// PC GAMER — GAMING
A series of surprise updates has polished Path of Exile 2 into a juggernaut that's about to shake up the action RPG genre later this year
Grinding Gear Games is putting in the work to prepare for the game's 1.0 release.
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Grinding Gear Games is on a roll. Despite announcing that the most recent expansion to Path of Exile 2 would be its last update before it leaves early access later this year, the patches keep coming.
Earlier this week, the developer surprised everyone with a whole new box of toys to play with: an entire skill tree for one of its new side activities and a massive upgrade to Unique items that opens the door for tons of new ways to play through its campaign. The final pieces of PoE 2 are starting to fall into place and it's shaping up to be one of the most ambitious action RPGs I've ever played.
I've never had the pleasure of watching an early access game come together like this before. A year and a half ago, I played the debut version of PoE 2 and wasn't entirely sure it would pull me away from Diablo 4. Its stingy loot drops and abrasive complexity didn't feel worth it. But the last few expansions got their hooks in me, and now I'm thinking of skipping the next Diablo 4 season to keep playing PoE 2 instead.
It's hard to tear myself away from a game that perfectly blends my two favorite types of action RPG: Weighty soulslikes and loot-heavy hack-and-slashers. PoE 2 doesn't feel like anything I've played before, and watching the developers start to put the final touches on it has me anticipating a generational addition to the genre.
For awhile, I doubted Path of Exile 2 was going to get there.
Return of the Ancients expansion let me finally understand the vision for PoE 2.
The recently released Return of the Ancients expansion let me finally understand the vision for PoE 2. Like my favorite FromSoftware games, it's an action RPG that refuses to budge on the core pillars of its design. This isn't the kind of game where you quickly turn into a god and mow through monsters like they're nothing. You're an underdog for most of the campaign, scrounging for any tiny advantages you can find to help you survive. And that tension now continues into the endgame, where the world of Wraeclast unfolds before you and guides you toward its greatest secrets and toughest challenges.
PoE 2 reminds me of the way Elden Ring's brutal difficulty encouraged me to navigate its byzantine systems so that I could keep exploring a world I was so eager to understand. Both games demand that you learn their language so that you can start to piece together the logic they operate on, like how the different item tiers are the same form of categorization used for monsters and endgame maps.