During Summer Games Fest, we got to go hands on with the upcoming action RPG Path of Exile 2. We got to spend about 30 minutes with the game, and got to go through some of the early section of the game. One of my favorite things that we got to experience, is that we got to play the game with its couch co-op mode, a feature that’s lacking in most major games nowadays, so Path of Exile 2 already started out on the right foot for me.
If you’ve played the first Path of Exile game, then you should have no problem jumping into the sequel as there’s no big shake up in the game’s formula. With the couch co-op experience there wasn’t any noticeable drop in overall quality like frame dips or graphical issues. Once we started, we had the option of choosing one of the multiple classes. The person I played with chose a Ranger which focuses on ranged bow and arrow based combat. While I decided to dabble with the game’s newest announced class the Witch.
Returning from the first game, the Witch is a class based on ranged combat and spells to take on the hordes of enemies you’ll encounter. Playing as the Witch granted me tons of more abilities that we wouldn’t have had otherwise. The biggest of which being the ability to summon minions in combat from our fallen foes. I also had a staff that enabled me to summon two additional minions that were constantly with us a had a pretty quick respawn time if they went down in combat, and didn’t need to be resummoned with the use of a spell like the other minions.
Overall, the gameplay of Path of Exile 2 is an enjoyable time especially when you’re teaming up to play through the game with a friend. There were times we felt overwhelmed by a plethora of enemies coming in while we’re fighting a boss. Then, the adrenaline rush we got from being able to take everyone out, summon some minions from the corpses of the enemies, and then take out the boss using them was such a fun experience, and made me want to experience even more of the game.
Path of Exile 2 will be free to play when it releases across platforms down the line.