Path of Exile 2 could have been a much safer game. The first PoE has spent a decade growing and evolving, earning ever more fans over the years, and sits tall atop the pinnacle of rich, rewarding action RPGs, fending off strong challenges from contenders such as Diablo 4 and Last Epoch. Yet Grinding Gear Games has always been one to experiment. And so in PoE 2 – a game that started life as a simple model update for its predecessor, only to grow into a standalone beast – GGG rips up its own rulebook to create something that feels definitively new and exciting.
I’ve had the privilege of spending a week playing Path of Exile 2 and I feel like I’ve barely scratched the surface. As my preview progress is reset for the Path of Exile 2 release date, all I want to do is get right back to it and try another PoE 2 build. As the sequel to one of the best RPGs on PC, it could easily have much more closely resembled its predecessor – and at a glimpse you might be forgiven for thinking it does. Yet it becomes quickly apparent that much has changed.
Game director Jonathan Rogers has cited Elden Ring as a key influence in the design of the Path of Exile 2 combat system, and you’ll have to forgive me for making such comparisons, trite as they might be, because they’re so strikingly apt. Where the first PoE is often a blisteringly fast game once you get going, PoE 2, at least in its early campaign hours, is much slower and more considered. That all centers around the fulcrum of its combat, the new dodge roll.
Press the spacebar and your character rolls. As established by the trend of soulslikes, this allows you to pass safely through melee attacks and projectiles, although it won’t save you if you’re caught in a wide-area splash and are unable to escape its radius. There’s no cooldown or stamina requirements, and it’ll even cancel you out of attack and spellcasting animations. That decision, combined with numerous skills that allow movement and redirection mid-use, allows GGG to offer more slow attacks than would have been acceptable otherwise, because you can always pull out of your commitment in a pinch.
To really put this new system through its paces, my first character from the lineup of Path of Exile 2 classes is the Warrior, meaning my early skill choices include a selection of heavy-hitting wallops and slams with long wind-up animations. Rather than the first game’s need to hunt out specific skill gems via luck, knowledge, or a handy guide, in PoE 2 each skill gem you find is universal, and can be instantly turned into any skill of your choosing at the level of the gem you’ve found.
Alongside the core skill gems, support gems (used to amplify your skill effects) and spirit gems (used for persistent buffs and auras) each have their own drop type, and then there’s a final category of meta gems that includes some more advanced tricks, such as allowing skills to be auto-cast when certain conditions are met. The options you have early on are limited by a minimum-level requirement – I need a level seven gem to start using Leap Slam, for instance – but that’s as complex as it gets, meaning you’ll have little trouble putting together the pieces of your build.
Helping you to make these decisions is a series of short videos showing off each skill with a brief audio description of how it works. This is a phenomenal addition, especially for new players or anyone who’s understandably intimidated by the walls of text describing the intricacies of each spell’s effects in detail. Skills are also separated out by category, and you’re given a list of ‘recommended’ support gems for each, but if you know what you’re doing and want to stretch your limits further you can quickly click one button to access the full palette of potential options.
Where PoE of old has long favored ‘one-button builds’ that channel all their resources into a primary active skill, typically auto-triggering other effects or enabling buffs along the way, its sequel is very combo-driven. Indeed, Rogers tells me he hopes one-button builds will never be as effective in PoE 2. It’ll be interesting to see how this holds up to long-term scrutiny as the real buildcrafters poke and prod at the extremities of endgame, but in the early stages it’s both very accurate and remarkably satisfying.
By the end of my first campaign playthrough (currently the first three acts of a planned six to come by the full launch), I’ve fashioned a Warrior build all about stacking damage effects that reverberate off one another. I crack Volcanic Fissure lines through the ground, which erupt in flame each time they’re hit with slam attacks. These include my distance-closing Leap Slam, a stun-inducing two-hit Rolling Slam, and Earthquake, a rumbling patch of ground that I’ve enhanced to pin enemies in place before it explodes. I can even trigger that explosion early, if I like, by placing Shockwave Totems nearby.
My skills also have a tendency to trigger a second time as an ‘aftershock,’ which in many cases also re-triggers all the surrounding explosions. This is partly because of my choices on the passive skill tree and partly because, beyond being a Warrior, I’m a Titan (one of the two Path of Exile 2 ascension choices for my class at launch, with a third set to follow). This turns me into a brute force of nature, amplifying my passive bonuses and raw survivability while also giving me more chances at those delicious aftershocks.
You earn ascendancies through trials, of which there are currently two. The first is an adaptation of PoE’s Forbidden Sanctum, sending you through a series of tests where monsters attack more slowly and deliberately, but where taking too many hits will cause you to fail even if your health pool is still fine. The latter is essentially the first game’s Ultimatum mode, and has you pick one of three dangerous modifiers each round that stack on top of one another as you progress through multiple challenges. These are both pretty tough and will prove a test of your build and skills alike to earn your upgrade.
All this talk, all these exciting aspects, and I’ve yet to get to my favorite part of Path of Exile 2: actually hitting stuff. From rare monsters to the most meatgrinder-fodder critters, every enemy in Path of Exile 2 feels distinctive. Their attack animations are clever and clear – the latter essential to help you dodge away from them, as even small foes can bring you down quickly. They’re also a lot more eager to surround you this time, which can lead to some shockingly rapid deaths if you’re trying to rush through an area without careful thought. Keep your eyes on an escape route at all times, and bring mobility skills if you can.
