One of the great new features of the title we are going to talk about is that it is practically everything that users asked for, a new game, with better graphics, renewed animations, more skills and most importantly, the “core” of the game remains the same. Path of Exile 2 It is presented as the perfect example of what it means to do things right, and this time we have been able to try it out to find out a little about how it works, while we have also been able to speak with one of the developers about this new title.
As you have indicated to us from the beginning, Path of Exile 2 It is a game that seeks to offer a renewed experience ten years after the launch of the first one, and although we know that it was presented relatively recently, the title has been in development for eight years.
The gameplay adapts to the current times
When playing a title like Path of Exile, many users could find it annoying to have to move directly with the mouse, something that also greatly limited the title, making it practically exclusive to PC. The second part is designed to reach all platforms, and we have been able to test how the movement they have implemented works, using WASD, and even with a controller.
This type of movement is very similar to what we can find in other games of this style, it is really something quite basic, we move with the mentioned keys while we aim and attack with the mouse. This becomes much more versatile when we see that there are ways to cancel the skills, which allows us to move easily after dodging, in order to cut the animation and thus avoid damage.
The skills themselves are spectacular, full of particles and with a large number of effects that give the game a touch, which depending on the combination of increases we make can be a little epileptic, but that makes it completely unique. By combining movement, with the special animations of each skill and with dodging, we have a combat system that is easy to learn, but difficult to master, with the advantage that learning it is extremely fun.
The skill system changes from the first one
One of the great innovations that it introduces Path of Exile 2is in the way we can equip and improve our skills, and as you well know if you have played the first one, to get a skill you have to socket its gem into the equipment. This changes completely in the second title, and they completely eliminate this system, making it so that we only have to equip the gems in a slot in a specific skill menu.
We will be able to have a large number of skills on our action keys, which will allow us to create exceptional combos, and one of the great new features that it incorporates is how each of the skills interact with each other. In general we can think that we simply launch a skill, it hits the enemy and does damage, but this time the game goes much further.
This is mainly because there are some skills that we can throw out to combine with others, for example, a frontal charge that leaves a trail of fire will create a rift, which we can then detonate with another skill, dealing more elemental damage. Another example would be a shower of lightning arrows that will leave flashes on the ground, if enemies land on them and we throw a lightning arrow, it will bounce between the ground and the enemies dealing more damage.
Classes, how do they work?
The class system that we can find in Path of Exile 2 It is quite similar to the first one, we can choose one to play that will have a series of basic characteristics. Among those we have been able to see are the following:
- Warrior: melee character, notable for using life and physical damage, in the test he carried a shield and a mace, we could maintain a skill to avoid damage coming from the front when raising the shield.
- Witch: A fairly well-known magic-based class, in the test she was presented as a necromancer who used skeletons to fight, giving them orders when attacking and so on (similar to the first one).
- Sorcerer: a new class, similar to what the elemental damage “witch” could have been before, a type of character that in the test used a staff to cast all kinds of magic, fireballs, walls of fire, areas of ice…
- Ranger: another well-known class, an archer very similar to what we could find in the first title, used a bow and we could perform combos based on throwing arrows of different elements.
- Mercenary: This character is very different from what we have seen, and is essentially similar to the Ranger, but uses a heavy crossbow that makes it look more like a machine gun depending on the skills.
- Monk: One of the strangest classes we’ve seen, he uses a staff to strike, also allowing him to do various animations that added elemental damage, and even had some bare-handed strikes.
Are passives still the same?
Since the talk with the developer started, there was one thing I couldn’t get out of my head: what the passive skill tree would be like. So when he finished explaining the game, I asked him to explain it a little bit. It’s the same as the first one, except that now we’ll always be in the central node, which will make it easier to get to other types of passives.
It is extremely large, and I could even say larger than the first one, since by offering a central system we can see that there is much more ground to cover, instead of focusing only on that of our “class”.
Overall we’ve been testing the game for a while now and we can say that it’s exactly what players were asking for, a revamped system that doesn’t lose its essence, a series of new maps and enemies that are unique, and the great advantage of offering new users a much easier way to get started in the game, until they open the passive tree.