Path of Exile 2’s character display screen units the temper early by that includes a wide range of courses, every with a noose round their necks. As soon as I affirm my choice, the entice is sprung, and each neck is snapped save for mine because the rope offers manner. My witch scurries away into the close by brush and the journey begins. The message is obvious: this place is evil.

The unique Path of Exile carved a path of innovation for the motion role-playing style when it was launched on PC in 2013 (and in 2017 on Xbox). It was an instantaneous basic that will go on to develop a fervent following, be hailed by critics, and set up a compelling new world to discover. Now, Grinding Gear Video games is on the verge of sending us again to the world of Wraeclast with the upcoming Path of Exile 2. Initially deliberate as an enormous enlargement, PoE 2 has grown into its personal beast with a slew of improvements whereas retaining what made the unique so nice to start with — we bought a really feel for this just lately throughout a hands-on session.

“For Path of Exile 2 we actually wish to ensure that we’re maintaining all of the depth that PoE is thought for, whereas eradicating a whole lot of pointless boundaries that new gamers might simply stumble over. There have been a whole lot of programs in PoE1 that added complexity with out actually including any depth,” says Path of Exile 2 Recreation Director Jonathan Rogers.

“An ideal instance was ability slots being tied to gadgets in PoE1. Now your character simply has ability slots for gems by default (extra on this in a bit). In PoE2 we get to maintain all of the customization that itemized abilities gave us, however with out all of the annoying particulars round having to vary your gadgets out everytime you wish to check out a brand new ability combo. You may construct your character with fascinating combos between distinctive gadgets, passive abilities and talents, nevertheless it ought to be much more accessible.”

The sport is constructing not simply on the mechanics of the unique, however the story, too. Path of Exile 2 is about some 20 years after the occasions of the unique recreation. For the reason that destruction of the primary recreation’s huge unhealthy, the Beast, the world has been freed of its corruption and Wraeclast, your main location from the unique recreation, has been reclaimed; however that has created its personal points as properly. The gods that had been as soon as saved in examine by the Beast at the moment are ravaging elements of the plagued continent, whereas others are managed by tyrants seizing the chance for energy. That is the place you are available, as your character is dropped right into a small space to the north known as Ogham, the place the land seems to be sickening as soon as extra. Once more, it faucets into the deliciously evil environment; dire and dread appear to be key tenants of Path of Exile 2’s world design.

Rogers particulars about what goes into constructing such an enticingly creepy world to discover inside Path of Exile 2: “Step one of any world space design is understanding what it was used for, and what sort of folks had been there — we have to ensure that this course of begins with a darkish fantasy theme and might imply designing cultures with “off” components to them. That is true even for the cultures which can be pleasant to the participant.

“From there we attempt to discover references for some sort of look that we’re after. Often, we wish to ensure that there may be some sort of “creepy” component to the world to evoke. Even one thing so simple as a method of rock can produce uneasy emotions in gamers, however there are a whole lot of different particulars to attaining this. An ideal instance is lighting. We attempt to gentle the sport like a horror film. Which means having excessive distinction shadows, and never utilizing an excessive amount of ambient lighting. Even a brilliant space like a Jungle in daytime can seem ‘darkish’ in tone in case you give it quantity of distinction.”

Once I jumped in and began taking part in inside this creepy hellscape throughout my hands-on session, I picked the Witch, whose abilities like summoning minions and casting spells monitor to how I prefer to play most action-RPGs. What struck me instantly was how pleasingly fluid my character felt transferring via the world, to not point out how properly it mapped to the Xbox controller, particularly with the analog sticks. It was like taking part in a twin-stick shooter, with the left analog stick controlling the witch, whereas proper analog stick would assault within the route I centered my spells. I additionally appreciated the extent of management I had over my skeleton minions and the way I might put money into having a wide range of roles for them, like two warriors and two snipers, for instance.

