Who could've expected a free MMORPG revolution in such a small package?
*Checks folder size*... Okay so it's not such a small package at over 6GB. Still much smaller than, say, TERA at over 25GB. However, I'm not here to talk about or compare TERA to Path of Exile. I'm here to tell you why Path of Exile manages to stay such a strong competitor in today's market, even with its lackluster graphics and minimized features.
So, what is Path of Exile and what sets it apart? It's probably the most daring Diablo 2 clone ever to be released. It is also the best Diablo 2 clone ever to grace our computer screens. It is everything Diablo 3 should've been and it's free. Grinding Gear Games, the genius development team behind this wonder, was actually founded by a group of Diablo 2 fans so the similarities should not surprise you. Yet there are enough differences, so that it doesn't feel like the same game.
At the same time, this is what sets Path of Exile apart in today's sea of games, each packed with so many features it's a wonder it still remembers being a game. It's inspiration came from the era before there was a list of mandatory features, before games drowned themselves trying to out-swim the competition. It was a time when a game was given as much as it needed to make it work. Why force an open world when it's not needed? Why push CPUs and GPUs to their limits when it's not necessary? Why give players hundreds of skills to juggle on screen when it's not necessary? Why make elaborate cutscenes and dialogue sequences when they're not needed?
Path of Exile sticks to the bare-bones hack-n-slash RPG genre, with a few unique twists to help it differ and, of course, it's completely online. It's blatant in that it completely copies certain aspects, but daring in that it completely changes some of what made Diablo 2 such a success. Now let's make sense of this!
Story
The story is a sort of copy of Diablo 2's basic plotline. Instead of being an adventurer, you are an exile. For crimes your chosen character committed (props on giving each character a different story), you were exiled to the continent of Wraeclast. Instead of Diablo, or The Wanderer, we chase around someone named Piety through the acts.
There are no epic cutscenes between acts and the bosses aren't as ominous as they could've been, though this is common for online games. Of course, the lore of Wraeclast with the Vaal <> and the Eternal Empire <> leaves a lot of room to expand the plot and add new plots too. I guess it makes more sense for a persistent online game to focus on the lore of the land, rather than a powerful figure. If the story revolves around a villain, then once the villain is gone, it's over. If the story revolves around the land, then there's always room.
See what I mean?
Speaking of which, I hear there's a new expansion pack coming out soon - The Awakening.
Gameplay
Path of Exile is a regular monster-bashing, click-fest carnival! At first it may seem like there's only some small groups of 2-3 zombies at a time, but this changes immensely once you reach act 2. You get swamped by dozens upon dozens of ape like creatures in the very first area. I hope you got some crowd control handy.
Well that just looks like too much fun!
On the other hand, you do get big bosses with a LOT of health. To emphasize a point, beating Brutus at the end of act 1 can take ten times longer than clearing a monster swarm in act 2. So that's another long round of clicking. Thankfully, Grinding Gear Games incorporated a little control trick, one that many missed even in similar games. If you click and hold a mouse button, your character will continuously perform the attack linked to the button. There, I've saved your mouse.
Though, you still need to click to pick up all that sweet loot. Once the swarms kick in, you'll get roughly 10 items per group. That's a lot. You will find valuable skill gems, magic, rare or unique items (no sets, though) along with a large amount of garbage gear. The developers, clever as they are, gave us a filter in the options menu. You can choose what gear pops up when you press the "highlight items" button. Wait, you didn't know there's a highlight items button?
Characters
Now that we've covered killing and looting, it's time to see through who you're going to act out these heinous deeds. You get to choose from 6 (actually it's 7), different characters. The basic 6 are the Marauder, Ranger, Witch, Duelist, Templar and Shadow. The seventh character is called a Scion. She's unlocked once you beat the game.
There's no custom appearance, no race/class combo, you get what you get. That's okay though, because you are basically picking a character that you like the look and story of. The only difference between characters is where they start on the skill tree. Everyone can reach every skill, but some get there faster than others. There is also a minor stat preference between characters, linked to their position on the skill tree, but it's insignificant once you've leveled up.
The Marauder favors strength, the Ranger dexterity and the Witch focuses on intelligence. The other three are a mixture, with the Duelist being a combination of strength and dexterity, the Templar putting together strength and intelligence, which leaves the shadow with dexterity and intelligence paired up. The Scion has no attribute focus and begins in the middle of the tree. As you can see, each character has his place.
It's crazy what kind of characters you can make...
