Summary
- Path of Exile offers more character variety & builds than its sequel, making it a diverse gameplay experience.
- The original game’s focus on player stats and movement skills changes combat dynamics, appealing to ARPG players.
- Path of Exile’s deeper itemization, longer campaign, and retention of best seasonal content give it an edge over the sequel.
The sequel may be the game that’s making all the headlines right now, but the original Path Of Exile is still an excellent ARPG. There are some obvious similarities between the two games, but with the sequel’s focus on skill-based gameplay, there is definitely a different feel to both games. The original Path of Exile balances its difficulty more like a typical ARPG numbers game.
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The different gameplay focus may not please every player, but there are still plenty of other reasons to revisit Grinding Gear Games’ original. Path of Exile has now been in development for over eleven years and has benefitted from the added depth and tight balancing that have been brought to the game over multiple seasonal updates. That makes it a tighter and more complete experience than its sequel overall. Here are all the best reasons new players should still try Path of Exile.
1
New Events & Seasons
Legacy Of Phrecia And Beyond
Even before the release of Path of Exile 2, Grinding Gear Games assured long-time fans of the first game that they would continue to release seasonal content updates for Path of Exile. While the developers have admitted that focusing on two games was more difficult than they anticipated, they’re still fulfilling that promise. The Legacy of Phrecia event is the first major update since the sequel’s release, a month-long league with a major new feature.
The league replaces all the game’s nineteen ascendancy classes with new alternatives, giving each character a host of new build options. The season’s mechanics retain all the changes from the Settlers of Kalguur update. These are far from the last updates planned for Path of Exile, and new players already have plenty to delve into with building the town of Kingsmarch now added to the multiple other campaign and endgame side activities.
2
A Different Approach To Difficulty
The ARPG Numbers Game
Path of Exile 2 players coming to the original Path of Exile for the first time will immediately notice a big difference. There’s no dodge button in the original game – this simple change gives combat a completely different feel. Players aren’t expected to memorize patterns and dodge AoE attacks, movement and mobility skills are the only ways to avoid damage. As such, the balance of the game is different. Survival depends more on the player’s health and defensive stats than their reflexes in combat.
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This will make the game’s difficulty curve more familiar to long-time ARPG players, as players can get by simply by ensuring their health, resistances, and their own DPS numbers stay high. With the itemization side of the game more fleshed out, including mechanics like gear crafting, it’s easier to keep a character in relevant gear as players level, too.
3
More Characters & Builds To Try
A Full Character Roster
There are seven character classes in Path of Exile. That’s only one more than the sequel currently has, but these classes each have three possible ascendancy choices (except the Scion). That gives a lot more potential build combinations than Path of Exile 2 currently offers. The classes in Path of Exile also benefit from years of balancing various passive and ascendancy traits, meaning each class has far more viable endgame options than comparative options in the sequel.
Admittedly, the current Legacy of Phrecia event throws some of that balancing out of the window temporarily, but that’s more of a fun mix-up for long-time players. New players can still start a regular Settlers of Kalguur character to experience the original ascendancies if they want. Either way, there’s a lot of variety on offer in character choice and build options.
4
Better Itemization
A More Satisfying Gear Progression Curve
The itemization and variety of loot that drops is a little lacking in Path of Exile 2. In these first stages of early access, some players have suggested the game doesn’t feel rewarding enough. In comparison to the first game, this is certainly true. Players running the Path of Exile campaign for the first time will see a much higher rate of rare and unique item drops.
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It’s not really a fair comparison, as the first game has had years to add to the loot pool. It’s not just the amount of items that the first game currently does better, though. With mechanics that have been added over the years, like the Beastmaster for rolling specific loot, the Hideout crafting bench, or the Kingsmarch shipping system, players have many ways to generate loot and customize it to their needs.
5
A Longer, More Coherent Campaign
Getting The Full Story
Much like its sequel, the original Path of Exile was released with only half of its eventual campaign content. The campaign, as players experience it today, wasn’t added until 2017, which added acts five to ten in place of what was previously a re-run of the previous acts on a higher difficulty. As a result, the first game now has a lengthy campaign that tells a complete story.
The seasonal NPCs that have been added as permanent fixtures to the game are introduced throughout the campaign, meaning players don’t have to wait until endgame to start engaging with these side activities. There are a lot of memorable characters in Path of Exile, many of whom show up in the sequel, so new players should go back and experience their original stories.
6
More Depth And Variety Of Endgame Activities
Years Of Retaining The Best Seasonal Content
Path of Exile 2 has an uncommon amount of endgame focus for an Early Access title. With that said, the sequel’s version of Atlas map running doesn’t yet feel as fleshed out and varied as the first game. The eleven years of post-release development have given Path of Exile a significant advantage in being able to cherry-pick the best of their seasonal additions as permanent endgame activities.
Breaches, Delirium, Expeditions, and Rituals all have their origins in Path of Exile seasonal events and are still represented in the original game’s endgame, along with a host of other activities. Players can get lost in the Path of Exile endgame for hundreds of hours, and new players have a lot to discover if they want to dive deep into the original game’s post-campaign progression.
- Released
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October 23, 2013
- ESRB
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M for Mature: Intense Violence, Blood and Gore, Sexual Themes, Nudity, Language