There’s nothing better than a great ARPG that practically anyone can sink his or her teeth into. Case in point: Path of Exile. While PoE doesn’t necessarily have the exquisite polish and bite that Diablo III has, it certainly makes up for it in terms of richness of content.
Developed and published by Grinding Gear Games, Path of Exile is available to play on PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One. So you can finally go farming spree for essential PoE orbs and PoE currency whether it’s on console or desktop. This hack and slash game was released way back in October 2013. Fast forward to almost seven years, the game still continues to give much to its enthralled fanbase.
What makes this relatively old game so great? What makes it stand as one of the best games in the online gaming world? We’ll tackle the answers to those questions and then some!
As Deep as the Ocean
Path of Exile has quite a lot of depth to it — to the point that it’s astounding. Imagine being already 500 hours in and yet you still don’t have a full grasp of the game’s intricate nuances. Even after a long while, you still get to learn new things and get to experience the thrill of discovery each time you traverse the harsh landscapes of Wraeclast. Path of Exile isn’t just a game where you all day long and level up unique items for the whole endgame. Instead, it lets you take on interesting sidequests such as speed farming maps and many more. Thanks to this, the feeling of sheer accomplishment is always there since you get rewarded for the long hours you punt into the game.
And let’s not forget the famous passive skill tree! It’s a veritable spider’s web so vast that it consists of 1,325 skills. These skills provide passive bonuses to your character. The way it goes is that whenever you level up or complete certain quests, you can allocate a skill and explore the vast possibilities the tree offers as you branch out further. This is where the matter of personalization comes in. As all character classes share the same tree, you will all start at different locations that align with your specialties. Builds are rampant in forums and guides. Multiple combinations can be made in the passive skill tree; you can easily sink hours just building all sorts of fun builds for your character.
Free Doesn’t Mean Bad
The best part of getting into Path of Exile is that it’s absolutely free. But fair warning, you might involuntarily pay more for this game, than any other game, as it’s almost a given that you’ll be addicted to it. Usually, free-to-play games get a bad rap for going overboard with micro-transactions, but Path of Exile is an exception. Grinding Gear Games always releases a copious amount of content every three months, so you’ll never run out of things to do!
Great Developer, Great Community
Grinding Gear Games is a reputable gaming company that always listens to its community. With how much content they’ve been pumping out on a monthly basis, it quite easy to think of Path of Exile as a sort of passion project of theirs. They handle the community well, make sure to keep their fans privy to the latest updates, and openly listen to feedback. Ultimately, they actually care about their players.
Most online games have a pretty toxic community. It’s normal to see players flame other players in games like World of Warcraft, League of Legends, and Counter Strike: Global Offensive on their reddit threads. Toxicity is even seen as a norm, especially for competitive games.
Fortunately, the PoE community is having none of that. The game can get a tad bit complicated, especially for newer players. The veteran players are more than willing to help or provide you answers — with some even offering to help others out even further.
Hack-n-slash ARPG has mushroomed at a dizzying speed, yet Path of Exile still survives and flourishes despite being surrounded by state-of-the-art graphics of landscapes and 3D waifus. While the seemingly gritty graphics are a stark contrast to lush and technologically advanced-looking terrains on other games, what brings people to Path of Exile, and collect tons of PoE currency and orbs in the process, is its great community and ever-unfolding content. You can easily spend thousands of hours into the game without paying a single dollar, making Path of Exile one of the best free-to-play games available.
