When a game you’ve been eagerly waiting for invites you to come play it one weekend, you nonchalantly check your calendar and… haha, just kidding. You cheer and/or cackle with glee and stretch your gaming digits before losing yourself upon logging in. And that’s exactly what I did during Path of Exile 2’s Los Angeles preview event earlier this month. Ever since I got my first taste of the game during ExileCon 2019, I’ve been very much looking forward to playing it again and diving in deeper. And let me say, I was not disappointed!
What was playing POE2 like? The visuals were gorgeous, the classes were fun, and the story was more prominent than its predecessor (a definite bonus for me!). There is a learning curve, especially for Path of Exile 1 players who already have ingrained muscle memory, but I am sure that will iron out soon enough. Some complexity brought on by bloat has been reduced, and certain mechanics are much smoother (even I’ll be swapping weapons more now), making POE2 more user friendly without sacrificing the core of POE. And through the passive skill tree monstrosity is still daunting, even it has been refreshed and streamlined. In all, I think POE2 will satisfy both veteran and new players – but I will personally be spending more time in POE2 than the original.
Looks do matter, and POE2 is gorgeous
Let’s face it: People have their own preferences for aesthetics, but when something looks good, you like it more. With this being a sequel, you expect Path of Exile 2 to come out of the starting gate looking better than its predecessor. And boy, does it! POE2 takes advantage of all the upgrades to the game engine that POE1 has gotten over the years. Just looking at the discrepancy of visuals in the first acts and leagues versus the latest ones, and you can see a major visual improvement. Heck, I remember back when the big water enhancement happened in The Fall of Oriath (has it really been seven years?!), and how beautiful and fluid it made the water in POE.
But with POE2, the visuals are stunning from the start. It is still thematically darker and grungier, but even the darkest and grungiest areas are more vibrant and detailed. Of course, there are other types of zones like deserts, ruins, and jungles with lush (evil) vegetation and such, so multiple color and light schemes in different areas add variety to stave off visual monotony.
A Witch, a Sorceress, and a Ranger walk off the gallows…
Although POE2’s early access has six classes available, I had only one afternoon of play time, so I chose to delve into the three that I’m most familiar with in Path of Exile to experience the similarities and differences: the Witch, the Sorceress, and the Ranger. I’ll likely experiment with the Warrior, the Mercenary, and the Monk later. I also did not want to spoil too much of the story going forward while on a temporary account at an event, so I played roughly the first hour of each. My first romp was on the Ranger, then on to Sorceress, then Witch. Here are brief impressions of the three!
The Ranger
OK, let’s start with… walking difficulties. Because I had that straight off! I’ll elaborate on the travails of WASD in a bit, but I’ll say that adding the new Ranger movement on top of the WASD changes left me feeling a bit befuddled. I fought against the mouse-movement muscle memory while trying to adapt to the class’ new leaps. I quite enjoyed her flipping about agilely just as I’d expect of a Ranger, but I definitely need more practice in timing, especially so that the freeze effect when she backflips actually hits the mob. I wasn’t able to progress far enough to try and find/use my favorite skills, but I am definitely looking forward to delving deeper.
I also got my first taste of the new skills and gems system and am already a huge fan! The fact that uncut gems are blank slates and you get to select the properties you want — from skills to supports — from an easy-to-grasp interface was very welcome. It also allowed me to see and know more choices so I could plan my (currently short-lived) future template.
The Sorceress
Since my POE1 Witches were mostly classic fire, ice, and lightning casters, I went for the Sorceress next, quickly discovering that I was really in my element with this class. This was the class I dived back on after finishing up the first hour on each; it will likely be my first and main one when early access launches in a couple of weeks.
As was updated previously in POE, staffs have a built-in skill. This highlighted the weapon-swapping mechanic (detailed more later), just as the Ranger showcased movement. Weapon swapping is a breeze, so easy and automatic that even I will be able to do it regularly — a serious departure from my current avoidance of it in POE. Thanks to this ease, I could seamlessly incorporate multiple elemental attacks into my build and merrily fling both fire and ice at my enemies; all I needed was a staff with a different base attack equipped in each slot.
The Witch
I hadn’t played much in the way of chaos Witches, but I have definitely more than dabbled in minion builds. So I was very happy to test out the undead army capabilities of POE 2’s Witch. I’m happy with the results so far. The fact that some undead raising is automatic on a timer instead of having to cast on corpses is *chef’s kiss*. Of course, there are some skill where you can raise from corpses, but I didn’t get to those. I also liked that the temporary auto-raised minions were little scorpions, helping to distinguish them in your undead horde mush easier. One point of note, though: If you use a scepter to call forth more minions, you might want to make sure you have one on both weapon build. I can vouch that having a chunk of your undead disappear during a boss fight because you weapon swapped is no bueno!
