Path of Exile 2 First Impressions - Is It Worth the $30?

Path of Exile 2 has now launched its Early Access, and you can finally get your hands on the game for a small fee of $30 US dollars. While the game’s Early Access phase requires you to buy a supporter pack, the game will transition into the free-to-play model once it fully launches. PoE 2’s developers, Grinding Gear Games, have also stated that the early access will last for as long as they need, but they are expecting a time frame of about 6 months.

Now I got to play PoE 2 via an early demo version provided by GGG, but I’d like you to know that this is not sponsored, so I’ll be giving my honest thoughts on the game and finally addressing whether Path of Exile 2’s Early Access is even worth spending money on. I’d also like to add that the demo version is entirely separate from the live version, so people like me who played the game early won’t be able to bring our characters to the live version.

With that said, I played around 30 hours over a span of 4 days, and unlike others who reached max level within that time frame, I only managed to finish Act 3, which puts me around the casual spectrum of the playerbase. And while my opinions may be less significant for the hardcore playerbase, I think I can at least present my experience and thoughts on Path of Exile 2 to my fellow casuals.

THEME

So first things first, I think it’s best to start this first impressions by discussing the game’s themes and setting, as these are often an important deciding factor for new players looking to sink their teeth into an in-depth universe.

Path of Exile 2, much like a lot of other ARPGs, is set in a grimdark fantasy world filled with a lot of violence, death, and a whole lot of gore. Right from the character selection screen, the game immediately shows that it is not messing around. The visuals’ brutality is infinitely more graphic than in the first Path of Exile. PoE 2 goes all in without pulling any punches, showcasing how depraved and wicked the world of Wraeclast truly is. 

Path of Exile 2 is a game that’s less about good and evil and more about the raw human instinct of survival, and a lot of carnage. The dark themes of PoE 2 will undoubtedly be off-putting to some, but the whole experience oozes a sincerity that a lot of recent games lack, and I just can’t help appreciating it.

GAMEPLAY

But how is the theme even relevant to the gameplay? Well, the overall feel of the game is generally dictated by its theme - all of the enemies, the bosses, the story, and the characters all fit into this very specific concept that’s then directly translated to the gameplay. 

Path of Exile 2 is not just brutal in terms of its aesthetics, but gameplay as well. This game is hard. You will have to respawn and retry bosses or even entire sections all the time, but this also gives the game an old-school charm that’s been lost in recent titles, and that results in a deep sense of accomplishment when finally beating a level that once seemed impossible.

How Path of Exile 2 Is Different From Older ARPGs

First we need to understand what Path of Exile 2 truly is, because it is definitely not your standard ARPG. And by ARPG, I’m specifically referring to top-down or isometric hack-and-slash titles like Diablo, Torchlight, and Grim Dawn.

There have been a lot of ARPGs in the past, and while they might differ slightly in gameplay and aesthetic, their core gameplay remains exactly the same.The establishment of these mechanics can be traced back to Blizzard’s very first Diablo game. Since then, the formula hasn’t really changed much, and ARPGs have since felt like reskins of each other.

Blessedly, Path of Exile 2 branches off from this core ARPG experience by adding one simple, yet genre-redefining feature, the dodge-roll.

Path of Exile 2’s Dodge Roll

Some of you are probably skeptical that a dodge roll could be such a game-changer for an ARPG. Normally, you’d be right. There are ARPGs I’ve played recently that added a dodge feature, but I never really felt the need to make use of them, unlike in games like Dark Souls or Elden Ring where dodging is an essential mechanic.

But that’s exactly what Path of Exile 2 has done here. Path of Exile’s core gameplay has been adjusted and balanced to be tailored to fit into this one simple system. Path of Exile 2’s overall game speed is also significantly slower compared to its predecessor to better accommodate these moment-to-moment battles. Even animations have been slightly drawn out, mimicking animation locks from the Souls-like games. Essentially, Path of Exile 2 is an ARPG amalgamated with concepts and design philosophies of the Souls-like genre. So while the term has been overused to the point of parody, in this case it makes perfect sense to call Path of Exile 2 the Dark Souls of ARPGs, because it strongly derives its gameplay from Souls-likes.

These Bosses Are Insane!

