One Path of Exile 2 Feature is One Step Forward, Two Steps Back

Posted by By our-little-miss-is-home December 30, 2024 2 Views 7 Min Read
One Path of Exile 2 Feature is One Step Forward, Two Steps Back

Summary

  • Path of Exile 2 offers improved graphics and gameplay compared to the original, making it one of the best action RPGs.
  • The game’s manual item identification system slows down gameplay, while Diablo 4’s auto-identification streamlines the process.
  • Implementing an auto-identify feature would enhance Path of Exile 2 by eliminating the need for Scrolls of Wisdom and manual identification.

Path of Exile 2 is likely a long way from its full release. It has been just over three weeks since it launched in early access, and GGG has already made changes to skills and other gameplay features. With dramatically improved graphics and a smoother-feeling gameplay loop even in high-end content compared to the original game, Path of Exile 2 has already cemented itself as one of the best action RPGs around, and there’s room to grow even more with its upcoming new classes and Ascendancies. However, one of the game’s new features is an improvement over its predecessor, but a downgrade compared to modern ARPGs.

One common comparison between Path of Exile 2 and Diablo 4, for example, is how the latter is fundamentally an open-world game, though it still operates within classic dungeon-crawler boundaries in some ways. These games share a lot of DNA, seeing how both of them draw inspiration from classics like Diablo 2, but they have very different approaches to item identification. While Diablo 4‘s loot is automatically identified upon pick-up, players have to either manually identify items with Scrolls of Wisdom in Path of Exile 2 or use the “Identify Items” function from NPCs.

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Path of Exile 2 May Have to Dramatically Change One of Its Systems

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Why Path of Exile 2’s ‘Identify Items’ Feature is a Mixed Bag

The fact that Path of Exile 2‘s Hooded One (or Doryani in the endgame) can identify all items for players without manually going through them with Scrolls of Wisdom is an upgrade in and of itself, at least compared to the original game. Manually identifying items can take a lot of time and force players to gather Scrolls of Wisdom when playing or at least trading for them, though in the sequel they can be purchased for 25 gold from vendors. Still, the Identify Items function being in the game poses the question of why the game couldn’t simply drop identified items.

Path of Exile 2’s Identify Items feature isn’t available in PoE, where Scrolls of Wisdom are the only way to identify loot. However, PoE also has vendor recipes for unidentified loot.

A big staple of action RPGs is that players have to micro-manage their inventory in order to gather loot from their activities, and items typically drop unidentified, just telling players the base item type and its rarity. Upon pick-up, Diablo 4 automatically identifies items for players, meaning they can then drop them back on the floor, run to town to sell them, or store them according to preference. Path of Exile 2‘s endgame can be pretty hectic in terms of loot, especially with Rarity gear, so manually picking up and identifying items or running back and forth to the Hideout is not truly feasible.

Path of Exile 2 Should ‘Steal’ Diablo 4’s Auto-Identified Items

What follows is that players are more likely to just pick up orbs and gold in Path of Exile 2 or Waystones in endgame activities with the occasional high-level items. During the campaign or before hitting the highest level of endgame, instead, it may be more helpful to open a portal and make NPCs identify all items for players or even carry a stack of 40 Scrolls of Wisdom to use along the way. Neither solution is ideal, and with the Identify Items function in the game, the addition of Scrolls of Wisdom is arguably unnecessary. Instead, bypassing both would be the best possible result.

Not identifying items on drop and only on pick-up already means that players have to micro-manage their inventory and choose which items to keep, which to sell or dismantle, and which to discard back on the ground. Be it the Identify Items function or with Scrolls of Wisdom, players are required to perform extra steps for the exact same result, which overall slows things down. As such, it would be wise for Path of Exile 2 to use Diablo 4‘s approach and auto-identify any item when it’s looted by players, streamlining the process and making both Identify Items and Scrolls of Wisdom obsolete.

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