I’ve had the chance to play Path of Exile 2 a number of occasions all through its improvement cycle, and there’s one thought I had after my newest session: this action-RPG retains getting higher each time I play it.
The primary session I had the chance to hitch was a demo at Gamescom 2023. Grinding Gear’s Jonathan Rogers took me by way of the Warrior and Druid class, and I additionally had the chance to attend in line and check out the Monk for the primary time. As anticipated, I received my butt kicked. However that’s par for the course. In early 2024 I had the prospect to check out the Ranger, whose extremely enjoyable gameplay loop has you taking pictures lightning arrows and propagating lightning storms of demise throughout the display. And extra lately I received to check out the Monk once more and get some hands-on time with the Warrior, Sorceress, and Witch – all for the primary time. Every of them feels distinctive, highly effective, and fascinating to play as. The Monk, when you get previous the early leveling parts that have you ever whacking away at enemies with gradual and methodical workers strikes, turns into a power to be reckoned with. You’ll be able to sprint in to weaken your enemies, get a couple of fees, after which annihilate the enjoying discipline with an extremely highly effective workers strike to the bottom that sends ripples of power that rip into the earth itself. And as soon as I received the grasp of this class’s gameplay loop, I felt like I could have discovered one other new favourite.
However the majority of my time I discovered myself enjoying because the Witch, who was one of the primary lessons I loved within the unique Path of Exile. Within the sequel, the Witch begins out as a corpse-reviving menace who chooses what talents the minions will wield, and may even command them to do distinctive assaults to nice impact.
The Unearth ability gem, as an illustration, will create spikes of bone that journey from the earth in entrance of you doing a bit of harm, however will even increase the bones of corpses as short-lived assemble minions. You’ll then begin unlocking Talent Gems like Skeletal Warrior, Skeletal Sniper, and Skeletal Arsonist. Since you’ll solely have a set quantity of spirit, early on you’ll solely be capable of select one of these to get began. The Skeletal Arsonist is the choice I picked because it has the distinctive skill to blow up any low-life minion in your pack. And never solely is that very cool, but it surely additionally does a ton of harm to packs of enemies or bosses that weaken your minions to explosion standing.
Later, when I unlocked Bone Cage and Contagion, I was in a position to additional increase my instrument package to create a entice for enemies, hit them with Contagion, after which watch it propagate throughout enemies – killing all the things it touched. Even at early ranges, these builds really feel very enjoyable to make use of and execute, and I discovered myself grinning from ear to ear your entire time I performed because the Witch. As well as, Grinding Gear Video games gave us a sneak peek at some later-game builds, and whereas they’re fascinating, I simply wished to briefly say that the large skeleton that’s erected by a sorcerer seems to be so freaking cool. Path of Exile 2 continues to shock me with designs which might be both creepy or appear to be they jumped straight off the duvet of a heavy steel album and into the sport. I’m on the level the place I don’t must see anymore.
The opposite class that I spent a big quantity of time with for the primary time was the Monk. The build-up to your extra highly effective assaults takes a bit of time, however someway the Monk actually shocked me. You begin out with a methodical smack to the enemies you’ll face, however when you begin getting your Talent Gem fight package collectively, the category will get actually enjoyable – and highly effective – very quick. Close to the top of my demo, I had the Tempest Bell Talent Gem that might drop a large Bell onto the battlefield. When struck with any elemental Illnesses, together with my Frozen Locus AOE harm, it might create an elemental shockwave and deal additional freeze harm to something within the neighborhood. However my favourite combo included Killing Palm and Staggering Palm, which let me zip into battle with a Staggering Palm Strike, drop a Frozen Locus into a bunch of enemies, assault the bell, and end off anybody left over with Killing Palm. That Killing Palm ultimate blow would then give me a Energy Cost that may stack as much as 3 times. As soon as powered up, you might execute Falling Thunder to create a ripple of harm that tore throughout the map and obliterated something that received in the way in which. That seems like a bit of a setup, and it may be, however the reward simply makes it so enjoyable to drag off time and time once more.
This surprisingly enjoyable gameplay loop appears to be current for every class I’ve performed up to now. Whereas there are nonetheless my private favorites, having taken a while to check out the Sorceress and Warrior at an occasion the subsequent day, I suppose that 5 seconds of enjoyable goes to be there for all of the lessons. I hold discovering myself grinning as I find out how that introductory Talent Gem construct synergizes collectively in a means that’s laborious to not love. Extra typically, Grinding Gear Video games confirmed that they’ve tweaked the gameplay of these introductory moments in order that they’re extra pleasurable for gamers to be taught the sport within the newbie areas. And I should say that the facility development is feeling significantly nice at this second in time.
And that adjustment goes to go a great distance for Path of Exile 2, as a result of the builders simply revealed that sofa co-op will probably be an choice for gamers in the identical family. I tried about an hour of this, and it undoubtedly goes to be a giant promoting level for anybody in the identical family who desires to leap right into a recreation and stage up collectively. The one barely disorienting side to this was the stock menu that takes up a big portion of the display, so hopefully your teammate isn’t bringing it up throughout fight too usually, however in any other case, it felt fairly seamless.
A couple of lessons are nonetheless but to be formally revealed, however Path of Exile 2 continues to impress me each single time I get some hands-on time with it. The Ranger demo received me to roll a Ranger within the new season of Path of Exile on PC. The Monk in Path of Exile 2 shocked me because it turned very highly effective so early on, and it made me wish to check out all the opposite lessons to see if I’d be shocked in the identical nice means. Path of Exile 2 will probably have a couple of extra pre-release reveals earlier than launch, however I am able to dive in proper now. And primarily based on what I’ve performed over the past a number of months, that is shaping as much as be a recreation you shouldn’t miss. We’ll discover out for certain when Path of Exile 2 goes into closed beta later this 12 months.