Boss battles in this game are absolutely wild, with encounters ranging from rather easy to fights that drove me to the brink of insanity. Much like Souls-likes, Path of Exile 2 is a boss-hunting game with dozens of big bads scattered around the world between the game’s different acts. Bosses act as these skill and level checks that feel like rites of passage - proof that you’ve reached a level worthy of moving on to the next stage. Because you can’t just skip these fights, you really have to slay all of the bosses, even the repeatable ones, if you want to have even a sliver of a chance at beating the final boss of each act. 

This isn’t your run of the mill power fantasy ARPG. It is a power fantasy ARPG that will challenge your skills, wisdom, and patience. 

A More Streamlined Skill Gem System

Path of Exile 2 forgoes the skill system of Path of Exile, where the skill slots used to be tied to armor and weapons. They did this in favor of a more streamlined user interface for learning and slotting in new abilities. Skill gems still exist, but in the form of these colorless gems that you then convert into a specific skill before equipping them for combat. 

These skill gems also have tiers, with higher ones letting you either upgrade your existing skills to strengthen them, or unlock newer skills only available at certain tier stages. Support gems also get the same treatment, now being slotted directly to a skill rather than through your gear. The downside is that now you can’t apply a single support gem to multiple skill gems.

I honestly have mixed feelings about this new system, because Path of Exile’s gear and skill system was actually pretty fresh and unique for the ARPG genre, and now Path of Exile 2 just feels like yet another generic ARPG in that department. But there are a lot of skills to choose from, and theorycrafting is still pretty fun in Path of Exile 2. It’s just that the viability of mixing skills from different classes isn’t as impactful here.

The Infamous Path of Exile Passive Skill Tree

Another very important thing to discuss when talking about Path of Exile is the passive skill tree, the overly complex nature of which made the first game a most notorious ARPG. But this take is unfounded, because while the entire tree definitely looks daunting, actually slotting in the points makes you realize how simple it is. 

It’s really not that hard, and it works exactly the same in Path of Exile 2, only this time, you can freely respec passive points by spending a little bit of gold.

Goodbye Scrolls, Hello Gold

Path of Exile 2 now also has gold as its main currency. As for the legacy currency items, they’re still around, but I am unsure what we can do with them aside from their intended and advertised purpose. Back in Path of Exile, aside from their primary effects, you can also sell specific combinations to the merchant to craft certain gear and items. I haven’t seen any of that in Path of Exile 2, though, at least not in the story stages.

Exploration

I can’t stress enough how MASSIVE Path of Exile 2 is. At the early stages of the game you’ll be strolling about fairly small maps, but as you get further in, the maps get exponentially larger. Even the labyrinths in this game are huge. 

I’ve played a lot of ARPGs, and exploration in those games has actually been quite the pleasant experience. But I’m afraid that the same can’t be said with Path of Exile 2. Some levels are simply excruciating to explore. It also doesn’t help that the seed constantly changes, and the orientation keeps rotating for no good reason. So you can’t even memorize specific locations. But that’s really my only real complaint about the game. The exploration can honestly still be significantly improved.

That about covers my first impressions for Path of Exile 2. Unfortunately, I ran out of time and I couldn’t play through the game’s highest-level content. At level 40, I only managed to scratch the surface of the Ascension Trials, which is a small roguelike for the Ascension tree, and the Temple of Chaos, which is a wave-based survival game mode.

So I guess the ultimate question boils down to, is Path of Exile 2 Early Access worth buying? That’s a hundred percent yes. Though the game is admittedly hard, it is also really, really good. While I lag behind the community in terms of leveling, I still enjoyed all three Acts of the game. I didn’t really touch upon the story, but there is a deep lore to be found in Path of Exile 2. I just didn’t really pay attention to it because, well, at the end of the day, it still is an ARPG. 

Given how polished the gameplay experience is, Path of Exile 2’s Early Access doesn’t feel like an early access title. The game is also jam-packed with an insane amount of content, and if you want to take a sneak peek at what the current experience has to offer, I suggest that you watch GGG’s endgame presentation for Path of Exile 2, which is an hour-long video combing through the game’s plethora of content. And all that for just 30 dollars is definitely a game worth spending money on.

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