Path of Exile 2 Early Access Review – Still Sane, Exile?

The first time I played Path of Exile was in November 2013. After entering open beta, throwing open the gates for all and sundry, Grinding Gear Games finally revealed its free-to-play action RPG – a tribute to Diablo 2 and an attempt to create a worthy successor. This is usually the part where I tell you of the utter surprise and how much it shocked me, but that’s not what happened.

The grim setting of Wraeclast; the combat and its responsiveness; the Skill Gems and customization – it felt…right. Even the massive Passive Tree didn’t intimidate me, perhaps because I took all the damage nodes, ignored health, and opted for more of my main stat over something like “resistances.” Ah, the good old days of no end-game and no clue what I was doing.

"Some design decisions and irritating bugs hold it back from truly achieving greatness, but make no mistake – for fans, this is the start of your new obsession, and it’s beautiful."

I’ve revisited Path of Exile on and off for the last 11 years as wowed by its changes and new content as baffled by Lake of Kalandra, Archnemesis, and much more. Yet the 336 hours and multiple characters feel like nothing in the grand scheme. I barely scratched the surface of its complexity and depth, much less blasting the end game. Yet when I was in with my Cyclone Raider Ngahamu’s Flame, I was in. Hooked, almost hopelessly addicted, helpless, yet loving every second of it.

Path of Exile 2 felt like a clean slate from the very first day of its announcement – an opportunity to begin anew without worrying about things like linking, adding or recoloring sockets. Depending on who you ask, it’s become something more, from “The one-true ARPG king”, to an opportunity to dunk on Blizzard’s Diablo 4 at every opportunity. Now that it’s finally out in early access across all platforms, what’s the verdict?

Path of Exile 2 is, indeed, the best action RPG available right now. Its campaign is a fine mix of macabre and dark fantasy, tip-toeing on the edge of despair while offering incredible moments of adventure and brevity. The environments are striking and unique, presenting twists on your standard cursed forests, desert plains, and overwhelming jungles. The combat is organic, with the most freedom of choice and customization ever seen in the action RPG genre, second only to the first game. Some design decisions and irritating bugs hold it back from truly achieving greatness, but make no mistake – for fans, this is the start of your new obsession, and it’s beautiful.

Picking up 20 years after the first game’s events (invasions of Eldritch entities in the end-game notwithstanding), Path of Exile 2 sees Wraeclast plunged into darkness once more after the Count of Ogham discovers the Seed of Corruption. Seduced and driven mad by its power, he feeds it, causing corruption to spread through the land and creating what becomes known as The Beast.

Of course, you’re nobody when this all starts – little more than a prisoner on death’s row, waiting to be hanged by the Count in the most darkly creative class selection screen of all time. After escaping and making your way to the Clearfell Settlement, composed of refugees from a razed village, your journey begins.

Most action RPG looter narratives are throwaway in the long run. The original Path of Exile did a good job presenting unique battles and twists in its story without bogging down the pacing, but the sequel does even better. Outside of the incredible opening cinematic, much of the plot is intertwined with your tasks, often leading to new areas and discoveries.

"The loading screen tips warn of larger monsters doing this, but it should really say that every monster type, regardless of size and things like gravity, can push you around."

Act 1 is fairly linear, yet everything follows a logical progression, backed by strong voice acting and characterization, both for the NPCs of Clearfell and some of the bosses encountered. Act 2 is where the formula is somewhat thrown to the desert winds as you join the Ardura Caravan and select locations to investigate. Act 3 is more in line with the first but offers even more optional tasks and challenges to pursue. It has some other unique elements, including perhaps the best character in the entire story.

The zones retain the randomness of the first game, meaning one tomb entrance or point of interest could be at an entirely different point. Besides some genuinely gorgeous and imaginative details, they also possess some optional bosses which can net some permanent boosts to your character, like increased HP, Spirit, resistances, and more.

