Path of Exile

 PC
User Score
7.9

Generally favorable reviews- based on 2202 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 1,641 out of 2202
  2. Mixed: 258 out of 2202
  3. Negative: 303 out of 2202

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  1. NecroMnemic
    Oct 24, 2013
    6
    At first glance PoE does seem like an innovative and fresh game, and although it holds true in some areas there are many many problems still in the game. Just to elaborate on a few:

    1) Solo vs. Multiplayer. GGG doesn't care about solo players. Not. At. All. I've been in beta for over 2 years, that means longer than most the more "known" forumites, and when I joined in 2011 people were    At first glance PoE does seem like an innovative and fresh game, and although it holds true in some areas there are many many problems still in the game. Just to elaborate on a few:

    1) Solo vs. Multiplayer. GGG doesn't care about solo players. Not. At. All. I've been in beta for over 2 years, that means longer than most the more "known" forumites, and when I joined in 2011 people were complaining that the game is a facerole in party and a drag as soloplayer. Well guess what, this hasn't changed at any given time over the last years. The game is still just a facerole as party and a rather frustrating experience as solo player. Show some good design and give monsters new (aoe) skills depending on how many players are in a party. Don't just increase health and damage. This would also battle the problem of multiboxers.

    2) Selffound vs. Trading. This game relies heavily on trading and playing selffound or offering a selffound mode seems unthinkable as GGG's lead designer say things like:

    "finding a unique item makes you excited because it has value to other players"

    How can someone who likes ARPG say something so utterly wrong. There are a ton of players who just want to play selffound and mostly or with friends and PoE does everything it can to alienate those people.

    3) Magic Find. Mindlessly copied from D2 although it should be known that it is a completly design as an item stat. No innovation whatsoever.

    4) Difficulty. Again no innovation whatsoever. Just a gear-check. Difficulty is only increased by increasing enemy health and damage. How about something more fun and something that actually rewards skill? Give monster different skills that require you to dodge, or make you take care not getting swarmed... oh wait..

    5)... I forgot, you can't actually make this game more fast-paced because it will desync all the time if you use something like flicker strike or high movement speed/attack speed.

    6) Skills. Although the trigger gems and support gem thing is very nice there are still missing a ton of actually fun spells. A fire witch has fireball and firestorm. Incredible.
    I know that this will get better over time but nevertheless I feel like pointing it out. ;)

    7) Item design is overall really good but the unique items often end up being a disappointment. The design goal here is to make unique items a build enabler, but especially in lower levels this makes finding one of the very rare unique items frustrating. Identifying a unique shield at level 30 and seeing that ALL it offers is the keystone passive "pain attunement" will result in you rolling eyes instead of thinking "wow what a great item".

    8) Item progression is... well. Not that great to be honest. The skill system is something new, but at the end of the day it's just inferior to a skill point based system design like TQ. Also the required links/sockets and the rather rare drops of orbs of fusing will add to making self-found an unenjoyable experience.

    Well I could go on and on, but let's just end with this:

    Path Of Exile is a decent game and I still see lots of potential, although speaking from 2 years of experience I will say that I doubt that they will now suddenly start to fix, what they ignored for so long.    … Expand
  2. Thyrvi
    Oct 13, 2022
    7
    Clearly the best action RPG.
    And that for free. OMG
    Someone who has sunk a lot of his free time in D2 , a really dream.
    I farm me to death nostalgic, the non plus ultra.
  3. retkimuna
    Jun 12, 2015
    7
    i think this game is good but i found one big problem. early game is too boring i don't know why but i didn't like it and i don't like that wtf skill tree. but it's no't pay to win game and after start game is fun.
  4. justanhonestguy
    Feb 25, 2017
    7
    love/hate. Very good game that can be quite frustrating if one encounters connection problems that cripple the buzz. High quality and enjoyable game with painful pitfalls . i die only to lag or outright stupidity on my part, but way more due to lag. i have countless hours of fun with this game. painful lately to to nagging connection problems.
  5. pythag0ras
    Mar 31, 2016
    6
    pros:
    -lots of depth
    -interesting currency system cons: absurdly small player inventory....cant even collect all the items that drop from one boss... and no way apparently to make it larger. This is why this game was a 6 for me... woulda been much better if you had a larger inventory. i played for 3 hours one day and counted how many times i had to go to town to sell... 15    pros:
    -lots of depth
    -interesting currency system

    cons: absurdly small player inventory....cant even collect all the items that drop from one boss... and no way apparently to make it larger. This is why this game was a 6 for me... woulda been much better if you had a larger inventory. i played for 3 hours one day and counted how many times i had to go to town to sell... 15 times....15!!!! ridiculous

    The labyrinth (which you must clear to even get access to the xpac classes ) is designed poorly with too much emphasis on dodging clusters of traps that one shot you. Oh and you cant die in the labyrinth or you have to start all over. Terrible design and makes the ascendancy classes unaccessible.

