Path of Exile 2: A Game Changer for New and Veteran Players – Early Access Launch on November 15

With the highly anticipated Path of Exile 2, Grinding Gear Games has to accomplish two seemingly identical tasks. On the one hand, the experience needs to be expanded with new content, which is not an easy task because more than 10 years of expansion have turned the original path into a huge game. At the same time, the game needs to be made more accessible to newcomers, but that can’t be easy either when there are more abilities in the game’s skill tree than there are stars in the sky. -night.

Perhaps that is why the main innovation of the game is aimed at new and experienced players. In addition to the classic control where you control your character with the mouse and select skills with the keyboard, you can now control your character with the WASD keys while aim with the mouse – almost like in a top-down shooter. The game’s enthusiastic and outspoken game director, Jonathan Rodgers, explains that Grinding Gear Games began experimenting with the new control scheme during the development of the Mercenary class, which primarily uses a crossbow and mid-range attacks, but that it also proved to work for the other classes. .

When I sit down with the game myself, I also choose Mercenary, and it doesn’t take many minutes before I learn to appreciate the new, more active control scheme. Opening sequences in action role-playing games are often rather boring affairs, where you click your way through hordes of monsters that are about as weird and dangerous as pop-ups and cookie ads. But in Path of Exile 2, I’m on my toes from the start, and several times I have to make quick dodge rolls followed by well-timed rainbow shots just to stay alive.

Here’s a hint:

The control shouldn’t get all the credit, however, because the opening of Path of Exile 2 is wonderfully designed, right from the first moment you choose your character. Five warriors are standing in a square full of water with nooses around their necks. They represent the main classes of the game, and the moment you make your choice, the other four are suspended, while your character escapes. A rude but also very elegant way to streamline menus, cutscenes and gameplay.

After the escape, the game begins in earnest at the edge of a gloomy forest. I fight my way through the dangerous monsters and reach a medieval town where torches and bonfires keep the darkness at bay. I love the atmosphere, which brings back nostalgic memories of the beginning of Diablo II. This is also where I found my first uncut pearl. Rodgers explains:

Here’s a hint:

” “Skills are attached to items without class restrictions. In PoE2, we’re really trying to simplify how it’s presented to players in terms of menus and such. In PoE2 you get these things called skill gems uncut. These are world drops, but you can also get them from quests. Right-clicking on them will give you access to a Diablo II-style skill tree, where you can level up existing skills and equip new ones. If you’re a new player, you don’t have to worry about these items being tradeable, you can just equip them.”

Since my game isn’t hacked yet, I can choose which update it gives me access to. I choose “Permafrost Bolts”, which allows me to freeze enemies with my shots. Later this will unlock combo attacks that crush the frozen enemies, but for now it’s mostly about slowing down the numerous and aggressive enemies that constantly swarm around me . At this early stage, Path of Exile 2 is still very much a pure action game, but as more skills are unlocked and new gear is discovered, the game’s meta and base stats will naturally play a more prominent role.

Rodgers demonstrates this with a post-game save, where he destroys tough enemies with his Mercenary using impressive skills and weapons. The destruction of his character is not only the result of constant movement between skill gems, with their attacks complementing each other, but also the so-called support gems that change the abilities. For example, “Multiple Projectiles” can provide additional firepower to both grenades or fragmentation rounds. “We’ve tried to make each support gem as generic as possible so they can work on as many capabilities”, explains Rodgers, and illustrates this with another figure, Hero. Here he shows how an attack that creates a straight line of lava can be modified in several ways thanks to support beads.

But even here, in the postgame of the game, where you have several abilities to choose from, the action-oriented reflexes are still important. Rodgers shows us a leader who shoots liquid fireballs, almost like in bullet hell. When I ask about it, it reassures me that you can handle these types of obstacles with the classic controls as well, but I wouldn’t be without precise and responsive WASD control in such a situation. Fortunately, you can quickly switch between control types by opening the main stop menu.

I also asked Rodgers how long the game would be if you just went through the story. Few people will probably want to play like that, but with 50-60 hours of gameplay in the campaign, it’s a great resource before the game’s big postgame, which will probably be the focus of the knowledge Either way, you can get through the story much faster the second time if you want to play as a new character, Rodgers explained: “The experience you have as a player – even if your character shouldn’t have it – is still reflected in the quest system. If you know there’s something to be found in a certain location, you don’t need to talk to an NPC first. You can ask the question before you are told about it.”

Unfortunately, I didn’t get to do so many missions myself, as my time with the game was limited to half an hour. But based on what I tried and what Rodgers showed off, it looks like Grinding Gear Games is well on its way to accomplishing the difficult task of delivering a mechanically sound game. and deeper content than the original, but also more accessible to new players. Whether this is true, we will find out soon, as Path of Exile 2 launches into Early Access on November 15.