Last Epoch – PC Preview

Genre: Action, Adventure, Indie, RPG, Early Access
Developer: Eleventh Hour Games
Publisher: Eleventh Hour Games
Release Date: Apr 30, 2019
Edited by Thorstag

If you are interested in an Action RPG that has time travel, is a dungeon crawler and allows for lots of character customization as well as tons of replayability then look no further then Last Epoch. You can pick from four currently available character classes, each of which can also specialize into three subclasses along with a fifth class silhouette that is not yet available. Last Epoch is a dungeon crawler, but that’s not it. The storyline is exciting and eventful. The quests and sub-quests are everywhere. This game is still in beta so there are some things that I would like to see change, but they still have time to do those changes. Also when creating your character, there are optional challenges that you can pick from. You can select from Solo, Hardcore and Masochist mode.

Gameplay and playability, the wife and I each played a character in our own worlds as multiplayer is not available yet. We enjoyed the storyline and concept of the game as a whole. The buttons for different abilities and spells are in a logical place. One thing that would make the world easier to navigate that my wife noticed is a better local map. If you open your map, it shows you the full world map, and you can’t actually see the particular area that you are in. There is a small local map in the upper right-hand corner, but you can’t zoom it out, so it was a little limiting. I played as an Acolyte, and my wife played as a Primalist, and both were fun to play and fun to watch. We dual streamed the game, and our viewers loved to see both play styles, they were able to get a feel for how the game played. As far as replayability goes there are numerous class combinations and customizations that you can choose from to make your character different. However; there were some extreme frame drop issues when you were faced with a horde of different mobs and monsters. With all the spell particle and density effects they added, you did notice a significant frame drop here and there. Again I’m sure they will optimize it better on full release, but I do feel this had to be addressed.

The overall look of the game as far as art design and animation was done well. It reminds us of many medieval style dungeon crawlers of the past. I would have to say this is in my personal opinion this game kept up with some of the big hitters of this style game from back in the day. The graphic artists played a decent amount of attention to what was in the background so that it didn’t distract you from the gameplay but still added visual intrigue. Even though the maps could be a little bit like a labyrinth, graphically you were able to know what is a wall and what is a walkway.

Character customization is prominent in this game, and there are so many things to think about and different ways that you can play that it comes down to how you want to play. Firstly as with most games, there is loot. Each item has its stats that when worn will help you in different ways and different situations. In Last Epoch, there is also crafting that you can utilize on the fly. When looting there are different shards that you can pick up that you can add to your armor and weapons to further customize them. As you level up, you open more skills and specializations that you can put your points into depending on how you want to play your character. If you want to make your attack stronger, you can but these points matter so where you place them is critical. But never fear you can redo your points if you talk to a specific NPC. The last menu to watch is your passives menu. You also can have passive skills and can allocate your points to where it suits your character and play style best.

Inventory management can be a bit of a pain in this game. If you are a bit of a hoarder like my wife and me, it can be a little challenging to have a full inventory and not be able to loot or have to choose what to leave behind. Your character has 96 inventory slots, that sounds like a ton of room, right? What are we complaining about? Well, that doesn’t mean that you can hold 96 things in your inventory. Things like amulets and rings take up one slot. Things like swords take up eight slots, so your inventory fills up rather quickly. On top of that, if you are an incredible Tetris player, you can probably figure out the best configuration, but you are still going to end up with unusable slots in your inventory.

Map Travel and Battle mechanics are pretty simple and straightforward. If you step on a sundial looking piece in the floor, you can travel to any other main room in the world, which is excellent when you need to stow something in your chest or sell off unneeded loot. Battle mechanics are left click to move right click to fight and use your abilities. It really is straightforward. Now I am sure that is a precise way to play this game but you really can use what ability you have and mash your right mouse button, and you can do reasonably well for the first few areas. But you will want to figure out your abilities rather quickly as you will need them frequently. This ability switching is where all of that character customization and ability specialization comes into play.

Music and atmosphere, the wife and I both commented on how they took there care to make the music match the atmosphere of the game. They made sure to use instruments and sounds that your brain could understand working in the game. Meaning if the game has a medieval fantasy look the music is not an electric guitar shredding away but rather a lute. They took the care to immerse you as much as possible. This immersion is what draws you into the gameplay. You really get lost in the music.

Last Epoch, is rich in story as well rich in gameplay. For a game that is still in beta and to be in full release in 2020, there are not that many bugs or issues that we have seen. All though there are some minor changes we would like to see, those are just our opinions, and everyone has got one. The music itself, the atmospheric sound effects as well as the access to many different characters and the various play options that are available right now hit it home and brought this game to life. The price point of this game is more than a bargain. Many different elements have not come out yet, and I can’t wait to see what they come up with next. This style of an ARPG indie game brings back a lot of memories for me, and I want to play more. The sky’s the limit for this game, as well as the different challenges you can add to increase the difficulty.

Pros

• Music
• Character Customization
• Learning Curve
• Story
• Graphics

Cons

• Inventory management
• Lack of a local map
• Frame drops with large groups of enemies

The Wolvesgamingden gives Last Epoch a Drastik Measure of 8.5 out of 10 (85)

On Steam, rumors have that the game price will drop on full release, that you are paying for access to beta test the game. Again rumors are just rumors for the most part. We decided to dig a little bit deeper to investigate. The price on Steam as of now is around $34.99. According to the Last Epoch website, “The play model at release will be $15.00, prior to release it is available for $10.00”. However, we looked at the starter packs which holds this statement true. The $10.00 tier allows you to prepay for the finished game available in 2020 this gives a forum badge and ten cosmetic points. The $35.00 tier will enable you to play immediately, and it gives you a forum badge 350 cosmetic points, the soundtrack upon release and a juvenile Skullen.

There are more tiers available that go up to $1000.00, but we won’t go into any further detail on that. Our advice on which route to go with, it seems that if you want access to the beta now and get cool cosmetic items, and a pet make sure you order off the website instead of Steam. “BETTER BUY OPTION!’ If you would like to wait at full release the go ahead and preorder for $10 on the website itself!

You can go have a look on Steam to see what others are saying.