I've been playing Path of Exile 2 for a little over a week now. If you have been reading my posts for a while, you probably already know that I purchased the early access pass to this game after seeing a post by @themarkymark. I had been looking for a new game to play, but I didn't want to spend the money on one of the new A list games like Diablo 4 or Baulder's Gate 3. Well, fiat money anyway.
I had looked at Path of Exile 1 in the past, I even installed it, but I never really had the ambition to dig into it. After seeing some of the promotional material for PoE2 and how well even the early access was being received, I decided to give it a look.
Eventually the game is going to be free to play, but right now you have to buy a special pass to be able to play the early access. The benefit of buying that pass is that you also get some in game currency and that allows you to buy things that will become important much later on like stash tabs.
As Marky explained to me in one of his comments, without the extra stash tabs in the future, the game is virtually unplayable. At the very least it hampers you quite a bit.
I was still on the fence about spending even $30 on a game (the lowest package I think), when I realized the company behind PoE2 allows you to use Bitpay. I had used Bitpay in the past to buy some silver on APMEX, and I had some extra USDC floating around in one of my wallets, so I figure I would give it a go.
Within about fifteen minutes, I had the USDC transferred to my Bitpay account and I was able to buy my pack.
It's just fake Internet money right?, so I splurged a little bit and bought two packages better than the $30 starter pack and went with the one you see above. It actually gives you more stuff than you can see on the screen, but I couldn't fit it all.
If you visit the website you will see there is are early supporter packs starting at $30 USD and they go all the way up to $480 packs.
It didn't take me playing very long to realize that this game is not your typical Diablo clone (despite how it might look). There is a "boss" you have to beat before you can even get into the starting town. It took me forever to beat him. I don't think I have died this much in a game in a long time. I love it though!
PoE2 has a dodge feature that the first three Diablo games did not have. I can't say if D4 does or not. This means that you can't just run up to a boss and smash a button until they are dust. Bosses can and will one hit you even with decent gear unless you dodge out of the way in time. Heck, regular mobs will one hit you too. It's pretty crazy.
I had gotten far to used to Diablo 3 endgame and just spamming Wave of Light and watching the whole screen basically melt in front of you because it was so overpowered. That's definitely not the case with PoE2. It requires a much more meticulous progression. I'm really looking forward to eventually getting to the end game content.
While some aspects of the game are pointedly different from Diablo, there are other aspects that almost feel like a rip off of Diablo 2. This leans heavily on some of the same themes and characters with perhaps a few name changes here, gender changes there, a different color scheme, and at least in act two a moving caravan as the city versus a stationary "Middle Eastern" themed metropolis.
I've been lucky enough to have a little push here and there where I need it in the form of help from Marky. He has clearly had an early access account for a while now and his level 80 something character can pretty much roll through any boss that is giving me a hard time. I typically try to beat the boss myself at least two or ten times before I ask for help. It's a pride thing.
The active skills are interesting as they are gained by burning uncut skill gems of various levels. Then there are also uncut support gems that add certain behaviors to the main skills. It's an interesting system and it allows for a large amount of customization.
Speaking of customization, as you can see from the photo above, the skill tree is vast. I'm talking I don't think I have ever played a game with something so complex before. Even Diablo three had a pretty finite number of combinations you could configure skills in. This is just next level craziness. The good news is, with the help of "The Hooded One" (aka. Deckard Cain), you can reset your passive skills if you feel you made an error or you want to tweak things a bit.
I'm only about halfway through the second act, but so far it has been really fun to play this game. I recently picked up and upgraded a new weapon and that has made a huge difference in how well I am progressing through the game. I haven't needed to ask Marky for help in a couple of days now. I hope with a few more level ups and upgrades I can make it to Act III soon.
From what I have heard, there are a ton of aspects of the game that I haven't even begun to explore yet as I make my way through the early acts. I joined a PoE2 subreddit and that has been really interesting to see people talk about things that are so far over my head right now.
Although it is early access, the game still feels really polished and the team is actively updating it quite frequently. I feel like every other time I login there is a new update where they tweaked something for fixed something else.
I hope to do another update as I dig deeper into the game. If this post has gotten you curious, I'm not going to tell you how to spend your money, but so far even if I had only spent the $30, it would have been worth it for me.
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That skill tree looks insane! Equally insane is that $480 price for the full package. Wow!
Looks fun though. My kids are of the age where if I start playing any game, they want to take it over. So we are just basically sticking with old NES games, like Punch Out. But if this one sticks around a few years, I'll eventually give it a try. By that point, I trust your character will be leveled high enough that you can help me!
I definitely hope so! I honestly didn't even look at what all you get with the $480 package because the price tag was just too high. Maybe if I was crypto rich... You can half multiple characters in this one, so each of the kids could have their own if they wanted.
That looks more like an image from the Hubble Telescope than a skill tree. From your descriptions, it looks like there are potentially hundreds of hours of gameplay in POE2.
From a value standpoint - that great and perhaps perilous, you can probably play this for hours, the peril of course is you might play this for hours - it looks like a potential time destroyer :) I'm somewhat glad I don't have a gaming PC or I'd be tempted to get this.
I think you can play it on console too, but I don't own one of those, so I don't know for sure. I only installed it on one of my computers so I am not tempted to play it all the time. I only get to partake of it in brief spurts!
Ive hears about this game but dont know if it has a mobile or pc version, what version is this ?
PC version.
Hm, interesting game. but it seems it has a very simple design for now. When was it launched? I don't think I have heard about it before
I think the early access started at the beginning of December.
Give a shot to Kingdom Come: Deliverance II once it is released in like two weeks. It comes with real locations, and genuine 15th century experience ;) Just see this video:
Looks interesting for sure! I'm not much good at first person style games like that so I don't play them very often. Fallout 4 was the recent exception.
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