Path of Exile 2: Early Access Invitation for Players to Experience the Adventure

Path of Exile 2 is challenging – there’s no denying this simple reality. It’s a fact you must appreciate before diving into the game in order to fully enjoy it, and to accept it if you wish. Much like the Souls series, this is a game focused on savoring the challenge and conquering seemingly impossible odds to progress. Through determination and experimentation, you can succeed, and you may find it all the more rewarding for having done so.

I mention this upfront to ensure that some players out there are somewhat prepared for what Path of Exile 2 entails. On PC, scarcely an hour passes within the game’s global chat without someone throwing down their figurative arms and exclaiming they’ve had enough. “That’s it, I’m done! This game is awful!” they shout, only to likely return quietly an hour later. What’s the chat’s favorite comeback? “Skill issue.” (I believe you can learn a lot about a community and a game from its overarching chat.)

Their apparent astonishment at the difficulty surprises me, not least because Path of Exile 1 is already established in this regard, yet players must pay to access the early access stage of Path of Exile 2—meaning they’ve actively chosen to enter this space; it’s not free-to-play yet like it will eventually be upon its official launch. These players have consciously made a choice. So where does the confusion stem from? It seems to be from Diablo 4. Gamers are flocking in from Blizzard’s ARPG, expecting an experience similar to it—one that I have also followed closely.

They’re not wrong to think it: Path of Exile 2 and Diablo 4 look quite similar and often play in much the same way. Both are action role-playing games viewed from an isometric perspective, involving battling through hordes of enemies, looting, leveling up, and repeating the cycle. At a quick glance, one might easily assume they are the same game. However, importantly, their foundations are distinctly different.

In recent Diablos, Blizzard has invested time and effort into making the game more accessible to newcomers, which is why Diablo 4 boasts a straightforward, beginner-friendly mode before letting you ramp up the difficulty at your discretion. In contrast, Path of Exile 2 does not offer this flexibility – there is one fixed difficulty level that cannot be altered – so if you encounter a boss you cannot defeat or a challenge you cannot surmount, you cannot lower the difficulty. Instead, you must find a way through, and often this means dying. I’ve faced death upwards of 70 times since participating in the public launch servers, a fact I sheepishly admitted in chat recently, to which the chat replied, “oh that’s nothing,” as death counts of 250 or more flooded in. The developers at Grinding Gear Games recognized an opportunity in Blizzard’s shift of focus and embraced it.

The flip side of this challenge is immense reward – heart-pounding adrenaline as the boss you’ve struggled with for seven or eight tries finally approaches their demise. It’s the nail-biting excitement as I line up my monk’s final strike, hoping it lands before I end up face down. Hard-earned progress and a sense of accomplishment: that’s what you get. And with only one difficulty level, it means every player experiences everything in roughly the same manner (the only variation being you and your character), so when someone flips their figurative desk in chat, everyone else understands their frustration. As daunting as the challenge may appear, consider it as a unifying force within the game’s solar system, around which everything revolves. It’s what injects vivacity into every facet of the game, and it serves as a powerful motivator.

To rewind a bit: Path of Exile 2 is the sequel to Path of Exile 1, the free-to-play ARPG that evolved from very modest beginnings into the favored choice for many in the genre thanks to its unparalleled depth and ability to keep players occupied for countless hours. That essence remains intact here – just take a look at the 1500 nodes on the Passive skill tree to see what I mean (they do not all fit on one screen) – and now there’s even more depth with skill gems that enhance your ability gems, allowing for further customization. The game offers character classes, but also grants you ample freedom to develop them in any direction you wish, whether casting spells or engaging in melee combat, with your knowledge of how to build them continuously expanding.

The famed complexity persists then, but with Path of Exile 2 coexisting alongside Path
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of Exile 1 – a delightful notion, particularly as they feature a cosmetic shop – there’s also an opportunity for the sequel to be something diverse and not be tied to repeating the same formula. In this regard, it presents a somewhat more deliberate pacing. There is a more cautious feeling to exploring the landscape instead of carelessly dashing through it. Here, you advance carefully to avoid alerting too many hidden adversaries nearby. The game cleverly conceals enemies in plain sight: bones that reform into skeletons; stones that morph into crab-like creatures; statues that animate; golems that burst forth from the ground or walls. If they do surround you, and they will, then their physical presence implies that you might find it challenging to escape.

It genuinely reminds me of the original Diablo games, which were quick to penalize overconfidence. Reflecting on it, there’s much about those early Diablo games embedded in Path of Exile 2’s foundation. You will find a limited inventory that you must frequently manage and empty, presenting a cover-by-cover experience rather than a seamless open world. And while the regions are vast – immense forests, expansive canyons, deep caves – there’s always a sense of claustrophobia within them, of tight quarters, almost a 640×480 resolution confinement, if that makes sense. There are various bottlenecks and possible threats by design.

The atmosphere of the game also brings to mind the classic Diablos, not only because it’s moody and dark – featuring a captivating opening with all character classes strung up on a gallows, poised to be hanged – but also due to how oppressive the challenges feel. Diablo 1 has a scarier edge compared to Diablo 4 because you genuinely fear death, I believe, which is also the case in Path of Exile 2. Interestingly, there are no heavy penalties for dying in-game, and checkpoints are placed generously across the maps, particularly before boss battles. The primary drawback is having to fight your way back through some minor enemies again.

This creates a tense experience – a forward-leaning engagement versus passive play. Not all the time, I should add – there are moments when you can seize the incredible golden sweet-spot for your character, allowing for exhilarating runs through environments, even facing bosses – a feeling you can cherish and savor. There are also instances when you might farm or grind, revisiting areas with slightly lower-level foes so you can more easily plunder them for rewards. Generally, though, especially when venturing into unexplored territory, you’ll likely find yourself on the edge of your seat.

What makes all this work, and what keeps it from feeling unfair or overly frustrating, is the flexibility with which it has been crafted. You can truly feel the decade of experience Grinding Gear Games has amassed while developing Path of Exile 1, not to mention the advantages it gained from its success. On the surface, Path of Exile 2 is stunning – intricately detailed and polished, carrying a beautifully somber and muted aesthetic, resembling a sort of Rembrandt-inspired brown palette. Think of a ‘Starks within the North’ color scheme from A Game of Thrones (against which the fairy wings available from the cosmetic shop slightly clash, but I think they should be prominent enough for players to want to grab them. I whimsically purchased a rock pet that sprouts spindly legs and claws, and it scurries around comically behind me).

Several of the game’s spectacles made me exclaim “wow” out loud, too. Typically, these are the bosses, the game’s highlights. A massive Colossus towering above me like a titan brought to life rendered me speechless, just as did the gruesome sight of a giant executioner beheading someone in front of me – which then rolled down onto a pile of bloody heads – just before the battle commenced. There’s such drama in these encounters, highlighted by the brief monologues they share before rushing into combat or in how they mock you during the fight. Rarely are they mere oversized damage sponges that you forget the moment you move on; they are unique adversaries with character, and your repeated attempts will etch their memory into your mind. No one will forget the Count at the conclusion of Act 1 in a hurry.

However, it is not solely focused on boss battles: there’s much to be said for the diverse array of creatures you encounter in between, as well as the twisted imagination that is…