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Game Review: Path of Exile (Video)
What ever happened to point-and-click action role-playing games? Blizzard set the standard for this genre around the turn of the century, and while a few companies have launched Diablo clones, it's been a pretty quiet market. Several years ago, a group of hardcore gamers decided to change that. They put together an independent game studio and began developing Path of Exile, an ARPG that would update and refine all of the characteristics that made the genre great. On 23 October, after a lengthy open beta period, they launched the game, opting for a free-to-play business model supported by ethical microtransactions. It's dark, freewheeling, unashamedly complex — and a lot of fun. In this video review (with transcript), we take a look at what Path of Exile has to offer.
The thing that I enjoyed about Diablo 2 that Diablo 3 completely eliminated was my desire to create a new character build that no one thought of and make it the ultimate character. It is that pursuit of perfection that drained hundreds of hours away of my life for Diablo 2. I would get a character power leveled up to around 70. Try out a build. If it didn't work I had the punishment of having to do another series of power levels to try again.
Diablo 3 not only failed to replicate this excitement, but they took every possible step to ensure that I wouldn't. I got a few of the characters up to max level in a month. Then there is no reason to ever create another character of that class because there are infinite skill respec. Ok fine, Let me pursue the ultimate equipment. Oh wait I can spend a 100 hours grinding or dump $100 in RMAH and get it. There is no point. I might as well be playing Cookie Clicker.
That being said Path of Exile does a good job at giving this experience. Lots of skill combinations combined with deep leveling system works well. I feel like there is still a perfect build out there I can pursue.
I have TL1 and 2, Titan Quest, D2 (and even that other abomination). PoE has a lot more variables in item stats, and you have a lot more influence on your items due to the "currency items". The game also seems to be a lot harder than most hack and slash games I've played before. High level monsters don't mess around, and there are bosses that will pretty much one-shot you. Reflect mobs remind me of the old iron maiden mobs in D2.
Overall the game feels very different than any of the other games listed. Whether the differences are good or bad is up to each individual. I do agree that the spin of the summary seems forced and comes off as pure marketing, but the game is worth trying.
> Almost all purchasable items are purely cosmetic
In other realms of our lives we consider the cosmetics manufacturers to be quite unethical.
I should use this sig to advertise my book ISBN-13 : 978-1501515132.
I love the fact that this game has no gold. Maybe there are other RPG games out there that do something the same, but this is certainly the first I've played where this was done.
In Diablo 3 and Diablo 2, I often found myself wanting a piece of gear that was outside what I could actually afford. You don't have the gold? You don't have the gold. Everything is assigned a fixed monetary value and that was that.
Since there is no gold in PoE, everything gets bartered for using in-game items (that are genuinely useful) as currency instead. What I've found is that this makes the trading industry a hell of a lot more flexible and open if you don't have the exact amount of money that someone wants. For example, I'd often see stuff that I "couldn't afford" (in whatever item the person wanted for trade, ie, orbs of fusing, chromatic orbs, etc). I'd still contact that player anyways, and 9 times out of 10 we could hash out some kind of deal for a bunch of stuff in my inventory that I didn't need but was otherwise considered valuable enough to trade with.
Combined with the decent drop rates and the so-called "ethical" micro transactions (I never once felt the need to give them money- but I did anyways because I loved the game and felt they deserved my money), it's a very smooth RPG experience. The story is a bit convoluted and thin, but the gameplay is excellent and the guys behind it (GGG) have some pretty amazing technical support (you'll actually get a human if you email them, and it'll be a totally personalized response- not some canned robot thing that completely misses the point of your entire query).
If you don't have a Windows computer, it IS insight - that you won't be supported at this time. At least they address the Mac client in the FAQ, Linux doesn't even get mentioned, so that suggests they have no intention to go there.
One of the reasons I still play WOW and D3 is they have cross platform support on day of release. They actively support he Mac client on their tech support forums, as opposed to plenty of other MacOS games which are poorly supported ports that come out months or years after the PC version has been released and everyone has already finished them and gotten bored and deleted them from their computer. That's really a killer when it come to multi-player games.
While you may consider the non-Windows market to small to worry about, it exists, and there are plenty of Mac users that hang out on /., I'm letting them know this game - while it looks really neat - won't be taking up space on their HDA any time soon.
Sara
Designer, Gamer, Macgrrl in an XP World
People are allowed to sell cosmetics. Unfortunately it is such a successful business model that it's eliminated any motivation for a developer to incorporate mod support in to their game. Of course who are to blame? Gamers of course. It's the natural progression of a small-time hobby, where modding support is encouraged as part of building a community around a game, to the mainstream hobby we have now, which encourages a game to have a maximum life of a month or two, DLC, and without any need to bother with mod support because people will move onto another game the next month.
Though given the fact my original post about this was too confrontational (and true) for at least one Slashdotter to accept, they had to mod me down of course. Nothing I said was wrong or a lie - it's just the state of gaming today, but too many people are addicted that they can't accept they might be strung along for the ride.
You all suck. I hope Slashdot dies soon.