Many fans have celebrated Last Epoch as a potential competitor to Diablo 4. However, after an initial hype, the buzz around the game faded quite quickly. Now the developers are back with a huge update. Only: there is nothing in it for players.
What’s going on with Last Epoch?
- In March 2024, Last Epoch launched from Early Access directly with over 250,000 players on Steam (via steamcharts). Until then, it was considered a hidden gem in the action RPG genre.
- Fans of the genre see Last Epoch as an ideal middle ground between Path of Exile and Diablo: in-depth mechanics without overwhelming players with confusing details.
- Recently, an update in July 2024 brought back 70,000 players. Since then, the numbers are falling again. Now there is a new update.
This is included in the update: Players on Steam had to install an update of a whopping 8 gigabytes on January 8, 2025. That is almost a third of the total size of the game. However, patch notes were nowhere to be found.
The developers provided information about the update only on Discord. On Reddit, some fans complained and shared what actually changed:
- The update brings the upgrade of the Unity 2021 engine.
- Players should not be affected, the changes allow developers to use new tools.
- Accordingly, there are no wipes, no graphic updates, and no new content.
A developer finally explains that they didn’t want to alarm the entire community immediately with the message: “Hey, everyone, nothing is changing!” Therefore, the patch notes are only on Discord.
However, one should have expected that the size would attract attention. Something like that seems like a big deal. The dev emphasizes: “Yes, this is the engine update. But we do not expect players to notice any changes.”
Last Epoch has big plans for 2025
For some fans, the update is nevertheless a reason to check out Last Epoch again, even if nothing has changed. However, it might be more worthwhile later in the year, as Last Epoch plans major content for 2025. With the engine update, the foundations seem to have been laid to properly implement the new content.
Recently, Last Epoch brought a feature from Diablo 4 into the game with an update at the end of 2024: treasure goblins that are supposed to provide satisfying loot explosions.
How well the ARPG can hold its ground at the moment remains to be seen. Season 7 of Diablo 4 is starting soon and Path of Exile 2 is finally playable, even if still in pure Early Access. However, that doesn’t stop fans from sinking hundreds of hours into the game: Players are annoyed by Path of Exile 2, but just can’t stop playing – This is how the ARPG is doing after a month
