Path of Exile (PC/Mac)

Daunting, complicated, and rewarding.

Over the last few years I've logged nearly 1300 hours on Path of Exile and experienced several major game updates. It's well past time that I write a review.

The Overview

Path of Exile is an isometric action RPG where players take on the role of an exile stranded on a truly godforsaken island. There are no heroes on Wraeclast, only criminals condemned to exile.

Boarding the ship to exile.

The Good

Free to play. No paywalls. No VIP tiers. No nonsense. Path of Exile is 100% free.

Complicated, challenging, and unforgiving. While other popular action RPGs have simplified and streamlined their games to invite casual players, Path of Exile is designed for experienced players.

Build customization. There are seven different characters, more than 1400 nodes on the passive tree, dozens of skill gems, and a plethora of equipment choices. This gives players the freedom to create many unique and interesting characters.

Consistent atmosphere. The entire game world has been engineered to maintain a consistent theme. The story, equipment, characters, sounds, music, and skills have all been designed to fit the world.

Visible equipment. The items you equip change your characters appearance. Many unique items in the game have interesting designs and some have special visual effects as well. Cosmetic items are also available for purchase if players desire a specific look regardless of their current equipment.

Leagues. There are permanent softcore and hardcore leagues, temporary three-month challenge leagues, and race leagues. The challenge leagues vary in theme and allow players to start over in a fresh economy. Race leagues are special challenge leagues that typically last 1 or 2 hours, but vary in length from 5 minutes to 1 month, and offer prizes for good performance.

Keeps improving. Path of Exile is in the hands of a team who love it. The developers continue to release new updates and are responsive to feedback.

Loot Filters: hide the garbage and only show the loot you want to see.

The Meh

Repetitive grinding. Standard for the action RPG genre. Path of Exile currently requires players to repeat the four story acts three times before they move on to end game mapping.

The Bad

Lag. The bane of every internet game. Lag can make playing with flimsier character builds and hardcore characters undesirable.

Trade. Trading requires using a 3rd party website to find items for sale, then contacting the seller in game to setup the trade. Trading also requires being in the same location. While this system is functional, it is restrictive and an unnecessary time sink that detracts from the overall game experience.

Entering the Lord's Labyrinth.

The Notable Mechanics

Seven exiles. There are seven playable characters: Marauder, Templar, Witch, Shadow, Ranger, Duelist, and Scion. These characters start at different locations on the passive tree and have unique ascendancy classes.

Passive Tree. An intricate web of more than 1400 passive nodes. Contains normal, notable, and keystone passives. Normal passive nodes grant small bonuses (10 strength or +5% max life). Notable passive nodes grant larger bonuses (30 strength or + 14% max life) and are an important part of many character builds. Keystone passives grant game altering changes and are only used by specialized character builds. For example, the Chaos Inoculation Keystone renders the character immune to chaos damage, but reduces their max life to 1.

Different regions of the passive tree favor different styles of play. For example, the Witch area focuses on intelligence, wands, spells, minions, and energy shield. Players are not limited by this design and can freely build atypical characters, such as a melee Witch with high strength.

Ascendancy classes. There are 19 unique ascendancy classes. Each character has a set of three unique ascendancy classes to choose from, except for the Scion, who has a single ascendancy that combines elements from all the other characters. Ascendancy classes and skill points are earned by completing the Lord's Labyrinth—a maze of rooms, traps, and boss battles that randomizes daily.

Shadow's region of the passive tree favors daggers, claws, physical damage, chaos damage, and critical strikes. Assassin ascendancy menu open.

Jewels. Jewels are special equips that are placed into jewel sockets on the passive tree. Jewels grant multiple passive bonuses that make them very important passive nodes. Unique jewels grant rare and powerful modifiers.

Gems & Sockets. Gems come in three different colors, level up with experience, and have minimum stat requirements. Gems must be placed in equipment sockets in order to use them. Equipment can have 0 to 6 sockets; the maximum number of sockets varies by equipment type.

Skill gems provide player abilities (e.g. fireball). Support gems modify the effect of skill gems (e.g. increased damage). Gems sockets must be linked for support gems to modify skill gems.

Trigger Gems. Trigger gems are special support gems that activate linked skill gems when certain conditions are met. These provide automatic mechanisms that players can use for offensive and defensive purposes. Cast when damage taken and cast on melee critical strike are the two most commonly used trigger gems.

Synergy. "Complex machinations converge to a single act of power." —Izario (Path of Exile)

Every layer of the character building process is important. The passives, ascendancy, equipment, jewels, and gems all work together to make your character. Seemingly insignificant changes can drastically altar a character's effectiveness. A well-designed character is very powerful, but requires experience and attention to detail to create.

This Shadow has an ice sculpting hobby! (Using the cast when damage taken trigger gem with frost wall.)

Loot filters. Loot filters are simple customizable scripts users can create in notepad. These scripts modify how different types of loot are displayed in the game. Players can change the size and color of the text display, hide it completely, or even play a sound!

Multiple currencies. While most action RPGs use a generic gold currency, Path of Exile uses a complicated bartering system of tiered currencies. Currencies range from commonplace items to rare drop-only loot. The full list of currencies can be found on the wiki (Full List).

Forsaken masters. Forsaken masters are special NPCs that players randomly encounter while adventuring. In exchange for completing their quests, players earn a unique hideout and crafting bench associated with that master.

There are eight forsaken masters. Each master is aligned to a different game element or character type.

Forsaken masters gain experience each time the player completes a quest for them. As the level of the forsaken master increases, the functionality of their hideout and crafting bench improves. These crafting benches provide players with a reliable means of modifying equipment and grant access to many unique equipment modifiers.

Hideouts. Hideouts are special areas unique to each player. Hideouts come in three sizes and can be decorated with items purchased from the forsaken masters or the cash shop.

Fully upgraded coastal hideout with forsaken masters and their crafting benches.

The Summary

If you are an action RPG veteran looking for your next challenge then Path of Exile is a perfect choice. Players new to the genre should probably look elsewhere.

Summary:

• + free to play!
• + no paywalls!
• + complex & rewarding
• + consistent theme
• + great atmosphere
• + build customization
• • repetitive grinding
• - lag
• - clunky trade system

You can learn more about Path of Exile by visiting the official website pathofexile.com or the official wiki pathofexile.gamepedia.com.