Path of Exile 2 (2024)

Completed Path of Exile 2 - Campaign. Now in end-game content Played Sorceress > Stormweaver Level 70 - Cast in Frost - Comet Build RATING: GAMEPLAY : 9

• Boss fights and gameplay are the best in the genre
• Requires a lot of grinding but rewarding nonetheless
• ARPG with Soulslike Mechanics STORY & THEME : 7.5
• IMO, standard story, forgettable but unique for the genre
• World and atmosphere are incredible
• Music is okay, variety of worlds are great VALUE : 8
• With the cost of early access, and the in-game currency value of it, its worth the cost.
• A solid benchmark for a good ARPG A solid 8.15/10, Being a long time player of ARPG games (since D1 was first released) I can safely say this is the evolution that has been needed for a long time. Slower paced with more gravitas on the boss encounters and decisions you make with your character in game, massive amount of build options and huge diversity in environments and monster groups. For too long the genre has been creeping down a path of no consequence and little brain usage to obliterate everything on the screen. This game takes us back to real crafting of your character, spending the time to problem solve scenarios and learn mechanics (whether it be boss, crafting, skills and synergies). Gonna wait for the completion of the Acts 4-6 and the official launch of the game. Here are gameplay video for all the Path of Exile 2 Boss Fights in cruel difficulty.

Putting this down for now. I had a great time playing it! It's definitely got a lot of room to improve.

Things I really liked:

1. The combat feels great in this one, the addition of dodge rolls gives a bit more agency as opposed to other ARPGs that do not contain a dodge.
2. The game is a lot more approachable. With the lack of a lot of league mechanics keeping you from having to think about how to approach builds, you have a lot less to keep track of on top of the game being a lot slower.
3. The boss fights are all spectacles and phenomenal. Some still require a couple of small tweaks here and there I think, but thats stuff that can be fixed in Early Access.
4. Party play feels a lot more fleshed out in PoE2 where you can build around your party members. I am sure an Aura bot of some sort will still exist, but being able to combo moves together with your team is fun to do!

Things I dislike:

1. The accessibility point is a double edged sword. With the lack of leagues that PoE1 had the benefit of, the use of currency feels exclusively for purchasing rather than crafting. This will definitely be fixed as the seasons progress, I have no doubt.
2. Body blocking. This doesn't feel good at all either from monsters or from team mates.
3. Ascendancy trials need some shoring up. The lack of instruction on how the third and fourth ascendencies work in game, as well as having to have specific trials/oaths drop to be able to even do them is frustrating to new and old players. I did not like Labyrinth in PoE1, but this system actively made me ask for it to come back.

These are just a few of my thoughts and I really enjoyed what I played, but there are some things that could be better, and I am sure can be fixed/adjusted through the EA period. For now I am putting this down to focus on other games!

My goal was to reach maps of the early access using no outside help or builds. I created my own build to start with using Firewall and Ember Fussillade throughout the campaign with Solar Orb to help debuff enemies and ignite them.

This worked until about act 3, but gear was starting to become a huge issue. I spent some currency to upgrade my damage and it helped get me through that wall.

Once I hit cruel difficulty, it started to become a bit easier to manage again til I hit Act 3 of cruel where I then had the same issue. I managed to barely squeak out a win against the Act 3 Cruel boss to get into maps.

Now that I am in maps, I took a look at builds and realized how absolutely dreadful mine was. I was hardly killing anything in maps and was dying to tier 1 waystones.

I decided to grind out gold needed to fully respec my tree, and used excess skill gems to move over to CaptainLances' build. I am pushing Waystone 4/5s now, however I have a lot of gripes on how this game (and its community) treat new players.

Will report back some more once I push a bit longer.

Path of Exile 2 (Early Access) is pretty damn good. There is a lot to like. The old school aesthetic of it and the core gameplay, and how it isn’t an open world and has fixed levels/areas like older Diablo games, are all positives.

I’m having trouble grasping the boss fights. I’ve beaten all of them so far on first try and I get it in principle but the two-stick controls are tricky and the dodge rolling is throwing me for a loop. If I spend more time with it, I’ll probably get the hang of it. I bet by muscle memory of dodging a la FromSoft games is working against me. All in all, PoE 2 is off to a great start.

I don't know about anyone else here, but watching popular streamers get upset that their builds are already broken and how stuck they are early in the game makes me kind of laugh and grateful that I do not really care to play a game where you can create so many horrible builds that the game becomes virtually impossible.

This game will probably not be for me. I've already been seeing people compare it to "souls-like" experience. I'll stick to Diablo 4 for a more casual experience where I don't require the use of a friggin build guide to succeed. Yuck.

Made it through act one.

Woosh that was a challenge.

I need to look at my build and really think about my skills. I have basically Zero damage.

The people I am playing with took maybe 2 mins to get the HP of the boss down

10 mins into by boss (not getting hit) i was at 50% of his HP down. ~Really enjoying it so far