    also no auction house.. closest they have ais a third party website where people connect to trade stuff (lol what year did this come out?? pretty sure auction houses were already a MMO staple by the time this was made)

    depends entirely on horribly calibrated RNG..everything is random , every time you try and modify an item you gotta sit there and gamble ...should be able to just set whatever stats you want... super tired of game devs using the RNG crutch . This game is so bloody RNG that you would be lucky to get anything that you want ...EVER!! this is the other reason i gave this a 6. too much rng...    … Expand
  6. Mordread
    Oct 25, 2013
    6
    Truly one of the best ARPG games to have ever been created. Awesome skills tree, great features and unique concepts. Unfortunately this game has one huge drawback. The game is online only. While this is not necessarily a negative thing, Path of Exile suffers from terrible latency and desync issues (especially if you live in a country which is not near a server). What makes it worse is thatTruly one of the best ARPG games to have ever been created. Awesome skills tree, great features and unique concepts. Unfortunately this game has one huge drawback. The game is online only. While this is not necessarily a negative thing, Path of Exile suffers from terrible latency and desync issues (especially if you live in a country which is not near a server). What makes it worse is that the game is quite intense and often even a small lag spike or desync can get you killed. Certain bosses have abilities that can 1 shot most characters, these are easily avoidable unless your latency is over 200ms. If your latency is too high you cannot fight certain bosses without a party.
    So to sum it up PoE is one of the best games I have played in years plagued by one of the worst ideas games have had in years (online only). A simple addition of offline play or more servers around the world could easily make this a 9 or 10 out of 10 game.    … Expand
  7. Samfortal
    Sep 3, 2017
    5
    The game is really enjoyable, but the lack of auction house and the overcrowd chinese players abusing from bots selling unique itens on game, makes you have sure there a lot of things wrong there. There are even rumors about the company having profit from the black chinese market, allowing then to freely operate inside. Please, put auction house in game, stop this flipped non sense economy.
  8. mijxero
    Oct 2, 2017
    7
    POE is a game that has three things you must get past before you can git gud. Skill, gear, and build. POE had a very diverse skill tree allowing for interesting builds, interesting items and challenging bosses. It is a good challenging game. If you are new though, the gear can be an issue. It doesn't really progress as you level and without grinding a lot, you won't have the currencyPOE is a game that has three things you must get past before you can git gud. Skill, gear, and build. POE had a very diverse skill tree allowing for interesting builds, interesting items and challenging bosses. It is a good challenging game. If you are new though, the gear can be an issue. It doesn't really progress as you level and without grinding a lot, you won't have the currency to buy or change gear drops. Around 70 average gear is really no longer passable. Random mobs will have enchants like "strong crits" and will simply one-shot you if you don't have the right items/build. It takes research and creativity. It teeters between challenging and unfair. D3 can feel too easy and this can feel too hard, so the choice is yours. I can't give this a low score because I have really enjoyed the difficulty, the art, story, gameplay, but that difficulty can really be a gut-punch if you don't look up guides.… Expand
  9. iseeall
    Mar 15, 2023
    5
    A Diablo-like free-to-play MMO.

    Good: - great music - a large selection of abilities, spells and effects - free So-so: - the game is messy in a sense that there are lots of mobs, lots of stuff happening all at once and it's often hard to see what's going on, especially if you play as a witch with tons of summoned minions. I recall playing Diablo 1 (I never played Diablo 3 and    A Diablo-like free-to-play MMO.

    Good:
    - great music
    - a large selection of abilities, spells and effects
    - free

    So-so:
    - the game is messy in a sense that there are lots of mobs, lots of stuff happening all at once and it's often hard to see what's going on, especially if you play as a witch with tons of summoned minions. I recall playing Diablo 1 (I never played Diablo 3 and only very little of Diablo 2), and this game feels like a mess in comparison
    - at the same time it's a rather simple game, at least the first act that I've seen. You defeat mobs like crazy and the game feels like it was made for kids. As a witch, you can just run around and occasionally summon skeletons - and your minions kill everything for you
    - the idea of gems giving abilities is novel but doesn't feel good. I'd much more prefer to just learn spells - this feels like improving a character. But with gems and gear it all feels like consumerism, fixed on the notion of owning things. But I understand it's the same from the game mechanic point of view. It's just the framing

    Bad:
    - poor performance. Even on the lowest graphical settings everything was lagging for me all the time. I have a decent gaming laptop from late 2018 which at that time could run Oculus VR
    - there are lots of items dropping but you never have enough space to loot them. You end up leaving even blue items on the floor. What's the point in this? They should have added some spell to disenchant those items or whatever, not just force the player to skip loot. Also, the idea to not have a universal currency (like gold) in the game was a bad one. You end up getting ingredients for various orbs in exchange for the loot you sell - and much of those aren't even needed for anything useful. It's just clutter and clutter in your stash. Sorting out inventory ends up consuming a lot of your playtime, and it's not fun
    - as it goes with most fantasy games, the story is forgettable trash that I stopped reading after the first few dialogs

    I didn't enjoy it past the few first zones. It's too easy, too quick, too messy. Maybe it just targets teenagers, I dunno. Not for me. It's sad for me to see the Diablo genre degrade into this.    … Expand
  10. Rodundra
    Nov 14, 2013
    6
    Path of Exile is a fun game with a lot going for it. It has a unique progression style, great artwork, and fun items. It deserves a lot of the praise that is being given to it, and it certainly our-shines a lot of the competitors. Though, there is also quite a lot wrong with the game. It's quite short, the skills are dreadfully boring, and you are almost forced into being a melee class asPath of Exile is a fun game with a lot going for it. It has a unique progression style, great artwork, and fun items. It deserves a lot of the praise that is being given to it, and it certainly our-shines a lot of the competitors. Though, there is also quite a lot wrong with the game. It's quite short, the skills are dreadfully boring, and you are almost forced into being a melee class as the others are quite bad in comparison. Other than that, it's a fairly good game and it's definitely worth going through at least once, as it is free to play.… Expand
  11. Kekkone
    Dec 11, 2020
    7
    As a long-time hardcore Diablo II fan I was very disappointed with Diablo III. My friends told me to try PoE, and it was surely better than Diablo III, but I still didn't get too excited.

