I just played... Path of Exile

Of sprawling forests, sprawling caves, sprawling dungeons and sprawling ability trees.

Always online can be annoying, but it's a fair trade off for the fact that the game is free.

                Path of Exile is a strange game that seems to defy all conventions of existing. Yes, it’s a free to play game, in the truest sense, akin to Valve’s Dota 2. The only difference here is that ‘Valve’ is a company automatically synonymous with several beloved titles, great love for quality and lots and lots of money. On the other hands ‘Grinding Gear Games’ is a company that is a bit of a blank slate and one that’ll make you think of the numerous RPGs in which you, well… grinded for gear. Which is a bit of a nice move since Path of Exile is modelled after Diablo and Diablo 2, both games in which grinding for great gear and hunting for epic loot formed an important part of the experience.

                Before I start to talk about the game I think I’ll take a moment to muse upon how prisoners are now one of the core fundamental starting points for most RPG protagonists. Amnesiacs have lost much of their importance these days, likely being stranded in their cells and wards these days instead of being sprinkled over various fantasy landscapes and settings. Prisoners, on the other hand have broken out of their old shackles and been strapped with new shackles in various fantasy settings. The good thing for them is that these shackles will soon be broken by fate itself while they’re swept into a series of epic stories and conflicts. The reasons for their imprisonment left to ambiguity and the dust.

                Path of Exile took the trend of prisoners-as-protagonists and made some rather amusing and logical use of it as a setting… hence the name ‘Path of EXILE’. The classes in the game are more akin to characters in the way that their appearances and gender are fixed, with their own backstory as to why they’re on the path of exile (heh). You’re given a reason for your character’s exile and it’s all wrapped in a very deprived and oh-no-we’re-all-going-to-die package, complete with lots and lots of zombies. A Diablo staple.

My faith is my shield and my weapon.

You're already dead. 

I have an apron. 

                Talking about characters, there’s a pretty charming amount of personality to each class, from the Templar exclaiming about ‘FAITH’ and ‘GOD’ ever so often, or the Shadow’s snarky remarks, or the Witch’s ‘I’m going to burn everything and eat your children’ nature. Honestly, playing the Witch was a bit of strange experience since you can’t help but go into a bit of introspection whether you’re the truly evil character in that equation as she talks about how beautiful some abominations are and seems to almost evoke hatred for those trying to live blissful lives filled with more life than death. The Shadow, on the other hand, has this apron of weapons equipped permanently that makes him look like a travelling roast enthusiast, ready to carve into anything served to him. Well, I suppose ‘ready to carve into anything served to him’ does suit his character, a pseudo-vengeful assassin who doesn’t care much for vengeance, but I said that line with things like turkey and steak in mind, not zombies and angry cannibals.

It's not a Diablo-like without Goatmen. 

                Path of Exile exists in a fairly cyclical, powerful paradox. It is very run-of-the-mill but it is also very, very unique. Both at the same time. You watch it, you play, you see it, you touch it, and it’s obviously very, very Diablo. Down to the art style, which is arguably more akin to Diablo than Diablo 3 itself, with its washed out and grim yet colourful world. But it breaks some moulds that seem to have set into the Diablo formula, for one there is the lack of an Act set in a desert. A Diablo-like game without a desert? Shocking, isn’t it? It also trades out skill trees and stats for skill gems and a GIGANTIC MAZE OF THINGS. Well maze is perhaps not accurate, let’s just say the ability tree is much more tree-like than most trees. The skill gem system, while not new, is executed in a simple and effective manner, and the ease with which you can swap them around lets you play around as you desire. The existence of skill augmenting gems and benefits for linking gems can make for some fun combinations. And these gems combined with the GIGANTIC ABILITY TREE can make for some ponderous sessions of theorycrafting and build-planning.

Behold, the GIGANTIC ABILITY TREE.

