Path of Exile 2 Review: Is It Worth Playing?

What is Path of Exile 2?

Path of Exile 2 is a free-to-play online action role-playing game, developed and published by Grinding Gear Games. It represents a significant evolution of the original Path of Exile, which has been a mainstay of the genre for over a decade.

While it shares a world and lore with its predecessor, Path of Exile 2 is a fully standalone sequel. It features a new seven-act campaign set twenty years after the events of the first game. The premise follows the exile's journey in a dark, grim fantasy world inspired by the likes of Diablo, where players combat eldritch horrors and fallen gods.

It is designed to be a deeply complex and customisable experience, built on a foundation of intricate systems that veteran players of the studio's work will recognise. The game presents these systems with a modernised engine and core gameplay.

Gameplay

At its heart, Path of Exile 2 is about combat, loot, and profound character building. The moment-to-moment play involves navigating isometric environments, defeating groups of monsters, and collecting a constant stream of gear and currency items.

In our view, the core combat in this sequel feels notably weightier and more deliberate than in the original. There is a greater emphasis on active skill use and positioning, with skills like dodge-rolls being integral to survival against telegraphed boss attacks. The pace, while still fast, has been tempered slightly to allow for more tactical engagement.

The Passive Skill Tree and Skills

The true depth, however, lies in its systems. The game retains the infamous passive skill tree - a vast web of hundreds of nodes - but introduces a new approach to character skills. Instead of linking support gems to active skill gems in gear sockets, skills are now levelled independently and modified by support gems socketed directly into the skill gem itself.

This change offers more flexibility and reduces the punishing dependency on finding gear with the correct number and colours of linked sockets in the early game. The learning curve remains exceptionally steep. New players will find the sheer volume of currencies, crafting options, and interlocking mechanics overwhelming.

This is not a game that hand-holds; it expects investment and external research via community resources. For those willing to climb that curve, the potential for crafting a unique and powerful character is immense, arguably offering more build diversity than any other title in the genre.

Who is Path of Exile 2 for?

Path of Exile 2 is unequivocally designed for a dedicated, hardcore audience. It is for players who enjoy theory-crafting builds, engaging with deep economic systems, and tackling brutally challenging endgame content.

It will feel most familiar to veterans of the original Path of Exile or those who have exhausted the depth of games like Diablo IV and seek a more complex and less curated experience. While it can be played entirely solo, the game's economy and endgame are built around its online, persistent world, and playing with a group is fully supported.

Who should skip it

Conversely, in our view, it is a difficult recommendation for purely casual players. Those looking for a straightforward, story-focused hack-and-slash to complete over a weekend will likely find its systems impenetrable and its narrative delivery - while improved with more cinematics and voice acting - still secondary to the grind and character optimisation.

It is a game that demands time and mental engagement. If you relish spreadsheets, planning skill trees, and the thrill of finding or crafting an item that perfectly enables your build, this is your playground. If you prefer a more immediate, accessible power fantasy, it may feel like a daunting part-time job.

Path of Exile 2 is built for the hardcore ARPG audience. Casual players seeking a quick, story-driven adventure will likely find its systems overwhelming.

Graphics and performance

Path of Exile 2 utilises a new proprietary engine, delivering a substantial visual upgrade over the 2013 original. The art style remains grim and dark, but with much greater detail in environments, character models, and spell effects.

Lighting and shadow work is notably improved, helping to create a more atmospheric and foreboding world. Monster designs are intricate, and the visual clarity of boss attack telegraphs is crucial given the increased mechanical demand of combat.

Regarding performance, the game runs reasonably well on a range of hardware, but it is a demanding title. On mid-range modern PCs, players can expect stable frame rates at high settings, though the most intense screen-filling spell effects in cooperative play will likely cause dips.

The developers have implemented various graphical scaling options to help older systems. In our testing, the engine feels solid, with load times being acceptable. It is not the most graphically stunning title of 2024, but it represents a major and necessary modernisation for the franchise, performing its job effectively without sacrificing the visual information needed for its complex gameplay.

Value for money

As a free-to-play game, Path of Exile 2's base value proposition is exceptional. The entire campaign, the extensive endgame, and all core gameplay systems are accessible without spending any money.

The monetisation model mirrors the first game, focusing exclusively on cosmetic microtransactions and quality-of-life stash tab expansions. These stash tabs are, in our opinion, almost essential for anyone engaging seriously with the endgame and its economy, but a determined player can manage without them for a significant time.

The amount of content is vast. A first playthrough of the campaign could take 30-40 hours for a new player, and the endgame - featuring maps, bosses, and leagues - can provide thousands of hours of engagement for dedicated players.

The price of entry is your time and willingness to learn. For that, it offers arguably the best value in the genre, provided its specific style of complexity is what you seek. There is no pay-to-win; power is earned solely through play.

Verdict

Path of Exile 2 is a masterclass in depth and customisation for the hardcore action RPG fan. It successfully modernises the formula of its predecessor with improved combat, a clever reworking of the skill system, and a much-needed visual overhaul. It is a game built with immense respect for its player base's intelligence and appetite for complex systems.

We recommend it wholeheartedly to veterans of the genre looking for their next long-term obsession and to players of the first Path of Exile ready for a refreshed experience. However, we cannot recommend it to those seeking a casual, narrative-driven adventure or to players easily frustrated by opaque mechanics.

Its learning curve is a vertical cliff, and its rewards are proportionate to the effort of the climb. Path of Exile 2 does not aim to please everyone; it aims to be the deepest, most rewarding game in its niche. For its target audience, it unequivocally succeeds.

The bottom line: Path of Exile 2 is a deep, rewarding ARPG for dedicated players. Its steep learning curve makes it a poor fit for casual gamers.