As more and more people become aware of and are playing Path of Exile, I thought I should update this review. I'm currently over 5700 hours in, having played it for about 5 years now and likely to play it for thousands more with how much the game keeps evolving with new content and mechanics every three months or so.

I started playing this game in 2013, after having played several other ARPGs: Diablo 2[en.wikipedia.org], Titan Quest, and Torchlight 2. I enjoyed those games very much, but all of them suffered from a lack of long term support. I think detailing my journey to this game via the others will paint a picture of what makes Path of Exile so special.

I started playing Diablo 2 soon after its release in 2000, and thoroughly enjoyed it. The replayability and satisfying gameplay really drew me in, and I spent untold hours playing it and its expansion, Lord of Destruction. I still have the original, large format game boxes on a shelf from that era. Despite all the content in the game, after some time it felt like I'd seen and done just about everything there was to do. To make matters worse, Blizzard virtually abandoned the game in late 2001 (patch 1.09d[diablo.wikia.com]), only releasing a new patch about two years later (patch 1.10[diablo.wikia.com]). I gave up on the game during that drought and haven't touched it since.

I tried the first Torchlight, and saw promise in it but was put off by the lack of multiplayer. When the sequel was released, learning that among its developers were people who had created Diablo, I gave it a shot. I enjoyed it enough to sink just over 400 hours into the game, which you can see in my Steam stats. Unfortunately, the developers were struggling and got absorbed into a larger company. To their credit, they released Steam Workshop support before moving on. Overall, it still felt like it didn't offer a lot more than Diablo: the gameplay was solid, but despite some differences and improvements, it felt like basically the same game.

Titan Quest was fun and had an unexpected setting for an ARPG, but it met a similar fate to Torchlight 2; the developers stopped supporting it as their studio fell on bad times. A lot of them went on to make Grim Dawn, which looks neat. Titan Quest tried some variations on the Diablo tropes, and had some interesting ideas, but still didn't evolve past the same formula to have me coming back.

So now we get close to Path of Exile, but first a detour to Diablo 3. Inevitably, Path of Exile gets compared to Diablo 3, sometimes via the Coke and Pepsi analogy. Unfortunately, this is a wildly inaccurate comparison that only works if one doesn't look past the ARPG surface both games share. A more accurate analogy would be that Diablo 3 is Coke or Pepsi and Path of Exile is a make-your-own-drink bar. Yes, this is where I disparage Diablo 3, so buckle up. I've played a bit of Diablo 3, and it reminds me a lot of Torchlight 2, in both good and bad ways. Additionally, I have two friends who've played a lot of Diablo 3 (one over a thousand hours) and Path of Exile, and I've heard again and again how Diablo 3 gets too easy past a certain point, the seasons barely add anything new, and the game overall feels really limited and lacking in replayability. It's a type of game begging for all of these, yet Blizzard seems okay with just a trickle of development and re-releasing it on various platforms without any substantial new content or evolving the same old formula.

So, now we get to Path of Exile. I took a chance on this game back in 2013 during its pre-1.0 open beta, and started to really enjoy it. At the time, it only had 3 acts and a bit of end-game content, but it was a fun romp with a ton of neat ideas and replayability. Fast forward 5 years later, and it now has 10 acts, a lot of challenging end-game content, and such a flexible and deep character system that even over 5700 hours in, there's still stuff that I haven't tried. Here's a list of what it offers over the other games I've listed:

* Character classes do not have exclusive skills like other ARPGs; all classes share the same giant passive skill tree[www.pathofexile.com], starting in different locations, and every class can use any active skill provided they meet stat requirements, as the actual attacks, spells, buffs, and so on are gems which you find and socket into your items[www.pathofexile.com]. Additionally, there are hundreds of support gems that augment these, so there are thousands of possible, viable, and creative builds, even for some of the most brutal end-game content. The developers have made a fundamental stand in avoiding gameplay that would limit variety in builds - for example, refusing to add item sets to the game - instead offering a ton of items that augment your character in weird and interesting ways.

* There is no gold. The game economy functions by using a multitude of crafting items as currency. In some cases, the value of a crafting item is much higher as a trading currency than in actual crafting.

* An incredible amount of free content to play through. New content is added every three months, which has grown more and more elaborate as their team and user base has grown - the latter continually breaking previous records. There are new voice acting, art, effects, and so on that feel like a game you'd pay $60 or more on.

* No pay to win elements. Microtransactions are a bad word nowadays with good reason as some publishers pull all sorts of predatory stuff, but this game has remained true to avoiding pay to win by largely only offering cosmetics for purchase - you can play the whole game without spending any money and be on the same level as those that have spent a lot of money on the game. Speaking of cosmetics, one of the founders stated just before 3.5.0 launched in no uncertain terms that they will never make us buy all of our microtransactions over again, calling that practice "garbage", and saying that they will continue to update and evolve the current game for years to come.

* Their support people are the nicest and most responsive I've ever had the pleasure of dealing with, in any software or service, and have remained this way as they've continued to grow.

If you enjoy deep and satisfying gameplay with regular content updates and incredible replayability from a developer that routinely treats you with (gasp) respect, maybe you could join us and see what all the fuss is about?

