DoTs chew through larger bosses, while the falcon can annihilate smaller enemies all on its own. I wasn't forced to abandon the character and reroll because I messed up so poorly: I could continue playing the class I wanted, with a build I made for myself, merely adjusting it as I went.
All About The Numbers
Planning a build is one thing; actually playing the game is another matter entirely. Unfortunately, when 1.0 released on the 21st of February the servers were dead on arrival...a major headache for all players and developers, most certainly. Of course, these things can be fixed, and I personally wouldn't let an unstable few days ruin one's perception of a game that could last years. Thankfully, server stability wasn't an issue for some people like myself, as I took advantage of Last Epoch's full offline mode, a truly welcome feature in this day-and-age of "always online".
Anyway, as I've alluded to plenty by now, the hour-by-hour gameplay is great. Eleventh Hour Games has put in place many appreciated "quality of life" additions that make the experience feel better, taking what worked from other ARPG games and building upon them. For example, while this game has a system similar to Diablo II's charms - small items that sit in your inventory providing you passive bonuses - Last Epoch puts them in a separate area of your inventory screen, so they don't take up space that could be used by item drops. You can access the item-crafting forge from literally anywhere, and crafting materials have their own space as well. Town Portals appear instantly (no channeling) and are free, there's an in-game guide to help you with anything you're unsure about, and did I mention there's a built-in loot filter? Oh, by the way, there's an extensive built-in loot filter, and holy moly is it wonderful.
Pressing Shift + F by default brings up the Loot Filter screen: by deciding on a list of rules the system must follow, you'll only see what you want to see from then on. I didn't worry about using the filter early on, but boy was that a mistake. As a bow user, I didn't care when swords, shields, or wands were dropping; they were just vendor trash taking up space (not to mention the time spent returning to town to sell the junk). So I made a quick set of rules to remove them. They can still drop, but they won't appear on the screen unless I press X to temporarily turn off the filter. I made another rule saying all unique, set, or exalted items would still appear to me, though, so anything really good would not be missed. You can even filter by specific item qualities (known as affixes), such as "Minion Damage", "Dodge Rating", or "Fire Resistance": I may not use that 2-Handed Sword, but because it revealed itself to me I know it has a desired quality. I could then put it in the crafting forge and take the affix off the weapon, for use on stuff I actually want!
A Matter of Time
Okay, I've waited long enough: I want to talk about the story. Being a plot revolving around a time-travel device, naturally you would expect to be jumping around between different eras in time...and you would be right! It's a welcome change to the usual pace of these stories, being able to switch back-and-forth between the time periods. Seeing the same locations but in different ways is pretty cool, watching via gameplay how the choices of the characters you meet impact the timeline.
The story is at its best when the temporal shenanigans are most paramount. "I need a thing, but it's been moved; let me go back in time and get it." "The entrance to this place is blocked; let me go forward in time to when the people are gone so I can get in." Frankly, the campaign doesn't do that enough, as large swaths of the story take place in one particular era at a time. You have a long trek through the Ruined Era, then go back to the Imperial Era for a while, then go back further to the Divine Era where you started to close things out; we were sold a time-hopping adventure, and it's too few and far between for my liking. Of course, as I alluded to at the beginning, story always takes a back seat in these kinds of games...which is why it's so disappointing that their unique selling point occasionally whiffs. They elevated a lot of the design choices for the gameplay to new heights, and "not just another ARPG story" could've been another major achievement to make the game truly stand tall among the rest. It's still a good time, just not as good as it could be. While I was thinking this throughout my time with the campaign, it truly became apparent when Last Epoch sucker-punches you right at the end.
You see, the story in 1.0 has no ending. At all, whatsoever. You reach the end of the campaign, the bad-guy-of-the-moment gets away, and you're left with "all well, play the endgame for now". For a story-aficionado such as myself, this was very jarring: a total blue-ball moment for anyone who cared about what was happening on screen. The more I thought about it, the more it upset me: none of the major villains have been defeated, and you still have little idea of who or what caused the Void to begin consuming everything. You're left with more questions than answers, and while the game isn't truly completed - they plan to roll out more story segments over time, presumably free? - it's still a frustrating non-end to the campaign.
(Almost) Perfect?
The story's blunder is particularly egregious, but there are a few other things about Last Epoch that annoy me. All their improvements upon the formula seem to highlight the parts where they stumbled, with some questionable decisions that leave scratch marks on the artwork. A couple examples:
- Crafting materials have their own space, but they don't just go there automatically: it requires a separate button to put them away. I have yet to determine why you would not put them there.
- When you leave an area with the intention to return (to sell your junk at town, turn in a quest before resuming, etc.), it remembers what items are on the ground, but you lose fog of war progress and it respawns all enemies, including some mini-bosses. If you're not careful, you could return through a portal only to be surrounded by foes and quickly mauled.
- To go with the above, the treasure chests close back up, but it tricks you: if you reopen a chest, it'll only contain a pittance of gold. However, some chests you definitely did not open might also be messed up, meaning whatever was inside is now lost forever. Open any chest you see before you leave, regardless of your inventory space!
- When I reenter the game, all of my potions might be missing/gone. If I remove my belt for whatever reason - to compare stats, to upgrade it in the crafting forge, etc. - I also lose my potions.
There are more, and while these aren't deal-breakers by any means, they muddy what is otherwise a fantastic experience. "The brightest lights cast the darkest shadows", or so they say.