    PoE looks nice but is overcrowded with visual effects to my taste. Playing some classes is just like looking at constant fireworks, and it's quite difficult to actually realize what is happening on the    As a long-time hardcore Diablo II fan I was very disappointed with Diablo III. My friends told me to try PoE, and it was surely better than Diablo III, but I still didn't get too excited.

    PoE looks nice but is overcrowded with visual effects to my taste. Playing some classes is just like looking at constant fireworks, and it's quite difficult to actually realize what is happening on the screen. Also I'm not that big fan of the crafting system. Is it really necessary to have hundreds of different ingredients? I think not. The character development is also very complicated. Of course it's a great to have lots of options, but you practically have to google your build to not go horribly wrong (well, same issue exists in most hack&slash shallow RPGs, but still...)

    Anyway, worth a play through especially because it's a free game. However I don't feel the same need to grind thousand hours for gear as I did with Diablo II, so something is still missing to make this game actually addictive. Maybe I'm just too old.    … Expand
  12. imtheSkywalker
    May 22, 2021
    7
    I think Path of Exile is a successful game in many ways but if you are going as a new player you must understand you will going into google for many times. Because game is not teaching and it is a bit complicated. It's currency is different; some type of items which you get it from creatures. There are no skills usual there is a gem system. Map designs are cool for a free to play game. ButI think Path of Exile is a successful game in many ways but if you are going as a new player you must understand you will going into google for many times. Because game is not teaching and it is a bit complicated. It's currency is different; some type of items which you get it from creatures. There are no skills usual there is a gem system. Map designs are cool for a free to play game. But its repetitive while you levelling which if you don't like repetitive you may choose to look another game. And one more thing i played without searching in google and i played 37 hours and i enjoyed it. After 51 level and 37 hours it was not possible to progress with the current character some reason i didin't know.… Expand
  13. BaldursThones
    Nov 26, 2022
    6
    It never really kept my interest at the start and I am not a fan of grindy MMO games.
  14. edgil215
    Nov 13, 2013
    5
    I really liked this game at first but soon after about level 50 or so on a character it becomes more and more apparent the lack of polish and blatant oversights of fundamental game design issues.

    There was a review below by user "Rowsol" that hit a lot of the key points for flaws and holes in the game and other than the fact that you actually can respec, contrary to what he mentioned.    I really liked this game at first but soon after about level 50 or so on a character it becomes more and more apparent the lack of polish and blatant oversights of fundamental game design issues.

    There was a review below by user "Rowsol" that hit a lot of the key points for flaws and holes in the game and other than the fact that you actually can respec, contrary to what he mentioned.

    The passive tree is a novel idea but is just jam packed crammed full of useless nodes, it needs to be made smaller with better benefits. At first it feels like there are a lot of options and room to grow but there are only 1 or 2 logical paths to even take because of the surplus of pointless nodes. In turn the excess of useless nodes grants the game absolutely no level of customization when there is only 1 "correct" or most 'powerful' path.

    The majority of the vendor recipes never even come up or are completely useless anyways. For example iron ring skill gem a completely useless ring? There are lots of pointless ones like this if you look at the wiki page for vendor recipes. Skill gems are completely worthless to sell to vendors. The only skill gem "sink" is the onyx amulet needed 1 of each type and that is even if you want a worthless white amulet with +jack to all attributes.

    The race events/leagues are made a complete static joke by the fact that the starting positions on the passive tree force you to play in 1 direction. The end game maps are extremely repetitive and don't really make any sense to me as far as the progression of the "story".

    You can just use waypoints or portal scrolls in the game at ANY point or boss battle to go back to town and completely refill all of your flasks. And if you refuse to participate in such idiotic redundancy, there are simply not enough flask slots for how many different types of flasks there are that can be utilized. The keys 6-0 are not used for anything else by default why not have at least 6 to 10 flasks? Or possibly 2 sets of flasks (like with 'X' and weapon sets), that way you could have health/mana etc on one and then maybe resists on the other

    I just think for how many things were designed in a great where there are WAY too many things that are completely obvious quick fixes that for some reason go addressed? Just because a game or something is free doesn't mean people want to play or use it if it sucks or is no fun and serves no purpose. There are A LOT of free games nowadays this is not the 90s anymore where you had to play OG Runescape.

    The idea of an economy without gold is amazing but the consequences delivered in this game are in no way worth it what so ever. All of the consumable items have insanely terrible chances of giving you anything good or actually upgrading gear to be better than what you are currently wearing.

