Path of Exile on the unstoppable monsters that almost made it into the game

Here’s an interesting peek into game development from the pens of Grinding Gear Games. The studio shared a story about one of Path of Exiles’ failed experiments in the spirit of enlightening players as to the choices and consequences that ambitious ideas create.

The story in question concerns a monster created for Act Three called the City Stalkers (later changed to The Undying). These were practically invincible undead mobs that dwelled solely in the shadows of buildings and couldn’t be killed until later in the act when players found a special support gem that would disable the mobs’ regeneration.

While the concept was cool, the implementation brought up numerous issues. The devs said that the lethal encounters were “too aggressive” considering permadeath modes, that the mobs could be kited to the edge of sunlight, the new gem would mess up players’ builds, and more.

“We found this idea really compelling because we liked to experiment with extreme ideas. We wanted Path of Exile to be brutal, and took every opportunity to achieve that. Unfortunately, there were many problems with the above plan, which look obvious with hindsight and experience,” Grinding Gear said.