Conclusion
And there you have it! Despite what I just finished typing above, I really enjoyed Last Epoch and will continue to play it. Hopefully the story stuff will be rectified with additional content, because that was the only truly major complaint I have. The build-making exceeded my expectations, the story at large has potential to be really interesting and a cut above the genre with some more work, and the moment-to-moment gameplay was spot-on. The end-game features different timelines, which is another cool play on the standard (end-game seems fine, by the way: I haven't played enough of it to truly give an opinion, but I enjoyed what I've done). With a great collection of improvements on the formula, small and large, this has the makings of a wonderful experience for years to come.
Just...don't let some server trouble get you down early on!
Will you be picking up Last Epoch yourself, or have you done so already? What do you think of the game? Does the story's lacking end bother you as much as it bothers me? Let us know in the comments below!
Comments
Thanks for the review. I was thinking of playing this, but the blunders/oversights are quite important to me. Unopened loot getting screwed upon leaving an area and monsters respawning? No thanks. Give us infinite inventory then, until these issues get fixed! I'm playing an arpg for the loot and maybe a bit for the story => huge frustration with issues related to this.
I can't help but LOL that anyone would play an ARPG for the story, and even more that they would be upset about the ending.
As for loot filtering, I've found that turning off common (white) stuff is really all that's needed. That's enough to get me through an entire map before I have to head to town, which I always do immediately after landing in the next zone. Occasionally I do have to leave one or two blue items behind, but that's not a big deal. All the extra sold loot really adds up, and oh my goodness I have a lot of gold now.
People and how they generalize everything and despise others who don't do or enjoy what they do or enjoy...
I like play leveling, in all genres, with all classes, i love to play games as discovering it, without guides, videos or articles.
I like playing leveling in mmos and rpgs mostly, discovering builds, experiment on builds. Playing the leveling on mmos dozens of times without being bored with doing all sidequests, in chronological order mostly. That's how i enjoy. I don't like to learn classes as looking on guides, boosting my character to end game and copy/paste another person's playstyle or skipping all the leveling/story content with haste to reach end game or look at "how to do x" videos on web, or "which is the best X for this" stuff. This is how I am. I even disgust it but I have respect who does and enjoy that. At least I had respect until past 2-3 years but people like you are crossing the line a lot with your unrespectful and pathetic statements.
I am trying to not judge how you enjoy but stop generalizing and despising people for just how they enjoy. Your metas, end game rushes, looting and lootbox addiction is not just how people SHOULD and the only way to enjoy the game. There are people that enjoys even shittiest story or shittiest leveling or shittiest anything even they are the minority. There are completist people, there are people that plays only story, there are people that plays solo every online game. You can't judge any of them or can't say how they should play or for what they should play.
and yes, some people are playing arpgs for their story. I do even some fantasy stuff on games like Don't Starve, Palworld etc. even roleplaying in a game without RP elements. You can't know exactly which reason people are playing a game. You can't even imagine which games that really sucks in story I am playing by following its story even their story is just filler.
So, when i liked a game like Diablo and its story and waiting for next game, when they fail on story, i could say "why did you suck on story" to the company and whine about it but community have no right to tell me "you don't play this for its story anyways." because you don't know and yes i am playing that for the story. Finishing the story with all classes and don't care about seasons. I don't "LOL" anyone that plays it for its seasons tho but people who are metadogs and have this kind of mindset always "LOL" at us which is just rude at best, sometimes tell us even worse things.
There is not " you don't play this for this" kind of statement and shouldn't.
So if you LOL me, then i can't help but LOL that anyone would play any game just because of suppressing their addictions instead of an entertainment. Continue to be the slave of consumerism while it feeds your addictions more and more while also feeding upon you.
Probably I will be banned after this comment so i hope you can read it. Because you don't have the right of harass people like this. If you do, someone come and harass you like this.
This became longer than i anticipated but my anger raised more and more as i write.
I understand that for most people, the plot in ARPGs is secondary to the general gameplay and their precious endgame. I, however, want to enjoy the story too: we all usually end up running multiple characters through the campaign, after all, and I like games with solid narratives. Last Epoch had a rare opportunity to have an actually good story with a unique selling point, and so I brought up the ending to relate my disappointment that EHG might not care about their campaign as much as I might have.
This is where I would say something like "It's the journey, not the destination". I'm not racing to the grind that-is the typical ARPG endgame experience.
This game has the perfect balance of in depth complexity yet simple UI interfaces that are easy to understand. I always tell people if you find Diablo 4 too simple and Path of Exile too complex, then Last Epoch is the perfect middle man.
I very much agree! The main example I can think of is the character passive trees: if, say, the Rogue, Bladedancer, Marksman, and Falconer trees were all one big tree, it would achieve the same thing...but be that much more intimidating to deal with. By breaking it down to manageable chunks, it becomes easier for people to understand and interact with the system in a successful way. It can still be a maze of choices if you want to really dive into it and learn how to maximize the trees, but it doesn't have to be.
Sentinel might be an even better example, because many Sentinel builds use skills from the various masteries in harmony. My Falconer doesn't do that - she's just straight Rogue -> Falconer (for now). But my Paladin Sentinel also has points in Void Knight and Forge Guard, plus a Void Knight "exclusive" skill, so you can build in a complex manner should you choose to do so.