    Trying to level and grind levels in the later game (50+) is not rewarding in any sense of the word. Literally your only option to continue progressing (especially due to drought of any useful item drops) is to clear and re-clear the same exact boring instances over and over again. The leveling curve is waaaay too skewed and unbalanced. The game needs at least another act (Act IV) to spread out the rest of the levels throughout all 3 difficulties. Right now everything is jammed within the first 60+ levels or so and it makes no sense so it forces you to repeatedly farm "end-game" maps, SNOREFEST! I know often ARPGs in this style are referred to as a "Dungeon Crawl", well never in my entire life more have I felt like I was "CRAWLing" through a game or character levels. And then in the end what is it all for? Even if you get to a high level and get nice loot and gear on a league eventually all of your crap just becomes Standard, so ridiculously pointless.

    Plain and simple this game heavily favors people who are already in end-game and have been contributing donations since closed beta and before. These people have infinite orbs of all types and can readily farm even more for all of their lower characters. So yeah if you have the ability to farm hundreds of thousands of orbs and gear then maybe it is fun to gear up a lower level character and play around. But if you are playing with your highest level character don't expect jack to ever drop that will improve your character or keep you from dying.

    Beyond countless performance issues and bugs with this game it is still a great game to try because the initial price is right.. This game has an unlimited amount of potential but as far as I'm concerned had no business leaving beta. "Room to grow" doesn't mean "let's go", disappointing. DO NOT expect this to fill the void for fans left by "Diablo II" that "Diablo 3" completely failed absolutely miserably at delivering on. This game can be fun for short periods of time, however in it's current state is nowhere near ready or capable of bringing the ARPG experience that is deserving of over a decade now removed from Diablo II.    … Expand
  15. kavinh
    Dec 19, 2013
    7
    Quite a good diabloish title with its own unique twist on the genre. The game itself has an enormous amount of depth and due to the way the gem system is implemented it's possible to use any skill in the game on a separate character allowing players to level a character and bring over their skills should they ever want to do so.
    The game also allows a ridiculous amount of customization    Quite a good diabloish title with its own unique twist on the genre. The game itself has an enormous amount of depth and due to the way the gem system is implemented it's possible to use any skill in the game on a separate character allowing players to level a character and bring over their skills should they ever want to do so.
    The game also allows a ridiculous amount of customization when it comes to character builds to the point where it's viable to use a ranger to create a 2 handed charging swordsman due to their increased dexterity.
    Unfortunately this game also has some problems firstly it's really hard to understand and get into the game from the start. the passive tree is a huge mess for newcomers which means most likely the first and second character may become throw aways due to bad point distribution and while there are refund orbs it's generally faster and easier to simply recreate a charecter then purchasing enough to reset an entire tree.
    Second the game has no auction house and currency instead it uses different orbs that each have a use in improving equipment as tradable currency this makes it very hard for newbies to effectively trade for what they want without getting scammed or being clueless on the matter as well as making it very difficult for players who don't use fanwebsites to purchase items.    … Expand
  16. Illusion
    Dec 6, 2013
    5
    PoE is that cool girl you see and idolize in your mind.
    But as you got to know her better the illusion falls apart.
    PoE had the potential to be the best ARPG ever. But it is far far away from that in its current state. So what is wrong with PoE? For starters the most important thing in an ARPG is the gameplay quality. There is no point in complex mechanics if the game is not    PoE is that cool girl you see and idolize in your mind.
    But as you got to know her better the illusion falls apart.

    PoE had the potential to be the best ARPG ever.
    But it is far far away from that in its current state.

    So what is wrong with PoE?
    For starters the most important thing in an ARPG is the gameplay quality. There is no point in complex mechanics if the game is not working properly, or not responding to your commands. PoE suffers horrible in terms of gameplay.

    DESYNCH: imagine you play Mario, and on the other side of the wall there is a small monster wandering there. When you get there you will need to pay attention to it, but no need to worry now because it is not near you. And Bam! "GAME OVER" !?
    Well it turns out that this monster was not far away, it was actually near you, even better actually you were not even where you thought you were!!
    The screen position of your char and enemies may always be wrong in PoE, and if you rely on the information on your screen you will die.. ALOT!

    You may ask "But if screen information are unreliable, how do I maneuver to avoid things in fight?"
    Well game saves you from that problem, because DESYNCH is almost certain when attempting to maneuver away from enemies, and especially doing that with high move speed or with mobility skills. So you simply dont even attempt.

    COMMAND RESPONSE: PoE is a "pick a skill/spell and spam it whole game" type of ARPG. Nothing but nothing pays as well as overfocusing a single skill for DPS. Also skills not having cooldown, and reaching ridiculous attack/cast speeds like 2-10 per second; only viable way of sustaining DPS is spamming without interruption. So even if you had 2 skills it would not be possible to use them consequently.
    So we do spam in PoE. Now the real problem; game has no command queueing code, and completely ignores the commands given while spamming attacks. Everyone in game uses auto-cast supports for their auxilary skill for that reason.

    BLAND MONSTERS: PoE has a very boring monster design, they just rush to you with a single attack/spell. ONLY utility monster in game is necromancer to raise back undead. As there are no utility monsters to drive difficulty up, as you progress game difficulty increases only by making monsters deal more damage. Spike damage scales so ridiculously that you get one shot by everything unless you invest %70 of your passives to increase max life or reaching life nods.

