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With Path of Exile II in prerelease, I thought it would be wise to take another look at the first one. This game has a feel that’s almost a cross between Runescape and Diablo. The currency is scrolls and the gold is used to upgrade houses. My biggest turn off to this game is how dark it is. But perhaps that’s all to help immerse you into this apocalyptic rpg filled with monsters and magic.
The game itself is available on Epic Games completely free. Surprisingly, it has a lot to offer for such a little thing. Like any good RPG, this game has plenty of quests for you to pick up and complete. They are easy to start but a bit slow to find.
Quests
Quests in Path of Exile range from killing monsters to finding treasure. Some can be found by simply walking around slaying things, while others have to be hunted. These quests can take some time to complete, but most of that is in wandering the map. In the process of trying to find the location of your quest, you might just get another. Or at least some good loot.
The talking time of NPC’s to play time is relatively good. You don’t even need to read the whole chat if you don’t want to. The option to continue allows you to pass right on through without the waiting or listening to monologues. The story is good if you like to take it slow, but I’m personally a fan of being able to get to playing the game.
Skills, Skills, Skills
You might find yourself dying and having to go back to the checkpoint quite a lot at first. The good news is that it doesn’t take long to build up enough life and strength to do the job. Not only that, but you build up points for passive skills fairly quickly. These allow you to improve various character stats. And my, the choices are overwhelming!
With such an expansive skill tree, you are sure to be perplexed at all the options you have. It would be impossible to unlock them all in one character. That means that you have choices when it comes to your build. I started with a templar and so far, I’m really liking the bow. Each item can also be equipped with skill gems that grant you active abilities. These abilities naturally drain on your mana but they certainly pack a punch!
Open World Vibes
The semi open world that exists within the game means you don’t necessarily need to take the quests if that’s not your thing. There are mobs of undead and monsters to kill that lend to a hack and slash type of feel. You can roam through the coast or travel the mud lands and just kill all the enemies if that’s your thing.
There’s quite a large map to explore with each area broken into sections. They display on the map a bit like a campaign would, but don’t worry! The mini map will show your immediate area. The good news is that this means if exploring new zones in where it’s at for you, you’ll find plenty here.
Path of Exile: Hey Civilization, is that you?
Once you get to Kingstown, you begin to upgrade and build your towns to be able to mine and sail. Reminiscent of Civilization, each upgrade costs gold and ore or other resources. You construct and hire workers to man the stations. This can be a little time consuming but comes with some great benefits.
I haven’t gotten deep enough to explore this area entirely but it seems to be based on real world time. That means that it would take a lot of dedication and time to unlock things. A cursory glance certainly makes it feel similar to the mechanics of Civilization, but perhaps with a focus on different things.
PVP? Not Really….
There does exist an option to queue for the Path of Exile PVP play. However, the disappointing news is the queue never seems to load in. I’ve tried multiple low level queues, and they are all longer than I care to wait.
I don’t know for sure if this means that this is also true of higher levels, or simply that the PVP is rarely used by other players. In my opinion, this is fine. I’m a quester, a hack and slasher, a good old fashioned shoot them with lightning player. But if PVP is your thing, this might not be the game for you.
Path Of Exile : The good, the bad, the ugly
Disappointing as it may be that the PVP seems to be lacking, I think this game is overall great as a compact game with little PC requirements. There is a lot to offer here for old and new gamers alike. Lots of video game lore that have been thrown together. Luckily, it seems as though this mesh appears to be well thought out.
However, Path of Exile follows a common modern trend that I am personally not fond of. The game is too dark, making it hard to see where the enemies are. Targeting is virtually useless and generally results in dying. To make matters worse, the item drops are damn near invisible on my 14 inch laptop screen.
What’s more is that this game’s controls are largely tied to the mouse, offering little in the way of user interface. While the skill gems are cool, they don’t seem to drop enough in lower levels to truly be useful. As a single player game, I think I’d give it three out of five stars.
There’s some good qualities here, but the downside is enough that I’m not sure I’d come back. It is enough that I’d like to try the upcoming sequel though. A sneak peak at a friend’s prerelease seems to indicate a fix to some of these problems. Looking forward to leaving behind these rusty mechanics and hoping for a modern revamp of an otherwise great game.
