Last Epoch is the first ARPG that really hooked me into the genre

For some reason or another, I was always more into the tactical, laidback D&D kind of RPG ever since those early days of Arcanum, Planescape and Baldur’s Gate 2 — this last one was especially important). If you asked me, I don’t think I could tell you why either. Back in my day (read it in a boomer voice), the isometric perspective was more of a thing in strategies and CRPGs, and the action-heavy ones were either first-person or third-person. And then there was Diablo… Surprisingly, I was never much into the game. I played some offshoots like Sacred a little, and sampled some others like Titan Quest, but nothing too heavy. I even played Path of Exile only for a bit with some friends, and then passed on to other stuff since I could never just dedicate all my time to grinding solely one game.

That’s how I glossed over most of the major happenings until I discovered Last Epoch around the same time Diablo 4 was coming out, which was being so heavily marketed you couldn’t miss it. Don’t know if it was a sense of nostalgia for the time I spent playing these games with friends in high, or if it was just the fact I just got back to my home town after ~10 years for good, but I bought both. But Last Epoch stuck with me the longest, and following it through the last year of the early access and into the full game has been a blast. A really simple, even casual blast but a blast nonetheless since I got myself into the mental zone to appreciate the numbers-go-higher brainless grind with vast customization to keep me entertained. It’s a weed-munchers paradise lol

And as we go into 2025, with both PoE2 coming out, a remake of Titan Quest, and of course — content expansions (and I’m rooting for a big one but we’ll see, I’m hopeful) for Last Epoch beginning in the next year… I think that yeah, next year will be a blast for the whole genre, and I’m personally thankful for LE for getting me hooked on it. Cheers!