    TRADE FOCUSED GAME DESIGN: Drops are based on trade oriented economy. So it is as bad as D3 AH. But it is even worse because game does not have an ingame trade system other than a horrible trade chat, so ALL players use an external trade find site named poe.xyz which is exactly same thing as AH.
    Trading 15 mins will get you gear which you can not get by grinding for 10 hours.

    In conclusion PoE is an ARPG where you should
    not try to maneuver mobs,
    not rely on position of enemies or your char on screen,
    spam a single skill keeping everything else in autocast,
    increase max life nonstop to avoid one-shot kills.
    Also trade oriented drops are as bad as D3 AH.

    That is not what I expect from an ARPG.
    (based on the experience of a player who completed all endgame content)    … Expand
  17. Shimmeywill
    Mar 17, 2020
    7
    A solid free to play game with strong visuals and satisfying gameplay. Starting characters limited in design.
  18. jmpessanha
    Feb 4, 2020
    7
    The game play is excellent and all game content can be enjoyed for free. The big downside of the game is optimization. It is one of the games with the worst optimization in the world. In addition to latency problems.
  19. neigenoire
    Jan 30, 2015
    7
    Pros:
    + Many ways to build a character
    + Tons of available skills and items to build around + Some very complex and deep game mechanics not seen in other popular RPG titles + The gameplay is fun and gambling with RNG can be very addictive + Regular updates with new content, races and cool prizes + Free to play Cons: - Graphics and effects can feel a bit dated compared to some    Pros:
    + Many ways to build a character
    + Tons of available skills and items to build around
    + Some very complex and deep game mechanics not seen in other popular RPG titles
    + The gameplay is fun and gambling with RNG can be very addictive
    + Regular updates with new content, races and cool prizes
    + Free to play

    Cons:
    - Graphics and effects can feel a bit dated compared to some other RPGs
    - Don't expect a breathtaking storyline with interesting dialogues and character development. This game is about building a character and hacking through piles of brainless monsters as efficiently as possible.
    - Playing the same character gets boring after a while - once you acquire your end-game gear and level all your skills gems, there is not much left to do but farm maps and try to acquire more wealth.
    - The level of micro-management and skill that is required in the combat is comparatively low (exceptions are a few end-game bosses).
    - The RNG of drops or crafting luck can sometimes feel unfair
    - Desync problems can be very punishing for some people

    The pros in my opinion outweigh the cons. Definitely a game you should try if you like old school hack and slash RPGs such as Diablo 2 and its various clones. For me it took 2 years of playing to finally get bored and move on to something else.    … Expand
  20. sinproducer
    Oct 25, 2013
    7
    The fact that this gets a commercial rating of over 80 is baffling but also not surprising given the recent quality of games. I suppose we are desperate for something with depth and longevity that can be played without too many carrots, but this game is an awful lot of string and less carrot. If you are the type to want to grind forever looking for that perfect item, you'll enjoy it, butThe fact that this gets a commercial rating of over 80 is baffling but also not surprising given the recent quality of games. I suppose we are desperate for something with depth and longevity that can be played without too many carrots, but this game is an awful lot of string and less carrot. If you are the type to want to grind forever looking for that perfect item, you'll enjoy it, but you'll have to deal with desyncs and loss of xp as a result of lag killing you which drove me off entirely from playing Hardcore which is sad because I loved the challenge. After the 15th time it just got old. Each update added more desyncs and some skills are unusable in builds because it will just get you killed. Walk in a room and try to run away? Oh you are back in the room. Try to edge into a doorway to fight some monsters and didn't even enter the room? You in the middle of the room now even you've never been there. Constantly. Sad, because I could really excuse the overly pointless grinding for the sake of fun, if the game didn't have artificial ways of killing me. This isn't a 8 or 9.. It's a 7. It would have been a 9 in 1999, because that's where this game borrows most of it's uninspired gameplay from. It's 2013 and games need to be more technical this. Especially online ones that aren't stable and still want to encourage players to spend money to support it. If D3 had been successful, this game would have far less praise.… Expand
  21. brafcauknid
    Nov 6, 2013
    6
    I really want to score this game higher then a 6, but what appears to be a roaring lion of a game, is really just an old scruffy tomcat yowling in the alley out back. I had heard soooooo much about this game and how it was everything that D3/Marvel Heroes/Torchlight etc etc wanted and tried to be. It was finally bringing back the true spirit of D2....yea, not really. Its not a terribleI really want to score this game higher then a 6, but what appears to be a roaring lion of a game, is really just an old scruffy tomcat yowling in the alley out back. I had heard soooooo much about this game and how it was everything that D3/Marvel Heroes/Torchlight etc etc wanted and tried to be. It was finally bringing back the true spirit of D2....yea, not really. Its not a terrible game, and its worth giving a shot simply because its free to play and reasonably fun for awhile. I mean it has a huge skill tree offering amazing options and customization, huge amounts of skill gems that add to variety, any class can be anything! Sounds fantastic....