Then you have the side quests, which encourage traveling to non-essential zones to wipe out other threats. It’s nothing you haven’t seen from objectives in other action RPGs, but the environments offer enough nuance in their layouts. The hazards, chokepoints and differing elevations also keep things dynamic (and not the “press a button to climb up, then slide back down” way), as do the variety of enemies.

Grinding Gear Games touts 400 different types, and they’re certainly a motley bunch, from your emaciated wolves and spellslingers to River Hags casting screen-warping whirlpools that eventually kill you. Even what should be the run-of-the-mill human fodder can vary significantly depending on the region, from slow, shuffling zombies to acrobatic soldiers who dodge from side to side when they’re not pinning you down with rope arrows. They’re a blast to fight, especially when Rare enemies are thrown into the mix their unique modifiers necessitate some change in strategy.

While I appreciated things like Temporal Proximity, where moving further away reduces your chances to hit, some modifiers are just a pain to deal with. Siphoning mana, for example, pretty much hinders your ability to attack, especially if you’re playing a Sorceress like I was. The solution is simple – stay outside their aura – but it’s all the more annoying when the enemy moves as fast as you do.

The other issue is how easily you can be pushed around by enemies. The loading screen tips warn of larger monsters doing this, but it should really say that every monster type, regardless of size and things like gravity, can push you around. It’s all the more egregious when they push each other, making it much easier to become swamped and suffer a quick death (especially when you can’t roll through). The new checkpoint system, which is great for bosses, comes under fire as a result, since you need to clear out all those enemies again.

"The bosses can get a bit much for some players, especially when multiple spells and effects are going, but almost every boss is excellent. This brings us to the absolute highlight of Path of Exile 2 – the combat."

Some bosses suffer from the same issue – one rolled me into a corner, where I became stuck, thus resulting in an awkward face-off and constant potion-mashing to stay alive before escaping. However, the boss fights as a whole are spectacular. I could tell you about Tor Gul the Defiler, slamming its giant skeletal body into the arena and breathing fire, or Zalmarath, the Colossus, with his lasers and giant stone sword. Yet even the smaller grounded foes present worthy challenges, like Blackjaw, who wields a massive axe, slamming the ground (with a hitbox that admittedly made me want to scream) and launching flaming slices. These aren’t even the best fights in the game – that’s how high the bar is.

It can get a bit much for some players, especially when multiple spells and effects are going, but almost every boss is excellent. This brings us to the absolute highlight of Path of Exile 2 – the combat.

Admittedly, it starts pretty simple with a few basic abilities, a dodge roll, and a dream. However, the interplay between the mechanics is something to behold. I played Sorceress for over 51 hours and started by slinging all kinds of elements. A Fire Wall here and there, firing Frostbolts through it, setting them ablaze for extra fire damage, combined with the odd Solar Orb. Eventually, I moved to Arc and Conductivity to curse enemies with lower lightning resistance.

My current build involves creating extensive Ice Walls, hitting them with a Firestorm – which thus deals damage to enemies nearby and building up freeze – and using Winter Orb to remove said status for more damage (at the cost of it building up freeze). Anything frozen also contributes to Cast on Freeze, which I’ve linked Comet and Lightning Conduit to, thus killing off the smaller foes immediately. Orb of Storms is still there for moral support, more often than not. Thanks to my Stormweaver Ascendancy, any critical hits with spells trigger an Elemental Storm, which can deal lightning, cold, or fire damage.

This is only one example of a build, and I’ve shuffled around Support Gems, allocated/de-allocated passives, and embraced only one Unique item (more spell damage per 10 Spirit). You can even set up a Dual Passive Tree, which allows for equipping another weapon corresponding to its own passives on the fly for a different playstyle.

The sheer number of directions to go in is mind-boggling. More critical hit chance to trigger Elemental Storm? More freeze build-up for Cast on Freeze? What about passives for penetrating resistances to free up a Support Gem slot or two? How do I address my high Mana costs? As the build twisted and warped into something unexpected, it presented a fun challenge to tweak things and account for cast speed, resistances, evasion, stun thresholds – the list goes on.

