Grinding Gear Games’s next ARPG, Path Of Exile 2, is close to its Early Access release, and the recent livestream is here to recap what’s going to be included. The short answer is, it’s a lot.
The livestream revealed a new intro cinematic that captures the dark and gruesome theme the Path Of Exile 2 has. More importantly, it gives an overview of the six available classes and how they play alongside a rundown through it mechanics, some of which are new for the sequel.
The later half of the livestream goes in-depth on the endgame, which includes Ascension classes, Ascension Trials, the Atlas which is a world map where you can explore, other specific modes reminiscent of some Leagues in the Path Of Exile 1, and loads more.
The developers decided to put emphasis on making the endgame, arguably what players of this genre craves for, to the point that all efforts on development was pushed to get the endgame ready for Early Access, at the cost of half of the story content.
The Early Access release will contain Acts 1, 2 and 3, which should take you to level 25. With the other three acts still in development, players instead will be playing the first three Acts again but at a tougher difficulty, Cruel Mode, which should take them to level 65 where the endgame, the real game, begins.
In the full 1.0 version, Cruel Mode will be replaced with Acts 4,5 and 6. Characters from the Early Access version will also be siloed off as its own League once version 1.0 releases.
It’s suffice to say Path Of Exile 2 has a ridiculous amount of content already. Six classes, two Ascension classes for each class, the massive 1,500+ passive skill tree, and there’s even skill trees specifically for endgame content. Pair that with the way skills and customisation works (there are meta-skills where skills can be slotted into other skills to change the way they behave) and it sounds like Path Of Exile 2 will keep fans busy while the Grinding Gear Games are readying the full release.
Path Of Exile 2 is set 20 years after the events of the first game. The sequel is expected to be more approachable to newcomers, with the game design being particular to avoid unintentional complexities Path Of Exile 1 did over time as new mechanics are layered over each other throughout the years.
Path Of Exile 1 will remain available. Grinding Gear Games have no reason to end support for POE 1, when asked during a media preview, as the original and the sequel are two completely different games and there are fans who would prefer one over the other.
Access to Path Of Exile 2 Early Access requires a purchase, but all of the supporter packs includes microtransaction points plus a lot of extra goodies, including physical merch.
Path Of Exile 2 launches in Early Access on December 7 for the PS5, PC (Steam) and Xbox Series X|S. The game features cross-play.