Hugbees

Unlike the Guild Wars 2 Beta Weekend, I don't have the urge to really log in and go play Path of Exile. The beta is still going on as of this post for another day, but I feel like I've seen everything the game has to offer already so I might as well detail my thoughts on it.

For those who haven't heard of this game, and I wouldn't be surprised if you haven't, here's a link to the Path of Exile website: http://www.pathofexile.com/ - I've only heard of this game through ForceSC2 on Youtube and if it wasn't for him I wouldn't have heard of it either.

So what is Path of Exile? It's an isometric hack and slash roleplaying game. Or you could just say it's Diablo 2. This game was pretty much made specifically for people who were fans of Diablo 2 who hated Diablo 3. (As evidenced by the world chat in the game, with a slew of people saying "This is what Diablo 3 should have been." or "I actually want to play this, and not Diablo 3!") I made a post about it in the Game News forum, how did that go again?

Path of Exile is a game very reminiscent of Diablo 2. It has dark and dull environments, skill point placements that require you to reroll if you mess up, and pretty much everything else that nostalgia goggle wearing fans liked about Diablo 2.

And this is exactly it. I'm not saying it's a bad game, but PoE really went out of its way to emulate Diablo 2 as much as they could, and I don't think it's really the best idea.

I for one, actually enjoy Diablo 3 more than 2. I loved 2 back in the day, but the game play changes made to Diablo 3, I feel, are better suited for how games are today. I like how colorful the art is, I like how flexible the characters are. I don't have to remake my character because their build is wrong, I can swap out skills whenever. I like how there isn't an infinite gear treadmill that keeps you playing after beating the last difficulty, and you can just be done when you beat the game. My only issue with Diablo 3 is how stats are handled on items, but other than that I like it a lot more than Diablo 2 and I couldn't even stand to play Diablo 2 (and I tried) after playing Diablo 3.

So I've done a lot of talking about nothing, so now I'll talk about what PoE does to copy D2.

-Dark environments. A common complaint about D3 is that it's not as dark and grim as D2. PoE fixes that with dark, gray, and washed out colors for their environment. Now it does fit with the overall story of the game that your characters have been exiled to this god forsaken place, but there's a fine line between an artistic choice to make something dark, and to make it dark because Diablo 2 did it.

-Skill builds. This game offers a passive skill tree. A giant tree with many branching paths that you can put about 100 skill points into and there's around 300 possible passive skills. The only problem is, how you refund your points is limited. I got 2 from a single quest, and I'm going to bet, aside from remaking your character, that buying refund points from the cash shop will be your only real way of fixing a faulty build. People have actually said that your build, if done wrong, will make it near impossible for you to survive in higher difficulties. Why people like that bullshit I'll never understand. It's one thing when a game makes you genuinely want to replay, but not when it's forced down your throat by not finding out your build sucks until it's too late.

-Inventory Tetris. Limited inventory space, got to rearrange everything to make room. It's only there because D2 did it.

-The Den of Evil. There is actually a quest to go into this one place, and kill every monster in it. Just like in Diablo 2. They seriously copy/pasted this quest in.

But... to the game's merit, there are a few things that I did like.

-Flask belt. In D2, you had to constantly find potions and put them in your belt slots. in PoE, you find flasks that recharge as you kill enemies. You start with small flasks, then find larger flasks that hold more charges, and even have different effects like "Instant Recovery" or "Breaks Stuns" or things like that. It's a new twist on old idea and I like that.

-Bartering. There's no gold in PoE. You trade certain items in the shop for gear. To NPCs, you don't trade gear for gear, but rather consumables like Identify/Portal Scrolls, Whetstones that increase a weapon's quality, items that generate new effects on a magic item, etc... Items that you might use for yourself become currency. It's awkward at first, but I actually like this idea.

-Skill gems. You don't learn active skills through a skill tree in this game, but instead you find gems that you socket (and easily unsocket) into your equipment to learn skills. You have a red gem that teaches "Ground Stomp" for example, put it into a red gem slot in any piece of gear, and you get a new skill that levels up as you kill things. It's so easy and fun to move around your skills because you can take them on and off at will.

-The passive skill tree. I like the idea of it, just not how you can screw yourself over with it.

All in all, I only have two real issues with the game.

-Poor quality graphics/animation. The characters all look like from a game from 10 years ago, and the animation quality definitely looks like they were from 10 years ago. The weapons swing like they have 0 weight to them, and enemies don't really show many signs of taking damage. When I first played, I didn't know if I was really doing damage or not because of how little feedback the game gives the player. When I played Guild Wars 2, I felt the power behind each attack, and the enemy's reaction made me feel like I actually did something. Even Diablo 2 had more visceral attacks than this.

-It really is so 10 years ago. When Diablo 2 first came out, it was new and exciting, but not anymore. PoE is stuck in the past, making a game for those stuck in that same past. Gaming has evolved, Blizzard realized it, and it's why Diablo 3 is Diablo 3 and not Diablo 2.5. PoE is like a game that you really loved playing as a kid, but you go back to it now and it just isn't as good.

With that being said, there's no reason not to play it if you're interested. It's going to be totally free to play so it's not like you're losing anything by checking it out. The only thing stopping you is it's going to be released around the same time as Guild Wars 2 (a bit before or after, around that ballpark I believe though) so really, there's no point at all.