If you're not too much of a stat freak, each exile has his or her story. There's a reason why you're an exile and you pick your own. I find it fun to grab one that sort of fits something I would do and at the same time the stories fit so well with the play style of the character. The Duelist is a gentleman with exceptional sword skill who happened to slay a lord for insulting him. With both dexterity and strength in his arsenal, you can see how he'd be an elegant swordsman.
Skills
I've mentioned the skill tree several times now. What is it really? As I said, in Path of Exile, every character can access every skill. First off, throw out the notion that there are separate skill trees. They all have the same one and it's huge! They all start on different locations and plot their path through it to reach the skills they want.
Now, this is a passive skill tree, meaning that all of these skill just boost your character in some way. They give damage, health, resistance, but no special attack or anything. Now it's time to throw out the notion that you can plan what kind combat abilities you want your character to have. You can't. Best you can do is think of what fields you want to grow in.
The passive skills are all like this.
For combat abilities, you have to find them. All the active skills are linked to skill gems, which you can socket into items (that means no runes or runewords). The socketed gems will give you their corresponding active skill. These gems will also level with use as long as they're in a socket, so it's a good idea to equip any you can. Even if you don't use it with this character, you may use it with another in the future. Thanks to a shared stash, you can easily transfer them between characters.
Finally, you enhance these equipped skills with so called "support gems". These could boost the damage, add a life-leeching effect, elemental damage and so on. You can see how this gets complicated. Half the fun in this game is collecting these gems, finding the best combination and making them fit your character's build.
And here's an example of a skill gem.
Quests
What's the point of all this? Why the quests of course! No, not really. You forget these even exist once you get caught up in combining skills and equipping the right gear. Still, the quest rewards are helpful in this goal too. You can get gems, even stat boosts from a certain quest in act 2 and they help you unlock new areas or get to bosses for the ultimate loot reward.
What I like about Path of Exile's quest system is that it's not overburdened. You don't get 20 side-quests per one main one. You also don't need to run across the world in the opposite direction of where your story takes you. It's somewhat linear, but that's what makes it good. It's not such an elaborate world that you'd want to spend hours exploring it.
This is the whole of act 2, map and quests. Only as much as is needed.
World
Unlike traditional MMORPGs, this one is mostly instanced. Each act has a town-like location that serves as a server hub. Players can meet up here and form parties or trade. Once you leave town, you are in your own instance and there's no one around to save you...unless you brought them along in your party that is.
You move from area map to area map in a very streamlined manner. There's hardly ever more than 2 branching paths and even those meet up in the end. This is not a game where you explore or kill x/y monsters. It's more of a treasure run. If you're fond of hunting items, you will love this game.
Those area maps can get pretty elaborate.
Graphics & Sound
For this day and age, it's dated. Though, I still prefer this to Diablo 3's World of Warcraft-esque art style. This is darker, more serious. It doesn't feel like a colorful kids game. What I also like about this 2.5D graphic style is that it allows for finer detail. The problem with 3D is that everything needs to be modeled and it quickly eats up your PC's resources. That's not the case here. Less impressive visual, but a richer looking environment.
Look at all that fine detail!
In terms of sound, I like it! I remember there being some very specific sounds in Diablo 2 that were just pleasing to the ears. Path of Exile has them to. Gems dropping, kill sounds, monster gargles or growls etc. I especially like the Shadow's voice. Though it might be his attitude, rather than the voice itself.
Free-to-Play policy
I've said it before and I'll say it a thousand times more: Path of Exile is the ultimate free-to-play experience. Every single game out there should actually take a lesson from them instead of constantly thinking of ways to get more money. Their best move was not to burden the game with unnecessary features that only carry a higher cost.
Nice one guys! I think this echoes my point perfectly.
They still added certain cool cosmetic bonuses in the cash shop to tease the interests of their huge player-base. There's bound to be more than enough dedicated players willing to show their support and get some incredible looks too, instead of leeching money off the few who are willing to stay and pay.
Somehow they have enough to release constant updates and expansion packs. Grinding Gear Games actually care about the game and players, not about getting rich.
Verdict - 10/10
Is this the best game you will ever play? No. It's not a game for everyone. Of course, if you are into these kinds of games, it's probably the very best you will find active today. I can honestly see no real flaws with it. Maybe balance issues? It's an MMO for crying out loud. Consider this, it's a hack-n-slash, dungeon crawling RPG game and it's online. Now, is there anything they could change to make the game better? Nope.
Maybe they could add something. There is a new expansion pack well on the way, who knows? Though I don't expect them to add any big game-changing features. No matter how hard I try, I don't see a way Path of Exile could be better than it is. That's why it's a 10. Now, I'm going to challenge you: can you think of a single way this game could be better than it is? Share your ideas in the comments and let the war begin!
Superb job, keep it up!