Even better than their attacks, however, is the sense of impact when you hit them back. My titanic thwacks and thuds send foes reeling realistically; larger creatures stumble back or drop to a knee, while smaller critters might be sent tumbling to the ground. It looks and feels great, but it’s also mechanically crucial, as those stuns buy me both time and space, which are often in short supply as I’m looking to unleash my heaviest-hitting hammer-downs.
The real shining star is the boss fights. The launch release has 50 unique boss enemies – some required, many optional (although a lot of them reward you with permanent stat upgrades, so they won’t feel that way). They’re incredible. Perhaps it’s my particular penchant for the dance of avoiding incoming attack patterns in Path of Exile’s pinnacle fights, or FF14 raid boss encounters, but I have found myself yelling out loud in excitement at PoE 2’s bosses more than any game of late.
Even early fights are packed with personality, with distinctive theming and flavor. The Rust King weaves shards of metal into dangerous patterns that you must weave between. The Crowbell is a giant bird monster that, as you might expect, runs away halfway through to snatch up a giant bell and completely transform its moveset. That’s the smallest sampling, but I want to tell you about so many more, even if I can’t bring myself to spoil the moments.
What I will say is that another key area where PoE 2 has learned from Elden Ring is in its love for multi-stage fights, although it’s fairly reserved in saving these for major encounters. The end-of-act showdowns are a blend of spectacle and challenging mechanics that made me thankful for the generous checkpointing as my attempts started to pile up. They’re also unquestionably some of my favorite bosses in any game in a while, across the board, although with so many more endgame fights still lying before me, I would not be shocked to see them dethroned by the time the year is out.
There are some memorable set-piece encounters throughout the zones, too, and GGG certainly doesn’t shy away from the dark, grim, and grisly either. Narratively, I’ve been particularly enthused by some of the key twists and turns – I am, admittedly, a PoE 1 lore enjoyer, and there are some real treats in that regard. But much like that game, the vast majority of the story here is placed into optional (albeit voiced) dialogue, meaning you can elect to avoid it altogether if you’re just focused on grinding for gear.
The gear itself is of course another huge piece of the puzzle, and it’ll feel instantly familiar to those who’ve played the original. You’ll find a lot less of it, however, at least in the early game, which makes those occasional rare drops much more valuable. It also encourages you to start using crafting materials to create your own items early on, which is a great way to begin learning what makes a ‘good’ item tick. Crucially, you can highlight almost anything, from stats or skill types to effects, and the game will explain what they are and how they work, removing almost all the uncertainty from the equation.
Another sizable elephant in the room is the skill tree. This is just as sprawling as PoE 1’s infamous offering, but it actually feels a lot more approachable in PoE 2. This is because the clusters are more distinctly designed in what they do, and the way they’re spread out combined with low respec costs means that if you decide something isn’t working, it’s very easy to strip it out and put the points elsewhere without having to remake your entire setup from scratch.
It’s also worth mentioning the control options. I mostly stuck with the tried and true click-to-move format I’ve used for a decade in the first game, and it still works well. The ability to flip to direct movement with WASD or play PoE 2 on a controller is solid, and I’ll almost certainly spend more time with it post-release. Indeed, for some builds such as those using shields or ranged weapons, I suspect it’ll be the better option, allowing you to easily move backward while blocking or firing.
Finally, let me touch on the endgame. With but a short time to dip in, I’ve only had the briefest chance to see what’s on offer, but fortunately Grinding Gear Games has already laid its cards on the table publicly when it comes to the early access endgame, and it’s a full house. Along with a sprawling, functionally infinite map to explore filled with one-off levels, there are four core gameplay systems to encounter, alongside endgame twists on the trials and a final set of uber boss fights.
Each of these boasts unique and valuable rewards, so there’s plenty of incentive to try them all out – but if you decide that you prefer a particular type, you can lean in on that and spread it across more of your maps, while earning upgrades that further amplify the rewards you get from it. It promises to be just as versatile as the first game, and about as robust an endgame offering as you could expect from an initial early access launch.
Path of Exile 2, then, is quite the beast. Will some fans of the original be thrown off by its change in pacing? Quite possibly, although it looks like there’s plenty of potential to get some very fast clear speeds once players wrap their heads around the nuances of buildcrafting. If you decide you prefer the way things were, however, the old game will continue to exist and grow alongside its sequel, which allows PoE 2 to make the dramatic changes it does without leaving set-in-stone veterans in the dust.
Will new players find Path of Exile 2 easier to get into? Yes. GGG has clearly put in the work to address many of the most common complaints. It’s still a fundamentally complicated game with a lot of text and an ocean of options you could drown in, however. I wouldn’t be surprised if some people take one look at the passive skill tree and back out. You still have to want to put in the time to understand PoE 2, but I think those who choose to do so will have a much easier time than they might have had with the 2013 original.
I have a lot of confidence in Grinding Gear Games that’s built on the past decade of support for the first PoE. If things are wrong, or broken, or aren’t fun, or they don’t work as well as they should, GGG is a studio willing to make those changes. It’s said as much during PoE 2 previews, and it’s got ten years of receipts from its predecessor to back up those claims.
Path of Exile 2 is out now in early access on Steam. You’ll need to buy the $30 early access pack to join, although that also includes $30 worth of points to spend on the game’s microtransaction store. PoE 2 will be free to play when the full 1.0 launch arrives sometime next year.
For my money, what’s there is certainly worth the price of entry, and I suspect most ARPG fans will feel the same way – but with half of the campaign still to come and plenty of changes likely to be made along the path to the full release, I don’t think there’s any harm in waiting if you’re wary.
Make sure to take a good look at the Path of Exile 2 system requirements before you take the plunge, and don’t miss out on the Path of Exile 2 Twitch drops at launch for a few bonus goodies.