                Unfortunately, all the classes play very similar to each other at a basic level. In fact, the classes are less akin to classes in the traditional sense, and more akin to classes in an almost Elder Scrolls or Dark Souls sense, with the class just being a hangar for you to build your character on. All weapons, armours and gems are available to all classes, and the core difference for the classes being that they start on various locations of the GIGANTIC ABILITY TREE with varying paths on the GIGANTIC ABILITY TREE. And yes, I’m casually denouncing the usage of pronouns just so I can use GIGANTIC ABILITY TREE repeatedly. The downside to this is that the classes tend to start out playing similar, with the potential to be played the same way. Sure, the Shadow can be built as a character focused on quick strikes bolstered by magic, but he can also play the ranged game with a Bow, effectively turning into a Ranger. While the class differences tend to shine when you get skin-deep into customisation and builds, at a basic level the classes are all very similar. Hell, the only difference between my Templar and Ravager in the first 10 levels lay in the fact that I picked up an AOE Ice spell with my Templar, little else. And despite how gigantic the GIGANTIC ABILITY TREE is, the impact of your points in the GIGANTIC ABILITY TREE aren’t always that impactful. You will generally end up spending many levels allocating points into meagre passive bonuses, which add up significantly in the long run, but don’t have any pizzazz to them, not until you invest heavily in a line to unlock its character-changing signets (such as one which causes spells to drain health, instead of mana). And while the basic skill gems are a bit dull, there are a fair share of interesting ones, be it a skill or augment gem, to be found down the road. 

Some interesting power-ups are scattered across the land. Allowing you to wreak mass havoc, more so than you already were. 

Personally, I’m still interested to dive back into the game to back a build that will make use of a ‘Cast of Melee Kill’ augment gem, thinking of the AOE damaging spells, buffs or summoning spells that I could couple it up with. The potions have also received an innovation overhaul, instead working in ‘charges’ that refresh as you kill enemies, allowing you to keep adventuring. Furthermore these potions are items which you equip, and can have their own benefits and enchantments, and they ‘fill’ as you kill.

The map obviously harkens back to Diablo 2's.

                The game is a borderline dungeon simulator, because there are a lot of dungeons in this. There’s a bit of variety to the dungeons, but the dungeons are still dungeons, and nothing is going to change the basic aesthetic of a dungeon. You want to know how dungeons look? They look a bit drab, dreary and tend to be quite dark. Want to know the common feature of all the dungeons in this game? They are all a bit drab, dreary and tend to be quite dark. Caves also tend to suffer from this, as they tend to be drab, dreary and quite dark, just with more NATURE and less MAN in the equation. The flora and fauna still want to eat your intestines every bit the same amount though. The environments and many of the enemies reeked of the been-there-done-that (or been-there-killed-that) problem, since nothing really stands out as particularly mind-bogglingly unique or crazily creative. Though there is one interesting dungeon (in the non-aesthetic sense of the word, in the gameplay sense of the word) that has pretty strange enemies that you are sure to have not expected to fight.

Heal - Shoot - Move - Heal - Shoot - Move

Basic enemies tend to just keel over and die. 

                Combat is grisly and all your attacks and spells have some nice impact and weight to them, though having internet issues can just make some efforts weird as you experience a spike, hit all your enemies and have them spontaneously explode moments later. Which can make things a bit surreal when the undying undead suddenly and harmonically turn to piles of definitely dead pieces a bit after you certainly killed all of them. Common enemies generally die after you sneeze at them, or sneeze at them multiple times, which makes each individual enemy rather underwhelming though the can be a bit menacing when there’s a gigantic pack of them charging towards you like ADHD squirrels on acid and human effigies. Arguably combat against common enemies ends up being a bit of DPS race, since the formula for victory is:

                V= (x/y) – 1

Where V is the chance of victory and not dying horribly; x is the average health of the enemies in an area and y is your character’s maximum possible DPS (damage per second). As per this formula your chances of victory are high if the result is in negative and becomes higher as it goes further into negatives. Bosses can unfortunately devolve into ‘chug potions and attack’ affairs for the most part and you can end up finding healing and hitting to be the most effective strategy in most instances. Sure, some bosses have some things to keep in mind, such as one boss that launches GIANT LIGHTNING BALLS of DEATH that can almost instant-kill you if you don’t dodge them. But despite my efforts at fancy footwork and sound strategy, just healing and fighting seemed to be sufficient almost all the time.

                I spent a fair bit of time in this game and didn’t spend even the slightest hint of money on it, and I feel like a bit of thief. I still question them just a little bit for releasing a rather high quality, skilfully constructed game for no price whatsoever, a true ‘free’ model. I didn’t have any reasons to spend money, nor is there any content locked behind a money toll gate. It’s blissful, almost utopian to have a genuinely free game but I am curious to know how the developers are faring money-wise. I wouldn’t mind supporting the game out of good-will, but there really isn’t anything I want to spend the money. Bit of a paradox, really.

                All in all, Path of Exile has a lot of chinks and little issues that can detract from it as a whole package. But then you have to keep in mind the asking price for the game, as well as the depth of content and variety available. I think the game would have flown perfectly well as a game with an indie price-tag, but it’s really nice to see a developer prefer to have their game become big at their own loss(?).