Path of Exile 2

Path of Exile 2 entered early access on December 6, 2024, as a standalone game, graphically and mechanically reworked, built on a new generation of Grinding Gear Games' engine. Rather than simply expanding on the first game, it offers a new story, a reworked passive skill tree, and a weapon system in which the combat style fundamentally changes depending on what the character currently has in hand – bows, staves, or a pair of blades play entirely differently and combine into their own combo chains.

The studio retained the model of a free game financed only through cosmetic microtransactions and additional storage, as well as an economy built on currency items instead of gold. On PC, this was the leading version, controlled with mouse and keyboard, with the same seasonal leagues as its predecessor and a clear ambition to offer a slower, more tactical combat system than the reactive, hectic first game, where the player dodges much more and plans out individual hits.

A major novelty was that the game launched simultaneously on consoles from day one – for the first time in the studio's history, early access covered not just computers but PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S as well, something Grinding Gear Games could not afford with the first game even after years of development.

PC players, moreover, are the first to receive bugfix patches and balance adjustments, since the studio continues, even with the second game, the habit of tuning new seasonal leagues and balance first on the computer version and only later deploying them to consoles. That is also why the PC remains, in the long run, the reference platform for tracking the current state of the game, even though early access is, for now, content-identical across all three platforms.

The game also retained the typical hardcore option with permanent character death alongside the standard league, and just like the first game, it remains completely free – it earns money only from cosmetic add-ons and storage space, not from gameplay advantages that would disrupt the balance between players.

Why play it: For fans of the first game as well as newcomers who want a more tactical, slower combat system and a freshly built world without ten years of accumulated mechanics – on PC with full mouse-and-keyboard support and no compromises in controls.