I didn’t get to hear my favorite line in POE, though I do hope it actually made it into the sequel. I’ll be sad if my Witch can no longer admonish me, “Too much clutter!”
The joys and sorrows of WASD
WASD gets its own section because it affected my gameplay the most. I’ve really been looking forward to using WASD in POE 2. Although I started my gaming journey with using mouse clicks or arrows for movement and failed miserably the first time I tried to use WASD, I’ve since grown very accustomed to it. So the first thing I did in POE2 was to change to the new movement input. That was not as smooth of a transition as I had anticipated!
It turns out that fighting muscle memory is hard. Even though I am about as far as you can get from a hardcore elite POE player, I’ve apparently played enough years and leagues that I have developed muscle memory. I went from messing up moving when I want to fire and firing when I want to move to… the same thing. I was fighting the same trouble I occasionally had with mouse movement, just a bit differently; I kept trying to move with the mouse, but instead firing off attacks. Then when trying to forcefully remember not to use the mouse to move, I’d use WASD instead of hitting my attack. It made for some clunky experiences at the beginning. I totally understand now what Game Director Jonathan Rogers meant about POE players finding it harder to play POE2 than total franchise newbies!
Considering that issue, I went in and changed back to the original keybinds for my next playthrough. You’d think that would help, right? No. After an hour of experiencing WASD, when I tried to move with the mouse I found myself messing up again. I moved back to WASD before I floundered too badly. I can only hope I’ll retrain my muscle memory before too long. Additionally, Rogers noted that some players may find that certain classes feel better played using certain movement due to their mechanics (he finds Warrior and Mercenary or better with WASD), or players may prefer to play using only one way for all classes. The point is, player preference reigns supreme here, and I love that. I’ll keep trying to get accustomed to WASD myself for all the characters, so I can hopefully reduce my misfires.
Positive QOL enhancements
Here’s a quick rundown of other quality of life enhancements I found particularly positive during my hands-on, from weapon swapping and skills to bosses and flasks – and even checkpoints and portals. Each one made the game play better and more fun.
My number one praise goes to weapon swapping. As the most seamless, smoothest feature, it doesn’t take any concentration to do. I never really changed weapons in POE1 — especially during fights — because it was clunky and I’d mess up. Now, all you do is put an active skill from either weapon in your slots: Activating the skill auto-swaps the weapon and fires. This works beautifully (just remember my admonitions about the Witch loadouts above!).
I’ve been looking forward to the equipped skill changes, and I was not disappointed here, either. The interfaces are easier to navigate, and you don’t have to bother with yoinking stuff from gear, matching color slots, and all that. You can even individually set passives to work with specific skills right on the menu.
Another surprise that I really enjoyed was stumbling upon an in-map mini boss fight. We’re not talking about just a tougher mob; it’s a small area that encloses around you that you can escape only by defeat — be it the boss’ or yours. I won’t spoil it, other than to say you’ve no idea it is there until you are already trapped!
I also liked not juggling so many flasks, especially since I forget to use them most of the time. Now, there are only two slots — one health and one mana. Unfortunately for me, on my Sorceress I remembered my propensity to ignore my flasks too much; even with just the two, I still forgot to use one and died!
Another QOL change I greatly appreciated is the addition of checkpoints in zones. These progress markers are spaced throughout the areas, and once you discover them, you can resurrect at the nearest one when you die. No more being forced to return to town and rerun the entire zone. This is super welcome, helping the gameplay to move forward smoothly with less repetitiveness.
And finally, portals to town are now an automatic feature. No longer must players collect bag-clogging currency; just click the icon under your skills and off ya go. I actually used mine frequently for loot-selling runs back to town. Improved inventory management for MJ? You know that’s a big deal!
Can’t wait to play
After my taste of POE2, I cannot wait to get in and play for real. Sorry Path of Exile, I anticipate you will be left behind. I promise to visit. Sometime.
Many thanks to Grinding Gear Games for teleporting us to and hosting us at the press event!
What if your world changed every three months? What would you do differently? Path of Exile does, and MOP’s MJ Guthrie explores and experiences each new incarnation in Wandering Wraeclast. Join us biweekly for a look into each new challenge league and world expansion — and see whether MJ can finally reach the end of one world before it ends!
