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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.
opting for a free-to-play business model supported by ethical microtransactions.
Anyone care to expound on that?
An enigma, wrapped in a riddle, shrouded in bacon and cheese
and it's a fun game, far better than D2
Obviously you need to like lick and kill games.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
to point and click RPGs? You mean like Torch Light and Torch Light II?
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.
The only real downside I experienced is that the client will occasionally desync from the server, so your character will seem to be in another place than it really is. It doesn't happen too often, but it's an annoyance when it does
Early on, I had the same thoughts regarding the desync issues ("it's so rare, doesn't seem too bad"). However, as I progressed to higher difficulties with a lot more enemies on screen with a lot more going on, it got really bad. It's nice that there's a workaround if you suspect it's happening ('/oos' in the chat window), but on more than one occasion a boss/mob has murdered me while I was elsewhere in the map.
It is excellent if you like Diablo and can tolerate (thrive in!) a fairly complex ruleset.
The user interface is simple and slick. The graphics are nice looking. The gameplay is solid.
One thing I appreciate is that, although complex, the rules are very consistent and sensible. When I got "increased projectile damage" it worked on every single projectile I used, regardless or source (spell, bow, thrown 2H sword).
The character generation lets you pick'n' mix from potentially every class, but not without cost. It is easy to build a bad character, so for long term success you have to "win" the character building as well as the combat. It really delivers on multiclassing, but it is up to you to build a good character.
The microtransactions are all cosmetics and UI convenience. I consider myself quite discriminating about this sort of thing, and it doesn't bother me any. You have a limited inventory shared between all your characters, and it is possible to purchase more inventory. You could argue that this is a kind of pay to win, based on the statistical nature of the loot drops and the fact that a larger inventory could give an advantage in terms of retaining potentially valuable items. FWIW I dropped $20 and got max inventory and a cosmetic.
Probably the only downside to this game is a "feature" called desync, which is exactly what it sounds like: client and server worlds diverge, then the client gets suddenly and spectacularly corrected. IMHO this issue is neither frequent nor annoying. It seems to affect some powers more than others. If you are playing hardcore (one life) you might rage quit.
No Mac client, but it appears to work satisfactorily in Wine.
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