“The most important enchancment for my part is the fight really feel,” says Rogers. “There are numerous little particulars that go into enhancing fight, nevertheless it’s issues like having the ability to transfer whereas utilizing many talents, particular animations for entering into vary, dodge rolling, and the flexibility to retarget throughout an assault that every one come collectively to make fight really feel a lot better.”

With so many character decisions inbuilt already, I requested Rogers what among the elements the group takes into consideration to stability every of them within the recreation; what’s the mantra the group follows to make sure every class appears like a Path of Exile class?

“We’ve actually tried to ensure that every class has distinctive mechanics and concepts, however on the finish of the day the true function of every class is to ship on a fantasy that gamers have. The design wants to verify we’re fulfilling that — in case you decide a druid, you wish to flip right into a bear! Since Path of Exile doesn’t have class restrictions, you may go outdoors of that and do some actually bizarre mixtures. It’s not a query of balancing one class in opposition to one other, it’s a matter of balancing each particular person ability throughout the whole recreation with all of the others. The rationale that courses have to exist is to offer you one thing to latch on to if you begin the sport to offer you a template for the way you would possibly construct your character, however you may department out and do something.”

Throughout my temporary hands-on time, I didn’t do a lot branching out or experimentation right here – it was only a quick 30-minute session. I used to be having an excessive amount of enjoyable spawning skeletons and casting spells to think about the broader implications of the right way to distribute ability factors for my character — I can tinker with that one other time when early entry for Path of Exile 2 is projected to kick off later in 2024 – nevertheless it’s already clear simply how versatile the sport might be.

“Path of Exile is a recreation with a whole lot of abilities, and for PoE2 particularly we wish the main target to be round utilizing number of talents in several methods,” Rogers explains. “This simply implies that we should have the ability to resolve the issue of getting a whole lot of completely different talents simply accessible. On the identical time, we’ve got a whole lot of completely different character courses and construct decisions, and one of the best structure tended to be fairly completely different relying on what you had been doing.”

This feeds into the sport’s new Ability Gem system that can let you take a ability and modify it with as much as 5 extra assist gems, fairly than having talents hooked up to those abilities. With 9 ability slots in your character, and every ability having as much as 5 helps, you may provide you with all kinds of concepts.

“A basic instance is A number of Projectiles. Put it on the Sorceress spell Fireball and also you get a number of Fireballs if you solid it. However if you put it on the Monk assault Falling Thunder, it’ll generate additional projectiles. We attempt to make it in order that if the participant thinks ‘Perhaps it will work?’ then it ought to work.”

Additionally new for Path of Exile 2 might be its console assist, with the Xbox model launching alongside the PC launch. Rogers defined to me that one of many first issues that was tremendous necessary to the group was to verify console was a first-class platform and would assist cross-play, which in flip led to cross-progression assist, in addition to implementing sofa co-op for the console model.

“We have to ensure that gamers on console really feel like they’re a part of the identical group, and I believe that that was one challenge that we had with PoE 1. It at all times felt separate. However we had been additionally eager about issues that we will reap the benefits of on console platforms which can be distinctive experiences to these platforms, and sofa co-op is a type of,” says Rogers.

“You may technically play sofa co-op on a PC in fact, and I’m certain some folks have their PCs attached of their lounge, however actually the expertise of sitting on a sofa along with your good friend is one thing that you simply get from consoles that you simply don’t normally get from PC play. It’s additionally one thing that I’ve simply personally at all times loved, and there was a whole lot of pleasure within the studio about it too. We thought it could be a whole lot of enjoyable, so we determined to go for it.”

By each measure, it appears Grinding Gear Video games has discovered a option to outdo itself and is primed to ship one other compelling entry of their Path of Exile franchise. With the unbelievable stage of character customization, a darkish and sinister world that we’re simply dying to discover additional, and a slew of console pleasant options, Path of Exile 2 is firmly on our radar to be a must-play in 2024.