For those of you who have played PoE, D2, D3, and TL2..

How does Path of Exile compare to the other three titles? Right now I'm currently playing Diablo 3 and after seeing this game it looks promising.

What are your opinions? What is your experience in PoE to the experiences in D3 and D2 etc?

Your answers are much appreciated :)

I'll compare it to d2.

It doesn't have the dumb enigma mechanic so for pvp, it's already an improvement.

Ok, more seriously:

Loot system is much more akin do d2 vanilla (where uniques were very rarely the best items) in regard to best in slot items but there's quite a number of uniques with truly unique effects that can make or break a build.

It has the widest character customization of any game I ever played. Of course, a lot of this customization is only a small difference in game style (although it can make a huge difference in gameplay).

For the moment, there's not that many skills implemented (still a decent amount of them) but this will constantly increase as the game evolve. It's also much easier to balance skills than balancing a class that has those skills (and much easier to add to the game too).

Unlike D2 though, the end game doesn't resume itself at doing ubers and baal (or mephisto + cows runs, depending of when you played d2). The map system and race events allow a constant change of play, which is refreshing.


If I had to say, it looks a little like dungeon siege 1 in term of skills, original d2 in term of loot and well, I don't know a game that really has that much character customization available :P

I can compare it to all four games (including TL1), and let's throw in Sacred 1 and 2 for good measure. :)

1. Torchlight 1: TL1 was a great game, but it was too short, had too little variation and quickly got boring. Path of Exile is better in every single way.

2. Torchlight 2: While I read all the "allow mods" stuff in the previews, I had no idea it would mean the develops not only allows cheating in the game, but they even encourage it. That part alone drove me away from the game. But even if they hadn't done that, I found it to be an incredibly boring game with dull skills, a pointless pet, boring enemies and not much of a story at all to follow. Again, PoE is much better in every way.

3. Diablo 2: This was the first ARPG I played, and I absolutely loved it - in multiplayer. Single-player got boring quickly, though I did finish it on Normal a few times with three or four characters. But multiplayer where were it was at, and this before I got a broadband. It's horribly dated today, though, and not really relevant.

4. Diablo 3: When I reached Act 3 on the Hell difficulty, I had found a single Unique item - and I found it on Act 2 on Normal. Not only that, but it was crap. Also, the real-money auction house ruined the entire game for a lot of people, including me. But other than those two issues, it was really good. I have high hopes for the expansion. Path of Exile is more enjoyable to me, but not by much.

5. Sacred: This game had some interesting characters and an interesting skill system, and the vampire is still one of my favorite characters to this day. If it had been released today with an updated graphic engine and all that, Path of Exile would have struggled to compete. Still, like Diablo 2, it's not really relevant, as it's too old.

6. Sacred 2: My favorite ARPG of all time. If the comments like "My trunk if full of junk", "What did the old man say? Fly, you fools!" or (when the Seraphim stands still for too long:) "How dare you leave me the mercy of even the lowliest creature. I might just start removing items from your inventory." doesn't tip you off, the game is hilarious. I still remember the first time I heard my robot-doggie brag about almost starring in Terminator 4. :D Path of Exile is great, but it can be too serious for it's own good at times.

Funny you mentionned Sacred 2. It's still one of my favorite games but I was molested, reported, bullied when I mentionned it on Bnet.
I do think D3 borrowed a lot of game mechanics from sacred 2. The most blatant one is Skills and how runes can modify them drastically. But any S2 player can tell you how this system it not that great. Runes are not balanced and more often the majority of people will choose a certain rune over the other. This is also the case in D3.
Poe on the other hand uses something similar but infinitely more useful. Support gems. They also modify the skills they are attached to. You will have a use for any given support gem.

At this moment:

D2LOD (Still! and it will not give throne easy... D2LOD is BRILLIANT game - very hard to beat... i think none game company atm can dothis) >>>> T2 (with some mods for balance and more variety... after release of editor and some megaoverhauls it can be No1.. we can check this in a year or two. If someone do remake of D2LOD in T2 editor it will be No1 forever:)) >>>> POE (can be No2 but its long way from here... at least one year with the assumption that game will not fail) >>>> everything else including PacMn and hand-Tetris Games >>>> D3

Not to mention, D3 has one of the worst community ever (shoulders with CoD forums).

Thanks for your great replies guys. From the sounds of it, I should just quit D3 now and get ready for PoE.

It has been so long since I have felt the satisfaction of a game like D2, I really hope it lives up to what you have guys said.. (and what Krippian has said)

Hope to see you all in-game coming Jan 23rd!

"

Shominaminoto wrote:

Thanks for your great replies guys. From the sounds of it, I should just quit D3 now and get ready for PoE.

It has been so long since I have felt the satisfaction of a game like D2, I really hope it lives up to what you have guys said.. (and what Krippian has said)

Hope to see you all in-game coming Jan 23rd!

Heh, if your options are D3 and POE, the choice is easy! Every time I play D3, I get so depressed (I, like everyone, wanted so much for it to be good). Not so with POE. POE is kind of a breath of fresh air. For what that's worth.

I have 7 lvl60 chars in D3, one of them paragon 60.

I quit as soon as I got a key for PoE :D
And I've never been happier!

Now I feel like I wasted so much time in D3, doing the same thing over and over and over and over...
No skill, no brains, no thinking, just mindless grinding day after day.

I loved TL2 when it came out, but the lack of servers and the fact that ppl cheat so much in the multiplayer games kinda drove me away.

"

Shominaminoto wrote:

How does Path of Exile compare to the other three titles? Right now I'm currently playing Diablo 3 and after seeing this game it looks promising.

What are your opinions? What is your experience in PoE to the experiences in D3 and D2 etc?

Your answers are much appreciated :)

Shominaminoto...

When I 1st jumped over from D3 to PoE in July this year the biggest difference was the "polish" to the gameplay, lacking NPC voice and graphics (particularly the map and WayPoint/Zone effects). D3 seemed to run very smooth with all the bells and whistles. What D3 did lack was a connection to your character, event ladders, itemisation and a true end game (aside from item grinding).

Over the months PoE kept improving on it's "polish" flaws (some still exist WP/Zone effects) and even added more features like PvP arenas. D3 seemed to rush in their "Paragon" system, Monster Power and Hellfire event as a "quick fix"... I went back for a few weeks but quickly grew bored of grinding the same static areas again and again and again... simply to try and craft 1 legendary ring. As others have said the RMAH is just a pain.

Like many I played and loved D2 for years. That and WoW are the 2 main games I have been "addicted" to... and now PoE joins them. Not only that, but IMO it exceeds them... and it isn't even a complete game yet. That is the scary thing. :-|