Path of Exile asks if you’ve got room for another action RPG

Posted by on July 24, 2012 in Games

What a grand time to be a fan of action RPGs. It’s not enough that a AAA juggernaut like Diablo III changed up the action in ways that won over a Diablo II diehard like me. That just gives Torchlight II even more room to breathe with its older school approach to making the hard choices about your character build. But wait, there’s more! A Valley Without Wind is a side-scrolling retro plunge into infinite exploration. Drox Operative is an upcoming sci-fi excursion from the creator of action RPG masterpieces Depths of Peril and Din’s Curse. I’d even count the streamlined Hunters 2 on my iPad an action RPG if it weren’t for the fact that, well, it’s a slow, drawn-out, turn-based game. I’m probably forgetting a couple.

Which is where Path of Exile’s open beta weekend comes in, starting this Friday. There’s no denying its debt to Diablo II — just look at that screenshot — but neither can you deny that the free-to-play approach is, uh, an interesting take on the genre. It’s got a decidedly harder core approach to character builds, and as a fan of the Teutonically demanding Sacred 2, I’m down with making hard choices about wonky numbers. I’m even open to the free-to-play model not utterly ruining it. I’m also intrigued by a couple of Path of Exile’s unique features.

a new end-game system featuring Maps whose properties, risks and rewards can be modified by players

An opportunity to roll my own difficulty? If there’s one person I trust more than developers to determine the risk/reward ratio in my games, it’s me. I also like Path of Exile’s approach to player vs. player much more than the prospect of standing there whacking away at someone else’s character:

The Open Weekend will also feature special events, such as two hour ladder races and competitions to clear areas first.

Events like these take place within “leagues”, which are firewalled areas with their own economy, where you roll a new character who can’t be twinked with your shared stash or microbought advantages. This is how Path of Exile has hardcore characters, competitions, ladders, and so forth.

Since the open beta is a stress test for a free-to-play game, anyone can jump in. Go here for more information, including links to register and download the client.

  • Joe

    Thanks for the heads up on this, and also thanks for your series on Secret World. I’m sad to read it’s going on hiatus and, unfortunately, as a recovering MMO addict I have to live vicariously through the columns of journalists like yourself if I want to keep up on things. Your writing on SW was very much appreciated as it covered both sides of the coin (whereas a lot of writers seem to gloss over problems), in addition to that touch of humor that keeps us all glued to our QT3 feed.

  • aeneas

    yay Tom showing POE some love.

  • amanda_chen

    I enjoyed PoE quite a lot, but it’s kinda clunky whenever it deviates from doing stuff the Diablo way. Well, okay, inventory management is taken straight from the first Diablo game, but it’s still vile.

  • thebigJ_A

    Well, right after the open beta ended I went and “supported” the devs with ten bucks so I could get a closed beta key and jump right back in, if that tells you anything. I’m actually alt-tabbed right now.

    And I hated Diablo 3, even!

    It’s totally not done (this wasn’t one of those “we’ll pretend it’s a beta to get some publicity” deals), but there’s a lot to see. I especially like the way active abilities, and their modifiers, work. The weird barter system economy (there’s no gold as far as I’ve seen, like at all) threw me off at first, but it makes sense for the setting. I don’t have a particularly high level character, so I can’t say how well that works late-game.

  • Mylon

    Amazing game. I’ve been in the Beta for a couple months now and I’m loving it.

    The extent of the character builds are nearly limitless. Also the Dev’s care about the community and are building a true free to play game without ANY Pay To Win! That means any paid content will be in the form of only visual changes to your player or skills and extra character slots, on top of 21 character slots already and extra stash slots.

    I played the beta for Diablo 3 and was not impressed.
    I think PVP will be out in POE before Diablo 3.