    ... but it all is smoke and mirrors. Trust me, go ahead and try to customize your character through the skill tree without exact duplication of a cookie cutter build listed on forums....it will be an effort in futility and leave you frustrated restarting characters over and over. Try and make a high dps character by going for the dmg/crit nodes and skipping most of the 8% life nodes, I dare you. 9 out of 10 viable builds will go like this...pick up all life nodes and either blood magic or eldritch battery...done. Now for all the skill gems...well, simply join some random groups and see how many lightning strike/ethereal knives/spectral throw builds you see compared to anything else....there are a few other builds, but not many...again 90% of the skill gems you'll never see used.

    Basically you can either role some form of a tank build or you can role anything else and never see past normal difficulty. The combat while not bad is the same thing every other arpg does, spam 1 button, only way mobs get harder is increase hp/damage/resists. The orb currency is good in theory but really is just a pain, as someone said earlier...farm a bunch of low orbs, trade for higher orbs, then trade those higher orbs for a couple high end orbs, rinse repeat till you have enough high end orbs to buy something decent.

    I know I sound overly critical but I just felt deceived by this game, if it would have just said upfront that all this variety and customization was bulls**t and 99% of its "options" are only really options if you have no interest in progressing I could have dealt with that. But it feels POE really attempts to be complicated just for the sake of being complicated. Spending the time to learn all the systems just to realize its mostly worthless nonsense is a serious buzzkill.    … Expand
  22. Korriban
    Jan 31, 2014
    5
    To be honest i expected a lot from this game, but i ended up playing with a bad copy of diablo 2.5
    Not saying that this game is crap, I'm saying that it needs a lot of improvement, after reading in the loading screen that this game has been developing for 7 years, well... I can't help myself thinking "7 years and that's all you got ?"
    Overall the graphics and the effects are good, but    To be honest i expected a lot from this game, but i ended up playing with a bad copy of diablo 2.5
    Not saying that this game is crap, I'm saying that it needs a lot of improvement, after reading in the loading screen that this game has been developing for 7 years, well... I can't help myself thinking "7 years and that's all you got ?"

    Overall the graphics and the effects are good, but the game has some major problems with fps (FYI, I'm running a mid-high end pc) I got coninuous fps spikes and this occurred not only when the map was crowded and I were spamming stuff, but also while running around alone.
    Also, I don't understand the decision of not having a single player or, even better, an offline mode, we all know that guns don't kill people, but lag does.
    Another aspect I don't like is the active skill system, an original idea overall, but poorly fulfilled, a good old skill tree would have been better and less confusing imho.
    The passive skill tree, however, is a real gem, although is the copy of Final Fantasy X skill tree, but still, is nice, you have to plan in advance what you will become and choose wisely your path, I couldn't wait to level up just to look at the tree and place my skill point.
    But let's go back to another unpleasant aspect of the game, the story, is there one? I don't know what to say, honestly, I think it is almost invisible, you just play to reach the next map, that's all, I didn't have the feeling of going on a quest to kill the "evil enemy", just... killing stuff, dropping stuff, having lag/fps spikes, I didn't even finish the game due to boredom.    … Expand
  23. Pr8Dator
    Mar 20, 2014
    7
    If you are a Diablo fan, this is your holy grail. If you are after more of an RPG, this is your grave. This is a standard ARPG (which I pretty rather like to call as "Character Building Game" instead) with one of the deepest character building system ever. That's just about where all the fun is. There is next to no story, no choice but a linear world through which you senselessly killIf you are a Diablo fan, this is your holy grail. If you are after more of an RPG, this is your grave. This is a standard ARPG (which I pretty rather like to call as "Character Building Game" instead) with one of the deepest character building system ever. That's just about where all the fun is. There is next to no story, no choice but a linear world through which you senselessly kill everything that moves regardless of what it actually is and how it actually fights. All monsters are really just hollow graphics that are nothing more than target practise for your character and your character is just another souless look-alike with no customizable face so everyone of the same class looks the same... clones everywhere. I would like to give it a 6 rather than a 7 but the fact that it is a good representation of a arpg, I won't pull it down that much. All in all, they should have given such a deep character building game more soul.… Expand
  24. kharaa
    Nov 13, 2013
    6
    You have a handful of classes, with very little that separates them, except what they can skill up in their passives tree. the game is extremely bland, it was an obvious attempt to mimic diablo 2, in almost every way shape and form that was realistic, except it has none of diablo II's flavor, or it's uniqueness, all of the said classes share the same exact skills. Of course there will beYou have a handful of classes, with very little that separates them, except what they can skill up in their passives tree. the game is extremely bland, it was an obvious attempt to mimic diablo 2, in almost every way shape and form that was realistic, except it has none of diablo II's flavor, or it's uniqueness, all of the said classes share the same exact skills. Of course there will be skills that benefit a hunter more, or a witch, but in general you have a single pool of spells that all classes share.

    The game is also very unforgiving, you end up making it to max rank, realized you were building like a jerk and the game does not help you at all. You're either forced to find the LARGE amount of orbs of regret, or reroll the character from scratch.

    This game is for only the most hardcore of diablo players, and will probably be forgotten by anyone beyond that.    … Expand
  25. Mochito
    Dec 6, 2013
    7
    I have played this game since March 2013. I rate this game a 75/100 overall. I am not a Fan-boy, or a hater. I do like playing it overall. I am not going into the numerous minor likes, and dislikes. Try to stay on the major points.

