Path of Exile 2 Gets Better Every Time I Play It

ign.com:

I’ve had the opportunity to play Path of Exile 2 several times throughout its development cycle, and there’s one thought I had after my latest session: this action-RPG keeps getting better every time I play it.

The first session I had the opportunity to join was a demo at Gamescom 2023. Grinding Gear’s Jonathan Rogers took me through the Warrior and Druid class, and I also had the opportunity to wait in line and try out the Monk for the first time. As expected, I got my butt kicked. But that’s par for the course. In early 2024 I had the chance to try out the Ranger, whose incredibly fun gameplay loop has you shooting lightning arrows and propagating lightning storms of death across the screen. And more recently I got to try out the Monk again and get some hands-on time with the Warrior, Sorceress, and Witch – all for the first time. Each of them feels unique, powerful, and interesting to play as. The Monk, once you get past the early leveling portions that have you whacking away at enemies with slow and methodical staff strikes, becomes a force to be reckoned with. You can dash in to weaken your enemies, get a few charges, and then annihilate the playing field with an incredibly powerful staff strike to the ground that sends ripples of energy that rip into the earth itself. And once I got the hang of this class's gameplay loop, I felt like I may have found another new favorite.

But the majority of my time I found myself playing as the Witch, who was one of the first classes I enjoyed in the original Path of Exile. In the sequel, the Witch starts out as a corpse-reviving menace who chooses what abilities the minions will wield, and can even command them to do unique attacks to great effect.

The Unearth skill gem, for instance, will create spikes of bone that travel from the earth in front of you doing a bit of damage, but will also raise the bones of corpses as short-lived construct minions. You’ll then start unlocking Skill Gems like Skeletal Warrior, Skeletal Sniper,