Originally, the guys at Grinding Gear Games have created Path of Exile as everything Diablo III should have been. Presenting itself as a “Diablo II” fan made sequel is what had drawn attention on this indie game, even though both games have improved greatly since their releases.
Path of Exile often gets compared to Diablo 3. While both games are in the same genre, they have different qualities that make them quite different from each other.
In comparison, Diablo 3 has a really great campaign with gorgeous visuals. And out of the two, it is the most solo-friendly game.
While Diablo 3 still gets seasonal content, that content is more about playing the same game for new cosmetics. On the other hand, Path of Exile evolved over the years with lots of new content as well as improvements to existing campaign acts, dungeons, and more. So it is safe to say that right now, Path of Exile is the more superior ARPG that keeps growing in numbers.
Or at least that’s how things should go, right?
Just like Diablo, Path of Exile is a hack and slash RPG, released in 2013. It is free to play and it is constantly being improved and additional content added to it. When it was initially released, it had three acts, amounting to approximately 30 hours of gameplay. Today, it has ten acts plus a bunch of endless post-game activities.
On top of the massive campaign and end-game activities, Path of Exile also gets updated with a new expansion every 13 weeks.
These expansions are called challenge Leagues and are similar to seasons in Diablo 3. But Path of Exile Leagues are much more than just cosmetics! Leagues often introduce new gameplay mechanics, NPCs, and additional improvements that make it worth replaying the game.
Since it saw daylight in 2013, Path of Exile has recorded a lot of success stories. It has been praised for its massive campaign, new content being released constantly, the great combat, mechanics and much more. In the past nine years since it has been released, Path of Exile has constantly brought in new players, and managed to keep existing ones. And why wouldn’t they stay? There are plenty of reasons why PoE is such a great game.
Let’s start with the most obvious one:
It is free to play!
Let’s be honest: we all love free games! But, the trouble is, a lot of these free games suck! Or rely heavily on micro-transactions to the point they take the fun out of playing! Luckily, Path of Exile doesn’t fall into that category of bad free games! Sure, it has in-game currency that you can purchase, but choosing not to invest any or your hard-earned money into the game will not hinder your progress at all! And, to put the cherry on top: all the updates and leagues are also free! And, unlike World of Warcraft, it doen’t require a subscription either!
Another reason is the new content being released every 13 weeks!
As we have said before, Path of Exile gets a new expansion every 13 weeks, each being free to download and play!
Path of Exile’s leagues add new systems, challenges, rewards, and loot. You can always start a character on a league. Once the league ends, your character goes to the standard league.
Then, the developers may or may not add the new league mechanics into the core game. On top of that, Grinding Gear Games adds longer expansions every two years or so, with one of the biggest Path of Exile expansions was adding the game to the PlayStation 4 and the Xbox One in 2019.
It has an interesting environment you can play in!
The in-game environment is something that has been continuously praised by fans of Path of Exile! The game exposes you to a surreal and intriguing environment that will make it almost impossible for you to abandon it! There is no room for boredom while playing the game since every stage brings forth new challenges to keep your gaming desire alive. The story isn’t basic in any way since you are always confronting new difficulties that you want to survive. There isn’t only one sort of foe or only one method for dying, but rather you have the chance to confront new things as the game advances.
And it doesn’t end there! The visuals and sound effects are of top quality. The overall appearance looks terrifying, which is a perfect fit for a fascinating gaming experience.
Endless character customization available.
Like in a lot of RPG games, in Path of Exile you get to choose a class, and then change the details in that class whichever way you want it to be. Your capabilities are attached to expertise diamonds, and these diamonds can help you acquire more skills and capabilities and utilize them. And everything from your cap or helmet to your footwear can be utilized to acquire new skills.
A great community!
Probably one of the biggest reasons why Path of Exile is so successful and so popular among gamers is the community aspect of the game! No player ever feels left out at any point in the game. These players are one of the main reasons the game has stayed afloat among popular games. They are friendly and can help you when you get stuck in defeating an enemy or scaling through a difficult level.
