I flew over to New Zealand to attend this year’s Path of Exile convention called ExileCon, and boy was I blown away. The team from Grinding Gear Games presented a keynote on the first day that revealed a whole bunch of epic progress they’ve made with Path of Exile 2. It will now be a fully separate game from the original Path of Exile, which will continue to exist and run its usual leagues and other content alongside the brand new Path of Exile 2, but they will both still share their microtransactions between the two games. This allows Path of Exile 2 to become its own thing as the team crafts a fresh experience with what turns out to be a cutting-edge new system, and I think it’s the right choice to make to allow us to get a real next-generation experience out of Path of Exile 2.
After being blown away by the keynote, I went immediately out to play the demo set up at the venue. I just had to try this thing out for myself after seeing them present outrageously good-looking visuals, boss fights that looked like Dark Souls had entered the ARPG genre, and character movement that looked like it couldn’t possibly be in an ARPG. I took my seat, donned my Logitech headphones, poised my mouse hand, and elected to try the brand new Monk class playing through Act 1 of Path of Exile 2.
Immediately I was impressed with the visuals. I was in a stormy, raining area with water crashing on the rocks behind me. The textures, lighting, and sound effects were all equally impressive and really captured the scene perfectly. It’s only fair that I compare this experience to the most recent entry into the ARPG roster, Diablo IV. Having played my fair share, I can confidently say that Path of Exile 2 has Diablo IV‘s environments beat hands down. Where things felt dull, lifeless, and kind of blended into one large amalgamation of map in Diablo IV, I felt like Path of Exile 2 had environments full of life, distinctive character, and intrigue. I don’t think I once stopped to admire the environment in Diablo IV, but it was something I couldn’t help but do right from the get-go in Path of Exile 2 — and that was just the beginning of my experience with the game.
In true Path of Exile fashion, my character started off with his face in the dirt and slowly got up before allowing me to wander over to collect the nearby Quarterstaff to equip as my weapon and venture onwards. I knew what to expect of the Monk class thanks to the keynote having a live demonstration showcase of Path of Exile 2 focused around the class moments before, but after getting myself into some combat, I have to say I’ve never felt more like I was playing a true Monk class in a game before. I’ve always enjoyed playing the Monk as a class in the Diablo series, but I have to say Grinding Gear Games has absolutely nailed the look and feel of the Monk class.
The class feels incredibly fluid to play, and between the brand new dodge roll mechanic and the skills that I equipped for the class, before I knew it I was blinking in and striking the enemies, dodge rolling out, and blinking back in, only to jump backwards firing off a freezing wave that looked amazing when it hit the enemies to freeze them. All this maneuverability really made melee feel vastly different compared to the more rigid and face-tacky-feeling combat of melee classes in previous ARPGs. I genuinely felt light on my feet and able to reposition and dance around my enemies; every melee skill I used had some sort of positioning capability, and I was feeling pretty powerful. This changed pretty quickly.
Path of Exile isn’t a walk in the park, but it does become relatively easy and predictable as you get used to it. In comparison, Path of Exile 2 is more like Jurassic Park — it’s full of wonder and you’ll have a great time until you’re torn to shreds by a T. rex. The smaller, common enemies are easy to kill, but you’ll quickly run into Magic enemies and Rare enemies and — oh man, those are no joke. They all have the potential to tear you to shreds quickly. The combat becomes weighty and impactful against these enemies. You’ll need to really start thinking about your positioning and which attacks and skills you’ll use where and when in order to survive their attacks as you wear them down. You really start feeling every blow you take, and it feels really great when you get a solid string of damage in as it’s not that easy to do.
Then there are the boss fights, and my God did Grinding Gear Games go all out for these. With over 100 boss encounters throughout the game’s main campaign, there will be quite a few you’ll be encountering, all with amazing unique looks, characteristics, attacks, and mechanics. These bosses are tough, and I was immediately reminded of the kind of design and difficulty you’d expect to find in Elden Ring. I found myself having to learn attack patterns, not get greedy with my attacks by getting a few attacks in before rolling out to retreat, and reassess and get back in, much like how I played Elden Ring. It would usually take me a good few tries as I learned the mechanics and attack patterns before I finally took down a boss.
There was one boss where I really felt like I was receiving the Dark Souls treatment. Upon getting the boss to half life, no less than 20 hyenas came rushing into the arena, mercilessly mobbing me to death as I flailed around throwing out my skills before having to try again. This kind of surprise mechanic is something I had never encountered in an ARPG before and more the kind of thing I’ve come to anticipate from Soulslikes, making Path of Exile 2 feel like a culmination of the two genres, at least when it comes to the combat and boss fights that I was a huge fan of.
The design, visuals, combat, characters, and depth of systems in Path of Exile 2 is just ludicrous, and the couple of hours that I spent with the game blew all previous ARPGs out of the water. I don’t think I’ll be able to go back to Diablo IV after experiencing what a real next-generation ARPG feels like to play. I cannot wait for the beta to launch next year so that I can get back in to the beautiful and dangerous world that Path of Exile 2 contains.
