Path of Exilerecently had some setbacks, complaints from the community, and technical issues with League and expansion launches, much like what has been happening in the few hours sinceUltimatum’s launch. However,PoEstill succeeded in breaking its own records in terms of numbers of active players and player retention percentage throughout 2020 and with Ritual in 2021.
Then, there isPath of Exile 2coming, withPath of Exileplayers being extremely enthusiastic at the prospect of playing a whole new story, with new characters, new skills, and new everything basically. The reception from the community has been incredible, and the future forPath of ExileandPath of Exile 2is looking bright on the content side of things.
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The Direction GGG Is Heading Towards with PoE
Despite all this, some players do not agree with the direction Grinding Gear Games is heading towards. First of all, GGG decided to nerf the only proper way to deterministically craft items inPath of Exile- namely,Harvest. This left many fans with a bad, sour taste in their mouths, as the League content didn’t have to be nerfed so hard without an alternative. Second,Cyberpunk 2077delaying the launch ofPoE’sRitualLeaguewas interpreted by some simply as a business decision, rather than a calculated risk because of how bad some previous launches were.
Then, there were the rocky launches ofHeistand nowUltimatum, with the latter being even more serious. In fact, GGG decided to hand over to streamers and content creators the priority to skip the queue for logging in on launch day, which on its own made lots of players angry and sets a bad precedent, as if it was a way to say that all players are equal, but some are special. Not only that, but the queue has been insufferably long and slow, and players have not been able to access the League. Some did, and they either played a couple of minutes before being disconnected or they were kicked back to the log-in screen right away. Furthermore, some other players had their microtransactions deleted when trying to use them.
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Path of Exile 2 And How Things Are Going To Change
One of the most common lines of reasoning for fans when a sequel to their beloved game is announced is that the original game will eventually fade, basically that it doesn’t make sense anymore to play it. WithPath of Exile 2approaching, albeit very slowly, gamers are concerned for the future ofPath of Exileand how things will inevitably change.Path of Exile 2might make upcoming features for the original game look more trivial, potentially insignificant even; on the other hand,Path of Exileis very likely to become a testing ground for its sequel.
This is not a bad thing, as players still devoting their time toPath of Exilewill be able to appreciate how the game is going to change intoPath of Exile 2in a more gradual, rewarding way. New skills might be introduced which look a lot like products of the effort going intoPoE 2, and this applies to other features as well. Think of Blazing Salvo and Flame Wall, for example, which were clearly thought to be played together when they were added back inHeist. Still, that sort of gameplay is not quite in line with the speed meta of Path of Exile, so players ended up picking either of them, but not both. This willchange withPath of Exile 2, with greater build variety and lots of fully supported skills to play with for a more complete experience.
It’s not that hard to see howPath of Exile, despite its issues, will still remain a relevant game in 2021 (and, likely, in 2022 as well). There will be updates with embryos and prototypes of features that will be going through player scrutiny, and these features are likely to be a glimpse into the future of the game and the franchise as a whole. Lastly, another great reason to keep playingPoEthis year is to experience theEchoes of the Atlasexpansionthat launched back in January, with the addition of the first-ever passive skill tree for the Atlas regions, enhancing all of the past Leagues in terms of gameplay.
Path of Exileis available to play on Mac, PC, PS4, and Xbox One.
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