"Other than the Salvage and Reforge Benches (the latter requiring three items of a similar type to combine into one brand new item), the crafting is pared down. "

This is one of the game’s strengths – easy enough to get into and gradually ramping up in complexity. Allowing you to freely link Support Gems without worrying about whether you have the correct socket color or amount is liberating. While you can eventually link five Support Gems to a Skill, each Skill starts with only two slots. It wasn’t something I necessarily hated, but throughout my entire time on Normal and Cruel difficulty, I received one single orb to add another socket. Did I need more to clear the story? No, but at the very least, it would be nice to have more during the end game (especially given the amount of Skills to add slots to).

Speaking of the end-game, I’ve only scratched the surface, venturing to a few Lost Towers and yet to tackle my first Burning Monolith. Nevertheless, this new direction of infinitely extending nodes with different pathways to reach sites of interest is pretty fascinating, especially with all the extra mechanics like Strongboxes, Delirium, Ritual, etc. The catch is that dying on a map essentially closes it off, which means deploying a new Waystone to clear the node.

You still make progress, and the drop rate of Waystones is enough to sustain that, but considering some of the bonuses that those activities can provide, it is a bummer to miss out when making one mistake. On the flip side, it makes maps feel much more important and for you to consider your build – and the modifiers – before committing unga bunga.

Though crafting is its own intricate system in the first game, Path of Exile 2 takes a surprisingly more streamlined approach. Use currency to augment magic items or upgrade them to Rares. Slam with Exalts for more modifiers, or use a Chaos Orb to remove a random modifier and add another. Divines will randomize the numerical values, perhaps increasing a stat roll. If you’re feeling saucy, corrupt an item to warp it in unknown ways with Vaal Orbs, which can be applied to pretty much everything (though be wary, as they can just as easily brick your items). Artificer’s Orbs add slots for Runes to armor and weapon, which add different effects.

Other than the Salvage and Reforge Benches (the latter requiring three items of a similar type to combine into one brand new item), the crafting is pared down. Granted, the developer could very well add a dedicated bench for those classic guaranteed modifiers and whatnot, but for now, the system works well enough, even with the RNG. Now, if only there was a currency to reroll modifiers on magic items instead of dumping them because one of the two stats feels like a waste.

"There’s so much that Grinding Gear Games gets right, and it’s so refreshing to sink so many hours into an action RPG that doesn’t insult my intelligence with menial progression and the illusion of choice."

Barring a few design decisions and some gameplay issues, Path of Exile 2 is fantastic. However, it suffers from significant bugs which can drag down the experience. Some make you go, “That’s so early access!”, like fish that continue swimming in place despite a waterway being drained. Others are downright annoying, like a boss that returned to its starting spot because I moved out of its arena during a fight and became soft-locked, instantly regenerating its health and constantly summoning enemies. There was no other recourse than to wait for the instance to reset and hope it didn’t happen again.

Then you have the major bugs, like self-casting Lightning Conduit and getting disconnected from the game (which is separate from other disconnects that can occur). Unusually high RAM usage would occur at times, prompting a restart. Also, after a 52 GB patch, I found several of my equipped Skill and Support Gems gone.

Retrieving the Skills didn’t take long, thanks to gems dropping at a decent, with the new system ensuring they’re immediately brought to the highest level depending on progress. However, since Support Gems were rarer, it took longer to get those back, making for a needless hurdle towards the end of Cruel difficulty. At least the overall performance was solid throughout.

Even with all these issues in mind, Path of Exile 2 still comes highly recommended. There’s so much that Grinding Gear Games gets right, and it’s so refreshing to sink so many hours into an action RPG that doesn’t insult my intelligence with menial progression and the illusion of choice. With more time and polish, I’m confident it can become a benchmark for the genre. In the meantime, it’ll have to settle for being one of the best and showing the competition how it’s done.

This game was reviewed on PC.