Path of Exile: Partially What I Hoped Diablo 3 Would Become

Path of Exile is a free MMORPG developed by Grinding Gear Games. It is an Action RPG/Dungeon Crawling game with heavy emphasis on loot, with a 2.5D graphic style similar to the Diablo series.

This game was explained to me to be the sequel to Diablo 2 that we never got in Diablo 3. Some brief personal history, I played Diablo 2 extensively (binge playing over many years) and I had pre-ordered/played the crap out of Diablo 3 the first few months. However, I was sorely disappointed in many aspects of Diablo 3, which made me uninstall to never look back.

In come Path of Exile. I hate playing games with a hyped mindset, so I waited a bit before going through. Is it Diablo 2.5? Or did it create it's own place in gaming?

Story

My friend described the stories to loot-driven games best when he said "I know the story; get better stuff". I'm sure there's an interesting and deep lore, but let's be honest, that's not the main reason why we play these games.

Gameplay

In terms of basic gameplay, there's nothing too new here. Point, click, spam skills, spam pots, kill stuff, loot, repeat. You go through a campaign, beat the last boss, start in the beginning of the story of a higher difficulty.

So what makes this game from being a complete washout?

One of the first things I noticed was the skills system.

Let's start with the skill tree.

Aggresive with the Passives

Has FFX influence written all over.

So every time you level up (or finish certain quests) you gain skill points. These are to go into a tree (shown above). They are all passive skills that range from raising your strength, to granting extra health, or even some special skills like making your zombies explode.

It is very similar to the Final Fantasy X and the sphere grid. There are six playable classes in PoE, but the only real difference between them is where they start on the passive tree. This provides a guideline of how the characters can turn out, but you're not confined to a traditional class. So in turn, you end up with some fun builds or some funky hybrids (a bow wielding tank or an axe-wielding mage? yes please).

Make a mistake? No don't need to start all over. The game is pretty generous in granting you refund points in case you mess up slightly. There is a cap to how many skill points you can get (whatever the max level currently is), so half the battle is sitting in front of the tree to decide what path you want to take.

But that's not the only thing that's Final Fantasy-esque...

Smells Like Materia

The materia system in FFVII was one of the best skill systems implemented in any RPG game. PoE borrows the concept and takes it a little further.

That mallet would be better if it had skills.

As shown in the screenshot above, your weapons and armor (minus the belt) have sockets. Throughout the game, you will find different skill gems to put into those slots of different colors.

The red Glacial Hammer skill can only go into a red slot

Each of these skills are either blue, green, or red (usually corresponding with the magic, agility, or strength stat respectively).

Not all skill gems are active skills. Some are support, such as Leech Life or Add Fire Damage. If you look closely at the screenshots, the slots have links between them. This is necessary for these support gems to work.

This synergizes well with the skill tree, in that every class has access to every skill. Every character can be completely different.

UGH. I found a superior quality 19% yellow circlet. I needed 20%!

For anyone who is familiar with loot farming games, the above statement is a joke and a reality. Your idea of perfect loot is usually off by 1% of some obscure stat. But because of that, the value of your loot dropped by about 75%.

PoE makes it slightly less frustrating (albeit still frustrating) with orbs.

The first time I saw one, I felt like a king.

There are many different types of orbs like the one pictured above, each with a different property and rarity. So if you find a 5 slotted armor with no links? An orb of fusing gives you a chance to link them all together. Found a high level white armor? Use an orb of alchemy to make it rare. Don't like the stats? Use an orb of chaos to reroll the item. There's even an orb (or mirror) to duplicate the exact same item.

But even with this concept, it's not like your ideal equipment is easy to obtain. The odds are excruciatingly low for certain mods. Still, it might keep you from throwing away every single "almost awesome" piece of equipment you find.

And because there is no "gold" currency in this game, the orbs have naturally become the currency of the PoE economy. So in one sense, it's hard to quantify exactly what things are worth, but on the other end, you're one orb drop away from being extremely rich.

Microtransactions Done Right

As far as I know, minus some aesthetic items and like, 2 or 3 skills, non-spending players have access to everything in the game as cash spenders. Unlike most f2p games currently which force the cash shop upon you, I don't think I've even seen the cash shop itself the entire time I played the game. The microtransactions are put on the players if they want to support the game, not if they want to win faster.

Closing Thoughts

Overall, PoE is a solid addition to the clouded MMO market. It implements some unique systems to an otherwise overplayed genre, and the developers are committed to add content for years to come, which makes current endgamers hopeful of an endgame beyond endless loot farming.

But a lot of things that Diablo 3 did wrong, Path of Exile is doing right. I'm aware both series have their respective fans, but in my opinion, listening to your players is a good idea in game developing. Diablo 3 started that a little too late for me. But PpE seems to be going on the right path.