One of the most important prerequisites for many players is a large community that is active and gives the game a completely different tone. Even now, in 2022, 9 years after the release, tens of thousands of players enjoy this game every day and are waiting for the sequel, which will see the light of day in a few years. In the past thirty days, according to Steam Charts, the game has averaged about 40,000 players daily!
Oh, the economy of it!
Another reason why players love Path of Exile is the economy of the game! If you are used to RPG games, you will know that the most common way of purchasing stuff during the play is by using Gold or performing various challenges. But this is not the case for Path of Exile! Here, you have no use for gold whatsoever. The game uses the trade-by-barter system, where you get to exchange your item for another that you desire. Many products or items that are available in POE are called currency items. It means that you can barter using these items. You can enhance your equipment or your character’s skills by using such currency products. Some of the most popular currency items include Gemcutter’s prisms, Chaos Orbs, etc.
There is no doubt that, while it has been years since Path of Exile got released, it’s still worth playing today! In fact, it remained as the top free game on Steam right until Destiny 2 released its free version. Still, Path of Exile has been a leading game in the industry with its ever-evolving content, yearly leagues, and deep character customization options. A lot of online gamers still find the game as intriguing as other top games they have come across, and to make things even better, every new piece of content that has been released or will be released in the future is completely free!
So with all the good stuff this game brings to the table, it came out as a shock when players started leaving the game recently, especially after the release of Lakes of Kalandra. One of the biggest reasons for players being unhappy with the newest league is Grind Gear Games making certain changes to how loot is generated without communicating this to the players first.
You may ask yourselves: Why does Grind Gear Games even need to communicate this stuff to their players? Well, they don’t really have to, but it’s something that they have done every time a new league was released. Every time a new league is coming, players get a development manifesto, patch notes and a live stream. And while Lakes of Kalandra got all of these, certain information was not shared with gamers and they were left to discover it first hand as they played the new expansion.
In this case, the dev team made a change to how loot is generated. This change massively influenced how much loot players saw dropping from monsters. At no point in any of the above posts/videos do they mention that they were changing how loot is generated. This has massive implications for how the game is played and how easy or hard it is to progress through the content in the game.
Grind Gear Games did not in any way, shape, or form indicate there was going to be a MASSIVE change to how loot would be generated. Given that they had multiple chances to express this to the player base and failed to do so it really left a sour taste in the mouth of players. A lot of people consider the change to loot to be one for the biggest changes made to the game in recent history and there was no mention of it anywhere. They later did make a post addressing this, but indicated that they made this change on purpose.
Furthermore, they have discussed before the expansion release that a lot of the money they make comes from the start of a new league. So for them to not acknowledge that one of the biggest changes ever made to the game was coming, makes people feel like they chose not to mention it for the sake of making more money off of players.
There are more changes that have also been met with a lot of backlash. One of them being archnemesis. This was part of a previous league which changes how modifiers on rare and magic monsters worked. It is generally considered to be an overall bad design change. It has caused a lot of issues with monsters being hard to kill and extremely deadly. This itself wouldn’t necessarily be a problem but there is no additional compensation provided to players for the time and danger these new modifiers present. Coupling this with the loot change, it creates an issue where players feel even more overturned.
Another big mechanic that is generating backlash is harvest. Harvest was introduced to the game a while ago and provided players with a way to craft items. In the recent patch, they indicated they would be changing how this system works. However, they did not indicate that they would be removing some of the most useful and powerful crafts available. This has led to two issues: first, harvest doesn’t provide enough value for doing the content and secondly, the bigger issue is that they removed some of the most important crafts it provided (utility as well as power).
There is more going on than just the issues we’ve mentioned and a lot of it has to do with a failure to communicate from the developers.
So with such changes, and the developers communicating only parts of what they’ve changed, players are left dissapointed…some of them are even enraged. The game is known to be more difficult, especially if you’re new to it, but with these changes it becomes more challenging even for the veterans! So it’s no wonder that a lot of people are logging out and never looking back!
But we’re curious what do you guys think about Lakes of Kalandra? Have you played the league? Do you think Path of Exile still has a future after dissapointing their fans with the latest expansion? Let us know in the comment section below!