As more and more people become aware of and are playing Path of Exile, I thought I should update this review. I'm currently over 5700 hours in, having played it for about 5 years now and likely to play it for thousands more with how much the game keeps evolving with new content and mechanics every three months or so. I started playing this game in 2013, after having played several other ARPGs: [url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diablo_II]Diablo 2[/url], [url=https://steamoss.com/steamstore/app/475150/Titan_Quest_Anniversary_Edition/]Titan Quest[/url], and [url=https://steamoss.com/steamstore/app/200710/Torchlight_II/]Torchlight 2[/url]. I enjoyed those games very much, but all of them suffered from a lack of long term support. I think detailing my journey to this game via the others will paint a picture of what makes Path of Exile so special. I started playing [b]Diablo 2[/b] soon after its release in 2000, and thoroughly enjoyed it. The replayability and satisfying gameplay really drew me in, and I spent untold hours playing it and its expansion, Lord of Destruction. I still have the original, large format game boxes on a shelf from that era. Despite all the content in the game, after some time it felt like I'd seen and done just about everything there was to do. To make matters worse, Blizzard virtually abandoned the game in late 2001 ([url=http://diablo.wikia.com/wiki/Patch_1.09d_(Diablo_II)]patch 1.09d[/url]), only releasing a new patch about two years later ([url=http://diablo.wikia.com/wiki/Patch_1.10_(Diablo_II)]patch 1.10[/url]). I gave up on the game during that drought and haven't touched it since. I tried the first [b]Torchlight[/b], and saw promise in it but was put off by the lack of multiplayer. When the sequel was released, learning that among its developers were people who had created Diablo, I gave it a shot. I enjoyed it enough to sink just over 400 hours into the game, which you can see in my Steam stats. Unfortunately, the developers were struggling and got absorbed into a larger company. To their credit, they released Steam Workshop support before moving on. Overall, it still felt like it didn't offer a lot more than Diablo: the gameplay was solid, but despite some differences and improvements, it felt like basically the same game. [b]Titan Quest[/b] was fun and had an unexpected setting for an ARPG, but it met a similar fate to Torchlight 2; the developers stopped supporting it as their studio fell on bad times. A lot of them went on to make Grim Dawn, which looks neat. Titan Quest tried some variations on the Diablo tropes, and had some interesting ideas, but still didn't evolve past the same formula to have me coming back. So now we get close to [b]Path of Exile[/b], but first a detour to [b]Diablo 3[/b]. Inevitably, Path of Exile gets compared to Diablo 3, sometimes via the Coke and Pepsi analogy. Unfortunately, this is a wildly inaccurate comparison that only works if one doesn't look past the ARPG surface both games share. A more accurate analogy would be that Diablo 3 is Coke or Pepsi and Path of Exile is [i]a make-your-own-drink bar[/i]. Yes, this is where I disparage Diablo 3, so buckle up. I've played a bit of Diablo 3, and it reminds me a lot of Torchlight 2, in both good and bad ways. Additionally, I have two friends who've played a lot of Diablo 3 (one over a thousand hours) and Path of Exile, and I've heard again and again how Diablo 3 gets too easy past a certain point, the seasons barely add anything new, and the game overall feels really limited and lacking in replayability. It's a type of game begging for all of these, yet Blizzard seems okay with just a trickle of development and re-releasing it on various platforms without any substantial new content or evolving the same old formula. So, now we get to [b]Path of Exile[/b]. I took a chance on this game back in 2013 during its pre-1.0 open beta, and started to really enjoy it. At the time, it only had 3 acts and a bit of end-game content, but it was a fun romp with a ton of neat ideas and replayability. Fast forward 5 years later, and it now has 10 acts, a lot of challenging end-game content, and such a flexible and deep character system that even over 5700 hours in, there's still stuff that I haven't tried. Here's a list of what it offers over the other games I've listed: * [b]Character classes do not have exclusive skills like other ARPGs[/b]; all classes share the same [url=https://www.pathofexile.com/passive-skill-tree]giant passive skill tree[/url], starting in different locations, and every class can use any active skill provided they meet stat requirements, as the actual attacks, spells, buffs, and so on are [url=https://www.pathofexile.com/game]gems which you find and socket into your items[/url]. Additionally, there are hundreds of support gems that augment these, so there are thousands of possible, viable, and creative builds, even for some of the most brutal end-game content. The developers have made a fundamental stand in avoiding gameplay that would limit variety in builds - for example, refusing to add item sets to the game - instead offering a ton of items that augment your character in weird and interesting ways. * [b]There is no gold.[/b] The game economy functions by using a multitude of crafting items as currency. In some cases, the value of a crafting item is much higher as a trading currency than in actual crafting. * [b]An incredible amount of free content to play through.[/b] New content is added every three months, which has grown more and more elaborate as their team and user base has grown - the latter [url=https://www.pcgamer.com/path-of-exile-smashes-its-player-count-record-following-free-betrayal-update/]continually breaking previous records[/url]. There are new voice acting, art, effects, and so on that feel like a game you'd pay $60 or more on. * [b]No pay to win elements[/b]. Microtransactions are a bad word nowadays with good reason as some publishers pull all sorts of predatory stuff, but this game has remained true to avoiding pay to win by largely only offering cosmetics for purchase - you can play the whole game without spending any money and be on the same level as those that have spent a lot of money on the game. Speaking of cosmetics, [url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vb5J_rmraEE&t=3168]one of the founders stated just before 3.5.0 launched in no uncertain terms that they will never make us buy all of our microtransactions over again[/url], calling that practice "garbage", and saying that they will continue to update and evolve the current game for years to come. * Their support people are the nicest and most responsive I've ever had the pleasure of dealing with, in any software or service, and have remained this way as they've continued to grow. If you enjoy deep and satisfying gameplay with regular content updates and incredible replayability from a developer that routinely treats you with (gasp) respect, maybe you could join us and see what all the fuss is about?