    Pros 1. Endless character creation ability 2. Free game to start 3. Constant biweekly updates, and real fast emergency patches to fix major bugs 4.    I have played this game since March 2013. I rate this game a 75/100 overall. I am not a Fan-boy, or a hater. I do like playing it overall. I am not going into the numerous minor likes, and dislikes. Try to stay on the major points.

    Pros
    1. Endless character creation ability
    2. Free game to start
    3. Constant biweekly updates, and real fast emergency patches to fix major bugs
    4. Overall good graphics, and improving with each patch.
    5. Massive passive skill tree- It has over 1450 in it. Many are not needed for your particular build, but it's there for you to choose.
    6. Guild system

    Neutral

    1. You eventually need to buy micro-transactions for stash slots, not free in the end-run.
    2. Drop/crafting system have way to much RNG layers. Need to reduce the RNG v.s. toying with the magic find quality, and rarity. Hard, but not impossible to get anywere with the current structure.
    3. Map system is the end-game. Due to RNG again it's hard to progress in this area. Just as likely to run out of maps and be totally stuck. This last point is being addressed currently.

    Con's
    1. Horrible Trade system- Needs massive changes. Right now it's run by 24/7 players who have the time. It can take hours, or even days to find what you want to buy. And finding a buyer who will sell it without trying to rip you off. The sell side is no better. You must learn to use poe.xyz/ poe.explorer, or your never going to figure out anything. Of-site websites dealing with availability/ prices for buy/sell.
    1A- In-game spam trading is the pits, worse thing I have ever seen, no way to even filiter it, it's just endless fast scroll. RMT sites start spamming you too for next 20 minutes.

    2. Desync- Major problem in this game with several of the melee builds like cyclone. Lesser of a problem for casters/ranged.

    3. Lag issues- Dropping, I suspect over the next several months this will be a thing of the past.

    4. No real PVP system for those who care, for those who don't..... no negaitive here.

    I do believe that if they fix the trade system, get the drop/craft RNG lessened, and fix desync/lag this game currently has the potential to be the WOW of the ARPG market. However it will only be a niche game (50.000 players) if they don't correct these areas over the next few months. Only time will tell now.

    Again overall score 75/100 with potential to be 97/100    … Expand
  26. Zenslider
    Jan 31, 2014
    5
    Almost giving it a 7, semi hard core to hard core players please read on for perspective.
    Way too many posters here did not level past 60.
    8 for concepts Would be 9.5 out of 10 but the huge exception of crafting. For end game be prepared to farm for endless hours to attempt to upgrade gear. Imagine farming thousands of crafting items and maybe not get premium item upgraded. And it    Almost giving it a 7, semi hard core to hard core players please read on for perspective.
    Way too many posters here did not level past 60.

    8 for concepts
    Would be 9.5 out of 10 but the huge exception of crafting.
    For end game be prepared to farm for endless hours to attempt to upgrade gear. Imagine farming thousands of crafting items and maybe not get premium item upgraded. And it took thousands of drops and crafting items to get there. Now you can trade but there is no formal trading system. If you want a 2nd and 3rd part time job well this is your bread and butter. Want to somewhat gear a few characters past 70, good luck. It is better if you trade constantly for marginal gains, but imagine logging on and spamming trade chat every day getting your for sale equipment listed on 3rd party sites instead of playing.

    5 for Connectivity
    DESYNC will kill you. If you like to use skill at the margins in stead of power spamming be prepared to be annoyed. There are really cool races for points for a few mediocre items that are enjoyable but the better I do at these races is most correlated to managing desync. Hardcore leagues you have to really spec defensively and or group. If you play casual for end game a death costs you 10% of a level of experience although it won't drop you a level.

    I paid up because I feel like supporting the direction of game design they tried, but they would be much better off as a division of Blizzard getting some bandwidth, proper PR and support charging a few bucks a month. The free to play unless you want cool visuals or reasonable inventory space is weak for long term viability. The made huge leaps from D2 and yet made some rookie mistakes all at the same time.

    I can only pray someone comes along and learns from their mistakes. Happily ready to pay 10-20$ a month for that privilege.    … Expand
  27. robomartion
    Aug 3, 2022
    5
    I feel like Path of Exile is heavily skewed for hardcore players and all the content that leads up to that is kind of boring compared to Diablo III or Diablo II.
  28. S3XU4LH34L1NG
    May 29, 2021
    7
    Context: I've put in quite some hours and about 15$ over the course of 5 years or so. I'd say im pretty skilled in terms of mechanics, economics and game knowledge. I've played HC / SSF / trade leagues and cleared more or less the whole game multiple times. I'd say im a PoE veteran.

    + theory craft potential + depth + story and world building + new content every league (every 4 months    Context: I've put in quite some hours and about 15$ over the course of 5 years or so. I'd say im pretty skilled in terms of mechanics, economics and game knowledge. I've played HC / SSF / trade leagues and cleared more or less the whole game multiple times. I'd say im a PoE veteran.

