Path of Exile Open Beta Review

Path of Exile (PoE) from Grinding Gear Games is one of the latest action RPG games available to gamers. The catch here is that PoE, when officially released, will be free to play on Windows-based PCs. To monetize the game they are selling different graphical effects or pets for your characters, nothing required to play the game. Even better, PoE is playable right now through an Open Beta.

Having completed and reviewed Diablo 3 previously here, I have a pretty good sense of what the current generation of action RPGs is like. PoE has a set of six characters to choose from to explore the world of Wraeclast.  You can choose from the Templar, Witch, Duelist, Ranger, Marauder and Shadow. Each of the characters share a common skill tree but start in their own special area of the skill tree so each is distinct in their specialties early in the game and aligned with one of the three main stats of Strength, Dexterity or Intelligence. More on the skill tree below. The story starts with you winding up stranded on Wraeclast, a “forsaken” land where exiled prisoners are dropped as punishment for their transgressions.

The world of Wraeclast being a land of outcasts has developed an economy based on items rather than money. Identify scrolls (Scrolls of Wisdom) are the coin of the realm in the start town along with a few other novel items. This means that trading items found (even the non-magical items that can be found most anywhere) is beneficial to you in the early game. When in town you will find other players as well as NPCs (non-player characters) you can trade with and quests to try.

At its heart, PoE is about exploring the world, killing monsters and getting loot. The graphics are well done and the attack, skill and spell effects look great. I am playing on an old Windows XP laptop running an AMD Athlon dual-core 2.1 GHz processor with 3GB of RAM and while I do experience hiccups and lag at times, the game is certainly playable. Unlike other games where each class may have specific spells or skills, PoE uses a common skill tree of passive abilities that modify your stats and capabilities with items and skill gems. These gems can be added to socketed items worn/used by your character to that provide your character with additional skills like lightning or fire traps. Items also can be modified using special orbs to add extra magical abilities or make a common item magical.

All of the usual aspects of an action RPG are here good visuals, quests, lots of item variety (normal, magic, rare, etc.). Some of the more novel bits are quite nice like the orbs and lack of a gold currency. Note that the game is still in beta despite all of the polish and hopefully will only get better. One thing that I have found annoying is the lack of being able to right click on an item in the inventory to move it to a vendor to sell it. If that is all I have to complain about in a game in beta, they must be doing something right. Since it’s free, go sign up for the Open Beta of Path of Exile now – it’s rated Four Mick Happies.

Here's an example of the Templar in action

Diablo 3 Review

Diablo 3 is the latest entry in the Diablo series of computer games. The first game in the series was released in 1996 and the three games (plus expansions) are what are universally known as action role-playing games. The main story of any of the games consist of you as a hero trying to stop a major evil from destroying the world. In practice this consists of using the mouse to click on monsters on screen until they die and then picking up their loot.

In Diablo 3 you are a hero just arrived in the town of Tristram following a shooting star that hit the old cathedral outside town. You are trying to find out what the star is and why it has caused the dead to rise and threaten the town. Along the way you find out that this is part of a greater problem facing the world of Sanctuary and over the four Acts of the story you will try to end the evil threatening everything.

If you have played any of the Diablo games (or similar action RPGs), you know that the main goal in the game is to become as powerful as possible through gaining higher levels with your character (raising stats and skills) and obtaining better items (loot). Diablo 3 is the same as any other aRPG in this respect, but perhaps with the minutiae of character development removed. In Diablo 3, each of the four character types (I played the bow-wielding Demon Hunter class) has a set number of skills they can learn as they progress and by choosing them you determine what feats your character can call on to survive the demons and evil you will face. Diablo 3 has a level cap at 60 and has four difficulties to play through (Normal, Nightmare, Hell and Inferno). Other customization for your character really comes from the items you find and use and the modifications they make to your abilities and skills.

After 32 hours of playing, my Demon Hunter completed the game on the easiest difficulty (Normal) and is currently level 32. I have found the graphics for the game to be stunning and there is a lot of variety in the environments you will explore throughout the game. The game also supports playing through the regular game and for those masochists, a hardcore mode where if you die, your character is gone and you lose all of his/her items, which I am sure to try. Over the course of the game, you also pick up companions (non-player characters) who help you and provide interesting side dialogues as you run around killing things (though they can get repetitive).

A couple of drawbacks did emerge during my play through, some of which are pretty serious for the re-playability of the game. The game requires that you be connected to Blizzard’s servers to ensure that no cheating occurs (since you can sell your items through an Auction House for in-game gold or real money). This has lead to problems accessing the game or at times to lag, which can be very annoying. Additionally, the end of Act 2 has a very difficult battle, which I was not equipped for. In order to avoid going back to earlier parts of the game I had already finished and replaying them to find better items, I used the auction house to upgrade. It was a bit annoying that I was unable to progress through the Normal difficulty without replaying sections of the game or buying equipment (for gold) from the Auction House.

There are also only a limited number of actions/skills you can have active for your character at a time (2 main commands for the mouse and 5 more on the keyboard). The controls felt ready made for using a console controller, but that functionality isn’t pre-coded into the game – a great opportunity for improvement here. However, probably the biggest concern for me is that to reach the highest levels you have to replay the whole game 3 times in order to unlock Inferno and the best items (read the ones that will be worth the most gold/money). While the story was fine once and I enjoyed learning the back story for the companions I met, I am sure it will get old – especially if I have to replay sections of each difficulty to get equipment to progress.

All those concerns aside, Blizzard is continually updating the game with patches and fixes, so it will get better. Additionally, each Act has some side quests/events that randomly appear meaning there is a little variety in each play through. If you are into killing things and the excitement of finding better and better equipment in a game that looks great, Diablo 3 is right for you. You can play multiplayer with up to 3 other people and in the future there will be player versus player play to allow you to fight it out to see who is the best. I found Diablo 3 to be worth 3.5 Mick Happies. I am certainly going to keep playing, but I may end up enjoying hardcore mode and the fight to stay alive more than the slog progression to get to level 60 and Inferno mode. Either way, as the Templar says…it will be “Glorious”.