Path of Exilebecame increasingly
pens and beginning anew in spite of your savior status feels like an appropriate reset button, and a good way to set the tone for the rest of the narrative.
That's especially evident with Fall of Oriath, which adds six new actsto the game's existing four. Act 5 (which is what I played, though the beta will have Acts 1-7) is the big draw as it features the homeland of the Templars, while the others are framed as storytelling devices that are impacted by your previous narrative choices (yep, Path of Exilehas a few big campaign junctions that are fairly well done). The best part is that everything is remixed into a giant story with the standard difficulty settings removed, which in my experience removes a lot of confusion as to POE currency trade what's optimal to play on. There's effectively now a more obvious postgame that doesn't have to be explained by another player.
Oriath itself is immensely important in the lore, as this expansion is a homecoming — it's the city-state that's responsible for the player's titular exile at the very start of Act 1. There's been a lot of buildup after saving theWraeclast continent, and early on in Act 5 you get a decent amount of payoff. Rising out of the slave pens and beginning anew in spite of your savior status feels like an appropriate reset button, and a good way to set the tone for the rest of the narrative.
Path of Exilebecame increasingly grotesque and unhinged (in a good way) as each act progressed, but Act 5 is able to strike a balance with an air of sanguineness,without going over-the-top. Seeing bloody hands reach out of the caged floors as you walk is classic Exile, as is the explicit goal of revenge against the land that left you to die. Boss fights (including one with a High Templar) are still challenging and up to snuff, with familiar mechanics like bullet dodging, though I'm still not huge on the returning formula of periodic invulnerability breaks to shove droves of adds on-screen.
By the time Fall of Oriathrolls around you should probably give Path of Exilea whirl, as it'll come with new items and another meta-leveling system that's tied into the game's deities in addition to the new acts buy POE orbs . It's so fine-tuned at this point that it actually dissuades me from getting invested in other dungeon crawlers, and since it's extra hard to round up a dedicated Diablo IIcrew these days, this is the next best thing. An Xbox One port is also scheduled to arrive sometime this year, which will be hosted on a different realm.
