Once upon a time, many years ago, when I could barely count or write, I received a gift. A disk with one very interesting game… Diablo. Yes, yes, that one. The first few steps, the first meeting with the Butcher as he bellowed “FRESH MEAT”, and the immediate first death from his hands. Followed by cleansing the fountain, Leoric’s Tomb and Diablo himself.
Diablo 2 also made its mark, with our group of friends skipping school and bringing our saves to computer clubs to test builds and try to kill bosses. It was simply an enjoyable time, diving into the dark atmosphere and plot of the game as the whole.
The memories of these games have forever taken a place in my heart and given me a certain amount of love for the Diabloids. When Diablo 3 and Diablo 4 came out, I understood that it’s time to look for greener pastures, as neither had the same effect on me as their predecessors.
This is when I returned to the good old Path of Exile, played over 1400 hours, went through several seasons, and generally had a great time in the game that felt as a spiritual successor to Diablo 2. And then, the developers have released the first trailer for Path of Exile 2, and it became obvious outright: it will either be a huge, resounding failure, or a rousing success that will overshadow Diablo.
The game just entered the Early Access stage that can be entered by purchasing one of the several access packs. The simplest gives just the EA access key, while the more expensive ones provide multiple keys at once for you personally and a couple of friends, plus several interesting decorations and in-game premium currency.
What’s nice is that packs aren’t very expensive, with the cheapest going for $30. However, if you wanted to support developers, there are a few more pricey Founder Packs that will give your characters extra transmog, wings, a pet and other purely cosmetic rewards. In fact, this is the only type of in-game goods you can buy with real money: cosmetics and extra slots for your personal chest.
If you’d like to avoid paying anything, Path of Exile 2 will be free-to-play for everyone when it leaves Early Access and releases the full version 1.0.
At the start, more than a million viewers gathered on Twitch to watch the streamers begin their journey. Over 300 thousand players were able to enter the game itself in the first minutes and… crash the servers completely. Knowledgeable players did not even think about trying to log in within the first couple of hours of the game, PoE’s League taught us to be patient.
And, although Grinding Gear Games were on the case quickly, it was possible to enter the game only after a couple of hours of fixing the servers. Even so, in the first hours after the servers started up, more than 300 thousand players entered the game, and a million+ were watching on Twitch. On the second evening – that of Saturday – there were 450+ thousand players in the game at the same time, with Early Access requiring paid editions of the game.
From the very first trailer, players could see that PoE2 will be a dark, bloody, cruel and stylish game. The reality matched the expectations perfectly. Just the beginning of the game alone, creating and starting to build your character is already amazing. Players are given a choice of six hero archetypes: a sorceress, a warrior, an archer, a witch, a mercenary, and a monk. All characters were sentenced to death by the cruel Count of Ogham. But one warrior, the player’s chosen one, manages to spectacularly escape from execution. The rest… aren’t quite so lucky.
This is where your adventure begins: the dead rise, madness fills the world, mutants and all sorts of evil spirits crawl out and turn people against people. The world is teetering on the brink of destruction, and only you can save it.
Regardless of what character you choose, you will see gorgeous skill design, colorful effects and memorable foes. The game has become much darker and bloodier than its prequel, the black temple of Vaal alone is quite something, horrifying with the unimaginable beauty of the dark rituals performed there.
The game’s atmosphere is juicy and dark in all its elements, from the location design to monsters and players’ very own characters. Each map is a work of art, filled with a huge number of details, and painstakingly introduced corruption and destruction. You can’t help but want to explore all the available nooks and crannies, just to see what is there.
When it comes to controls, you can choose both mouse controls and WASD, as well as gamepad. Moreover, when switching between MKB combo to gamepad, the game interface completely changes, adapting to your chosen option – the game even goes back to the main menu for that.
Overall, the game took a step forward in every regard, from controls to dynamics to the interface and other aspects. The developers really took player feedback into account, and built on everything the playerbase wanted to see in the previous game.
There are fewer skills now, but the skills themselves have become more thought out. Each class has its own skill branch, complete with its own passive bonuses, but no one forbids you from taking skills of other classes, or non-recommended passive skills for them.
As a result, each character is a hodgepodge of skills of 2-3 classes, with passives taken from both the recommended ones and others you choose for yourself. Additionally, skills are no longer inserted into gear, they have a separate panel, you do not have to repaint skill cells in gear again for your skills to work. And this is an easy but effective solution.
The passive skill tree also looks very nice, it has become a little smaller than in the first game. But, similar to the situation with the active skills, passives have become more valuable, large nodes in the tree give significant bonuses, and the choice of characteristics on small nodes allows you to dynamically change the build. Resetting the tree is available for gold you get knocked out of monsters, which simplifies the build.
But even with a simplified tree, you have great potential for builds for your character…. Which will be extensively tested by bosses.
Each boss in the game is unique, both in appearance and in abilities. Dodge at the wrong time – you die, there is not enough damage – the boss will kill you, simply because he spawns a bunch of trash and uses AoE attacks. 3 days in, people in the chat ask for help with the bosses, and the community is divided into several camps: someone laughs at those who can’t kill bosses on their own, others join forces to help out. And someone offers to help and change the build so that the struggling players can proceed and do the challenge on their own.
The game has become even more difficult and demanding, now you won’t be able to zerg rush a boss by throwing a million mines in 2 seconds at them. The battles with numerous trash mobs and limited arena space require you to have an effective build and competently use your skills and passives, clear the mechanics and stay on your feet. Trying to click your way to victory by bashing your mouse or gamepad won’t work in PoE2.
Another pleasant addition is that developers have transferred cosmetics and purchased stash tabs from the first game. Not everything is available and can be worn just now, but it is a nice feeling that the pets I purchased in PoE are still with me, and my 9-tailed wolf perfectly brightens up the game with his actions.
The stash got improved, with the sections for currencies and the rest automatically collecting fitting resources. Speaking of them, there are fewer resources overall, crafting has become more convenient and straightforward, and gold turned into a convenient currency – and yes, there is already a “black market” for currency.
The loot system – items themselves, the affixes and the suffixes – are still configured by the developers, and can only really be described superficially. There are fewer item drops overall, and you feel a rush of excitement at every spark of gold color.
I have finished the entire 1st act in a set of “Blue” armor, and changed the “Blue” weapons for a better choice only by the end of the 2nd act, which says a lot about the drop. There is no need for separate loot filters, which makes it easier to customize the game for yourself and avoid any chaos in loot.
The endgame section is amazing, although it takes a lot of time and effort to get there. According to the average estimates, roughly 30-40 hours to complete Acts One to Three, and then do it again on the higher level of difficulty to reach the required level. However, once you do it, you will discover it: the Atlas, an endless source of endgame content. Much like the Skills, the Atlas tree had also been simplified, but it remains no less amazing.
The story of the game tells a tale of human stupidity that has no limits. Told through a few videos and text from NPCs in locations, the story itself is not the strongest part of the game, but it is there. For the inquisitive and attentive, there are many interesting conversations with NPCs, references to the first game and old acquaintances.
To sum it up, it is obvious that the game was created for fans by fans that love their own project and who are not afraid to take on the gloomy and bloody dark fantasy style. PoE2 takes all the best from its predecessor and from the good old Diablo 2, improves, simplifies, and makes it more fun for players.
It’s a pity the devs didn’t make an internal action, you still have to use the site for trading, with the black market also thriving and helping out those who don’t have enough time to play. I am happy to continue playing PoE2 in its current state and follow any introduced innovations because I have high hopes that the developers will continue on improving their creation.
PoE2 is well worth your attention.
