The first ever PC-game I bought as a kid back in the early 2000’s was a little title named DIABLO 2, yes many gamers might laugh and pass comments like “wow you are old”, or “Diablo 3 was so crap” and they would be correct on at least one of those 2 statements… But no matter your opinion on the top-down RPG genre, Diablo refined and perfected the craft and for many years Diablo 2 was untouched as the epitome of this genre. Then came Diablo 3… In an attempt to attract new players to the genre and game, Blizzard decided to, in my opinion, dumb down the game in terms of controls as well as story and gameplay and with that they drove away alot of die-hard fans. Many updates and patches and lost fans later Diablo 3 became a playable game but the genre felt old and stale and when a lesser known title, to me at least, PATH OF EXILE, happened to stumble into the foreground I didn’t have much hope for it.
But was I surprised beyond belief!
Path of Exile is more hardcore and less polished than the likes of Diablo 3. Deciding to drop some of the aesthetically pleasing aspects for ludicrously deep character progression which you will go far to match in any game. When I started the game up I was met with a overwhelming creation screen, overwhelming not in a bad way, but in a good way. The amount of options when creating your class of character was staggering. Here is a quick bit of info regarding the classes:
Classes and skills
- Duelist: He fights with melee attacks and can also summon an AI minion to fight alongside him.
- Templar: Fires projectiles, including three balls of lightning at once and a chain lightning attack.
- Witch: A female spellcaster with high intelligence.
- Ranger: She uses a bow and is extremely dexterous, but can wield swords as well. Despite being a glass cannon, the ranger is my class of choice.
- Marauder: A melee fighter with tremendous strength.
- Shadow: A dexterous and intelligent fighter, he uses short-range weapons and traps during battle.
- Scion: She can develop into any character build thanks to Path of Exile’s skill system. This makes her an advanced character, and she must be unlocked later in the game.
this is only the tip of the iceberg tho as the skill tree system is something magnificent. The passive skill system is similar to many other RPG skill trees but instead having a individual skill tree for each character, Path of Exile decided to create one big tree that can be accessed by all the characters. You can mix and match abilities by unlocking skills along various branches which you can use to reach other areas of the skill tree. With this in mind it might take first time players a few tries to find the style of character that suites their play style. With such a vast tree, respecing your character is quite a tortuous job.
Gameplay and Combat
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Like most RPG titles Path of Exile places a large emphasis on exploration and collecting loot. It has small MMO elements namely public towns where players can meet and group up or trade some unwanted items. With titles like this you normally place skills on a hotbar. Path of Exile amps this up by allowing you to use RT to access another host of hotkeys allowing you to apply a magnitude of skill which to devastate your enemies with.
Fighting feels tight with lots of variations between the characters, during combat you will auto target your enemies and might not always target the closest target which can become a slight irritation if you are a more hand to hand combat character which will see you walking through a group of enemies to attack the one right at the back, taking some serious damage in the process.
Health potions and other benefit providing potions are assigned to the D-pad as well as the bumper buttons. These carry limited charges that refill when you visit a town.
Tapping down on the D-pad brings up the map, which on a massively random-generated map like these, are extremely useful when trying to find your way around.
Inventory management also gets a Path-of-Exile-spin to it. Each item takes up a varying amount of space in your bag. What this creates is that you will think more about what you’re picking up as to the amount of loot you pick up. Other titles will see you picking up just to pick up and sell when you reach a store later, not Path of Exile.
Scrolls are much the same as other Diablo-like games, one is used to identify rare items, the other to teleport back to town. Town portals are significantly more scarce than in Diablo so travels to town will be alot less frequent.
Overall impression
You could be forgiven for not expecting much from a 4 year old, free to play title like Path of Exile. Hell I did! Most companies who have tried to make a title to rival the likes of Diablo have failed miserably over and over again. Path of Exile is definitely not a mega-budget title like Diablo but you would never say that when you play it. Yes it is not graphically as good as Diablo but wow does it do all the other parts so stupendously well!
Whether you are playing this solo or with a friend or 2, this game is very enjoyable for anyone who is a fan of the genre. Best part is you get a free to play game without all the usual Free-to-play limitations. Looking at the history of Path of Exiles on PC you can expect a multitude of updates to fix, improve and expand this game. The developers have even promised extensive graphical improvements for the Xbox One X. There is also rumors of couch co-op coming in the near future which will make this title even more enjoyable!