Darkzone: Idle RPG

edit: Just got banned from the Darkzone discord for posting this review with a comment "devs please reconsider the game's direction" Well don't try to improve the game then I guess just ban anyone that doesn't blindly praise your game... I must've misunderstood what to "stay true to the game we set out to build" means to the devs... My review: "Staying True One of our pillars needs to be to stay true to the game we set out to build." I remember checking this game out 2 years ago, on the alpha 1.0 playtest. I went back and dug out that thread, I was wondering what stood out to me then and made me remember it untill now. comment 1 from thread 2 years ago: "TL;DR: Darkzone Alpha 1.0 releases next Friday. Come help us test it! Small indie studio working on Darkzone. An online story-driven idle RPG with… • Loot inspired by D2 • Real-time co-op play • Player-to-player trading • Unique builds with attributes, skills, skins, gear bonuses, set bonuses • No energy or VIP system" Looking at the core features of the original game, there was "loot inspired by D2". I'm no stranger to game designers wanting to chase the alluring D2 gearing feeling. I played D2/D3, Grim Dawn, Titan Quest, Torchlight, Path of Exile, Last Epoch, Warframe and they are all very similar in this aspect... Im currently level 150 at campaign stage 147. I own 5 pieces of legendary tier gear, 2 equipped on my main character and 3 in my stash. The quality determines the amount of stat lines on the piece. The power level difference is very marginal. I could freely salvage all gear I have on, equip the lowest tier of gear with 1 damage stat each and I wouldn't notice a thing. Sure, I would be a bit weaker from losing a crit and an accuracy line here or there, but that would be quickly offset by another 10-20 levels bought with gold from auto farming the campaign. So in short, gear is not impactful, from first seeing that orange legendary colour shining in my bag and being excited what unique build and combinations I can come up with, to now when I know it's just randomly assigned stat lines and no depth. "Real time co-op play" from what I can see the "hitlist" is the only co-op thing in the game (inviting another player to kill a boss with you in a separate area from the campaign), there used to be campaign co-op but that seems to be gone. Either way, having one co-op feature and calling the game multiplayer doesn't make much sense anyway. "Player-to-player trading" this is extremely vague in game, nothing points to it being a core feature of the game and probably only used in extreme end game when you have everything maxed out and only optimizing small margins on gear? I didn't trade anything, don't even know how to if I wanted to. "Unique builds with attributes, skills, skins, gear bonuses, set bonuses" Attributes seems to be removed from the game, as for skills, skills are just a fixed thing, every character has a different set and the levels can be upgraded with gold, lowering cooldown and increasing damage a tiny bit each level. There is no customization, skill trees, perks/boosts, nothing of that sort. As for the sets, there is a button in the build section that says "set bonus" but I haven't seen any yet so I'm not sure what that is. "No energy or VIP system" Originally what drew me to this game was the comments I posted above. Now the game has a cash shop where you can buy everything so playing manually is pointless, just buy resources, gear, weapons, x2 boosters, pets and gold. What originally drew me in was the dev's vision to not add predatory gacha strategies like loot boxes and buying power, this is the complete opposite of that. comment 2 from thread 2 years ago: "We are selling cosmetic collectibles and skins, plus extra bounty hunter characters, as well. Really hope that this is the way we are able to finance the game for the most part. We have some currency sold in the Shop but we are making sure to never sell gear, lootboxes, etc. So, basically, everyone has the same chance of finding the best gear in the game. Paying won't help you get better loot, essentially, or give you more chance at getting the best loot." From what originally drew me into this game and what put it on my radar, not much seems to have survived. It's a mash of ideas and systems, not fully commiting to one thing, removing things every major patch, then just falling into the tried and tested gacha elements with the auto battling, slap cash shop on top and call it a game. I didn't touch on the various problems with the game like bugs,UI and so on since it's normal for early access. tl;dr: For waiting for this game to release for 2 years, I am just dissapointed, this could've been so much more. There's nothing unique about the game. It's just another game in the sea of predatory pay to win idle gachas.