Anticipating fans of Path of Exile 2 who have come to assume the game to merely be an expansion to the original Path of Exile, may wonder why Path of Exile 2 will be a standalone game instead.
To put it simply, Path of Exile 2 strives to achieve its ambition of a full-fledged sequel to the highly acclaimed Path of Exile by revamping many weak aspects of its successor and adding a new depth of content and customization. For more details, let us analyze everything about Path of Exile 2’s development for a definitive conclusion.
When did Path of Exile 2 officially become a standalone title?
Initially introduced Exilecon 2019, Path of Exile 2 (POE 2) was merely going to be an extension of Path of Exile and essentially as “more of the same” content that was more of a massive update rather than a separate game.
“POE 2 is POE 1 but everything is better! POE 1 with reworked systems, better graphics, new rigs, new classes, new gem socketing systems but all the same depth and endgame you are used to.”
Jonathan Rogers, Path of Exile 2 Gameplay Director
However, during Exilecon 2023, GGG surprised its fan base by announcing the separation of Path of Exile 2 development away from Path of Exile and officially marking it as a standalone title with its own game mechanics, balancing, endgame system and separated Leagues. Meanwhile, Path of Exile will continue its own development and receive new patches and content updates separately.
“Path of Exile 1 and 2 will be separate, with their own mechanics, balance, endgames, and leagues, but it’s still a shared platform,”
Jonathan Rogers, path of Exile 2 gameplay director
Not only that, it was also revealed that players’ in-game purchases (microtransactions) will be shared between the POE and POE 2. This means any microtransactions you have purchased for Path of Exile will carry over to the next game and vice versa.
The “shared platform” means any microtransactions on your account will be available across both Path of Exile 1 and 2. That goes for stuff you’ve bought since 2013, and it also goes for stuff you buy in Path of Exile 2 a few years from now, with some exceptions.
“Everything you have ever purchased or will ever purchase in the future will be usable in both games unless it’s hyper-specific to the content of one of them,” Rogers said. “You can’t transform into a bear in PoE1, so a reskin of your bear form isn’t going to work. But you absolutely can equip the awesome armor set that you got and use all your stash tabs.”
Jonathan Rogers, Path of Exile 2 Gameplay Director
Since then, many updates on Path of Exile 2 development were announced via trailers, gameplay walkthroughs and interviews and shed light on the reasons that necessitate POE 2 to have its own design and development.
Why Path of Exile 2 will be a standalone title?
1. Rework and streamline the game’s mechanics
With the release of Path of Exile 2, it is clear that GGG is trying to appeal to new and recurring players alike by revamping many of the game’s mechanics to be more streamlined and useful. Here are the new reworked systems that have been announced for POE 2:
New gems socket system: Skill gems in POE 2 will no longer be socketed on items directly. Instead, skill gems will innately have sockets linked to them. This allows a single build to have multiple six links and can potentially utilize multiple primary skills.
Refer here for a break down of Path of Exile 2 new gem sockets system
Weapon skills: Skill gems in Path of Eixle 2 can be a specific skill for a certain type of weapon (e.g. Storm Spear can only be used with a Spear weapon class).
Revamped weapon swap mechanic: Path of Exile 2 seeks to overhaul the largely unused potential of the weapon swap feature in the previous game. GGG hopes to achieve this by making multi-primary-skills builds viable with the introduction of weapon-set-specific skill points.
Reworked mana reservation: Aura skill reservation will no longer be placed on mana but a new resource altogether called Spirit – a stat that can be invested in just as Health or Mana.
Action-oriented combat: Combat in Path of Exile 2 promises to be a more involved playstyle with higher action input. The game incentivizes players to utilize movement skills much more combined with the new dodge roll feature to always put their character in advantageous positions. Combat will also have a combo aspect to it by stacking marks on enemies and breaking them to gain various charges like Power Charge.
Boss fight rebalance: Path of Exile 2 Boss fights introduce a stage bar and CC threshold instead of having the Boss outright CC immune.
2. Reset the state of excess content
One of Path of Exile’s greatest assets and arguably one of its biggest drawbacks is the massive amount of content that this game has to offer as a result of over 10 years of non-stop content updates.
It might seem ludicrous to suggest this but the truth is Path of Exile has a content bloat situation and combined with its complex game mechanics could intimidate many new players. At the same time, it is getting hard to imagine Path of Exile being able to fit much more content into its core game simply due to the content overload.
Thus it is understandable why GGG’s developers would want to go in a slightly different direction with Path of Exile 2 this time around. This time will be a chance to press the reset button of the game design, philosophy and content. This way, players who want to play the original POE with all the years of development can continue to do so while those who want to play a more focused streamlined game of Path of Exile 2 can enjoy its new exclusive content and perhaps selective high-quality past content.
3. Overhaul the Console version
Path of Exile 2 will completely overhaul the game’s console version giving it the attention and quality their PC counterparts much needed. These extensive console and controller support include:
New Console UI: An interchangeable interface for both PC and consoles will be added to the game, with dual-stick control for movement and aiming to facilitate POE 2 combat style.
Local co-op mode: This new game mode to be added to the game will finally allow local play on the same device so you can play right next to your friends and family. This mode includes a dual HUD display, camera rework for 2 characters and a dual menu system for 2 players.
Cross-play and Cross-progression ready: Specifically between PC and Console platforms. This means you can play and switch between platforms, whether PC or consoles and still retain progression.
Microtransaction sharing: Path of Exile 1 and 2 will essentially share the same platform and microtransaction (MTX) purchases. You can expect your digital goods from prior releases to also be available for your POE 2 account.
4. Fixing technical issues and updating graphics
Along with the expected graphical updates to elevate the game up to the current gen’s standards, Path of Exile 2 could finally have a much-needed opportunity to fix the many SEVERE technical issues of POE 1.
These technical problems have plagued Path of Exiles since the beginning and they are arguably the worst part of the game. The most major technical issues are:
- Infrequent content load: Path of Exile has a very inefficient method of content loading that will lead to continuous lag spikes throughout the game. Especially when new enemies or visual effects are spawned into the game. This problem is especially bad if your setup lacks CPU power.
- Client crashes: The game’s client crashes very often. It is seemingly an unavoidable issue as neither the cause nor suitable solutions were ever found. Needless to say, it’s unfun to lose your progress in the game due to some random crash.
- Poor optimization: If you are a new player to POE, you might be unpleasantly surprised at the fact that the game is practically unplayable without an SSD due to its stagnant loading time.
Will Path of Exile 2 be similar to Path of Exile 1?
In conclusion, what can you expect Path of Exile 2 as a standalone game to be? In short, Path of Exile 2 will most likely be a continuation of the previous game rather than a completely distinct sequel. Despite the many possible improvements listed above, one can easily surmise how similar POE 1 and POE 2 will be when you see how many elements are brought back to this sequel.
Path of Exile has always been about being faithful to the core aRPG concepts and taking its inspiration directly from Diablo 2. In a sense, POE has never tried to re-invent the basics of classical aRPG but rather to improve upon them. Coming into Path of Exile 2, it’s natural that they want to preserve this spirit.
