Hail all,
I'm surprised Path of Exile hasn't been discussed here yet. I've been fortunate to try out the Beta (http://www.pathofexile.com) and wanted to report my findings.
I couldn't help but grin as my hero encounters his first enemies, a zombie like creature and little rodent shooting spines at you. Before realizing it my pointer finger springs into action, knowing full well how to vanquish these familiar foes. After swiftly picking up many dropped rewards, I take a look at the inventory screen:
http://imgur.com/ozpEs?full
Home sweet home! I ended up relapsing in my clicking addiction for the next few days and have finally come up for air. The game is far from done and has a lot of issues at hand, but it's shaping into a very interesting Diablo clone. There's quite a few distinct features that separate it from the pack:
Spells are only gained through finding gems that are classified into three different types: Strength based (red), and I bet you know the rest already. Subsequently, you must equip the skill gem into a matching color gear slot. For instance I've found a blue intelligence gem named "lightning bolt", so in order to use the lighting bolt skill I must have a piece of equipment that has an available blue gem slot to put in. You may freely remove and place skill gems, so there's unlimited skill swapping. Additionally, I've never seen so much gear that's randomly generated drop in a game, so you'll be sifting through a lot of items to find the pefect kind of skill slot combinations. You can further modify the way a skill works by finding skill effect gems such as "increased AOE effect", "additional projectiles", or "increased damage". Finally, skill gems also have random magical stats and level up with your character.
When creating a character you're allowed to start in a certain kind of league, such as Hardcore. If you die in Hardcore, you're simply demoted into the default league with no chance of that character being in Hardcore again. Another similar but more extreme league is Cut-throat- no zones are instanced and it's open PVP with all gear being dropped upon death as well as being forever demoted.
Potions now have their own equipment slots, hotkeys, can drop with random magic stats, and refill upon killing enemies. Another big feature is the 200+ passive skill tree, which lets you choose a new passive skill every level.
There's a lot of other minor tweaks and adjustments which make the game seem like the Diablo 2 you love, but refreshingly different. I hope some of you are able to get in the Beta and try out this promising upcoming rpg- they give away Beta keys every 40 minutes if you register at their site. I don't want to come off as hyping the game too much though, currently the game balance feels incredibly off, but the system they've presented is intriguing.
-MonTy
I'm surprised Path of Exile hasn't been discussed here yet. I've been fortunate to try out the Beta (http://www.pathofexile.com) and wanted to report my findings.
I couldn't help but grin as my hero encounters his first enemies, a zombie like creature and little rodent shooting spines at you. Before realizing it my pointer finger springs into action, knowing full well how to vanquish these familiar foes. After swiftly picking up many dropped rewards, I take a look at the inventory screen:
http://imgur.com/ozpEs?full
Home sweet home! I ended up relapsing in my clicking addiction for the next few days and have finally come up for air. The game is far from done and has a lot of issues at hand, but it's shaping into a very interesting Diablo clone. There's quite a few distinct features that separate it from the pack:
Spells are only gained through finding gems that are classified into three different types: Strength based (red), and I bet you know the rest already. Subsequently, you must equip the skill gem into a matching color gear slot. For instance I've found a blue intelligence gem named "lightning bolt", so in order to use the lighting bolt skill I must have a piece of equipment that has an available blue gem slot to put in. You may freely remove and place skill gems, so there's unlimited skill swapping. Additionally, I've never seen so much gear that's randomly generated drop in a game, so you'll be sifting through a lot of items to find the pefect kind of skill slot combinations. You can further modify the way a skill works by finding skill effect gems such as "increased AOE effect", "additional projectiles", or "increased damage". Finally, skill gems also have random magical stats and level up with your character.
When creating a character you're allowed to start in a certain kind of league, such as Hardcore. If you die in Hardcore, you're simply demoted into the default league with no chance of that character being in Hardcore again. Another similar but more extreme league is Cut-throat- no zones are instanced and it's open PVP with all gear being dropped upon death as well as being forever demoted.
Potions now have their own equipment slots, hotkeys, can drop with random magic stats, and refill upon killing enemies. Another big feature is the 200+ passive skill tree, which lets you choose a new passive skill every level.
There's a lot of other minor tweaks and adjustments which make the game seem like the Diablo 2 you love, but refreshingly different. I hope some of you are able to get in the Beta and try out this promising upcoming rpg- they give away Beta keys every 40 minutes if you register at their site. I don't want to come off as hyping the game too much though, currently the game balance feels incredibly off, but the system they've presented is intriguing.
-MonTy