    + theory craft potential
    + depth
    + story and world building
    + new content every league (every 4 months or so)
    + decent endgame
    + currency system is innovative and pretty great in theory
    + there's plenty of distinct ways for people to play the game (trader, aura bot, party, solo, SFF, mapper, farmer, bosser, delver, ...)
    - graphics are kinda meh
    - currency system can get frustrating and annoying and kinda feeds back on the paid elements of the game
    - not really F2P even though it's marketed as such (you will more or less need TAB'S etc.)
    - new content gets abandoned in the next league and therefore lacks polish
    - Trading is horrible go play SSF
    - SSF is the way to play but sadly restrics build diversity and requires way more hours then trade leagues
    - ALWAYS ONLINE / wants to be an MMO pretty badly
    - build diversity is rather low and depends on patch, if you wanna clear the game without no lifeing
    - developer went from great indie pal to big corpo with all the pro's and con's
    - pretty annoying developer defender fanbase

    There's a great game hidden beneath all the always online / F2P market filth. In an alternate universe this could be the best ARPG of all time, but the way it is now i cant rank it higher then classics such as Titan Quest, Diablo 2 etc.    … Expand
  29. Tyrant103xx
    Jul 14, 2022
    7
    For me, this was once the pinnacle of ARPG design and one of my most played games of all time with over 2,000 hours primarily between the 2.0 and 3.0 releases. The depth and complexity, the freedom to create and test a seemingly infinite number of skill, gear, and passive combos, the joy of seeing a personally theory crafted build come to life...I have wonderful memories of this game.For me, this was once the pinnacle of ARPG design and one of my most played games of all time with over 2,000 hours primarily between the 2.0 and 3.0 releases. The depth and complexity, the freedom to create and test a seemingly infinite number of skill, gear, and passive combos, the joy of seeing a personally theory crafted build come to life...I have wonderful memories of this game.
    Unfortunately the game has just evolved faster than I can keep up. I'm a gamer who likes to play many games across many genres. Path of Exile is a game for people who like to play only Path of Exile. When I take extended breaks, I find coming back more and more difficult. The new mechanics, passive tree additions, crafting systems, end game progression, and skill balances are just too much for me to keep up with anymore. The game is too complex for me to casually enjoy, and its getting harder to go back all the time.
    The complexity of Path of Exile is one of its greatest strengths, but unfortunately, it has left this casual behind in the dust. I can no longer recommend this game with the caveat that hardcore, dedicated gamers can find a lot to love here if they have the desire to stick with it and really dig deep.    … Expand
  30. shawnunkempt
    Oct 25, 2013
    6
    Path of Exile is a free to play ARPG. The appeal of the game is the depth and complexity that can go into creating your characters. The passive tree is a large web of skills, and crucial decisions to how your character will be play are made in here. Players are free to navigate the tree any way they want. The tree supports the skill gems that a character uses, which can be linked togetherPath of Exile is a free to play ARPG. The appeal of the game is the depth and complexity that can go into creating your characters. The passive tree is a large web of skills, and crucial decisions to how your character will be play are made in here. Players are free to navigate the tree any way they want. The tree supports the skill gems that a character uses, which can be linked together with support gems to change the way a certain skill will work. At first glance, this is all very complicated, but after a little experience it all clicks together and makes sense.

    The complexity of the game only really applies to the character creation. The combat itself is lackluster, mainly because the monsters are unimaginative and lack any real challenge or AI. The only challenge at points are often only based on the quality of gear your character has managed to find. Having life and high resistances is nearly mandatory, however finding gear is rare and is completely random. Crafting is mainly just gambling, with no way to predetermine what you can roll on your gear.

    The funnest part is when your character begins to really come together. When your passive tree, skill gems and gear are synced up together your character starts to feel powerful. The only problem is getting to that point can take forever. At the upper levels, you will need to spend hours grinding areas for enough experience and gear to comfortably head into the next zone. Gaining enough experience starts to really slow down and the grind can become boring.

    I think this game is great on paper. In reality it's a decent game that has a lot of flaws. It can too often become a boring grind, with monsters that are just too vanilla. There are also a few technical issues that can really hurt the playing experience. The netcode will often cause your character to warp to a different spot and the graphical demands on your computer are too high for the actual graphical quality. The game requires a lot of patience from the player.    … Expand
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Awards & Rankings

20
#20 Best PC Game of 2013
18
#18 Most Discussed PC Game of 2013
14
#14 Most Shared PC Game of 2013

Critic Reviews

All reviews »
Metascore
86

Generally favorable reviews - based on 27 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 25 out of 27
  2. Mixed: 2 out of 27
  3. Negative: 0 out of 27
  1. RPGamer
    May 9, 2014
    100
    Grinding Gear Games has created something special here, and given it gratis to the world.
    Read full review
  2. Pelit (Finland)
    Mar 11, 2014
    88
    Hack & slash games are addictive because they follow a simple formula: kill, kill and kill some more. Path of Exile is no different in this regard. During your quest in the perilous continent of Wraeclast you need to slay thousands and thousands of monsters but it never gets boring because there are a plenty of fresh ideas like the very vast skill system and barter-based economy that differentiate it from other similar games. But it's not a perfect game. The story is weak and the difficulty level is too low in the beginning. [Dec 2013]
  3. PC Gamer
    Jan 13, 2014
    84
    An exceptionally generous free-to-play action-rPG. What it lacks in punch it makes up for in depth and value for money.
    Read full review
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