Path of Exile

About Path of Exile

Grinding Gear Games dropped Path of Exile back in October 2013 for PC players before it eventually expanded to PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Mac systems. This online action RPG places you as an outcast on the dark continent of Wraeclast where you must fight undead horrors and corrupt soldiers to survive. The game leans heavily into its hack and slash roots while offering deep role-playing elements that let you build complex character abilities. It launched as a free-to-play title with no pay-to-win mechanics, focusing entirely on loot and skill customization rather than microtransactions for power. Players join thousands of others in a shared world filled with ruined cities, swamps, and forests teeming with monsters.

Gameplay

You spend your time exploring zones, killing waves of enemies, and collecting gear that defines your build. The core loop involves clearing maps to find better loot while managing a massive passive skill tree that offers hundreds of nodes for customization. Combat feels fast and visceral as you chain attacks together, dodge enemy abilities, and use powerful skills that cost mana or energy. You can tackle missions alone or team up with friends in co-op modes to take down tough bosses. The interface shows detailed stats for every item, allowing you to trade parts of your armor or weapons to change how your character functions. Sessions often last hours as you refine your loadout and push deeper into harder content to unlock rare items.

What Players Think

Critics clearly love this title since 100 percent of OpenCritic reviewers gave it a Mighty recommendation with an average score of 88 out of 100. IGDB users rate it 80 from 481 ratings, showing consistent approval across the board. The community describes the vibe as hardcore and intense, with some players feeling emotional during difficult runs. Twitch data places the game at rank 39 for trending viewership, proving its staying power over a decade after launch. Players have earned 127 achievements in total, though the average unlock rate sits low at just 11.2 percent. The rarest accomplishment called "Maraketh Steel" has only been unlocked by one percent of players, highlighting how challenging the endgame remains for even seasoned veterans.

PlayPile's Take

This game suits players who want a deep RPG without paying money to win. The sheer depth of customization offers hundreds of hours of content for those willing to learn complex systems. At no upfront cost, you get access to a massive world filled with loot and difficult bosses. Achievements are plentiful but hard to earn, rewarding patience over speed. If you dislike grinding or feel overwhelmed by skill trees, this might not be your pick. The low unlock rates on rare achievements show that only dedicated players reach the very top tiers of content.

Storyline

All exiles are given the same choice: to sink or swim. Those that don't drown will reach the forsaken shores of Wraeclast, where the only welcome is the clinging embrace of undeath. However, a small band of survivors has managed to hold fast in a ruined lighthouse, desperately repelling both the grasping undead and the manic scavengers that stubbornly cling to their last shreds of humanity. Under the commanding gaze of Axiom Prison, snarling goatmen roam the craggy bluffs, always keeping their cloven feet well clear of the rhoa-infested swamps in the lowlands. All along the coast, rotting shipwrecks litter the shoreline, the spirits of the stranded sailors still haunting the wreckages of their ill-fated ships, waiting to take out their sorrow and rage on those who yet live. All the while, the Siren herself continues her sweet, sad song, luring ever more ships to their watery graves. Farther inland, through the twisting caves and darkened forests, the ruins of civilisation become more apparent. The ravages of time have worn many buildings to rubble, and stripped away decaying flesh, leaving only grotesquely grinning bones. The dark, fetid caves and underground passages are a clattering refuge for these skeletal ranks, while the open forests and riverways brim with monstrous beasts with a taste for blood. Recently, ragtag groups of bloodthirsty bandits have built fortified camps in the forest, openly challenging one another while extorting food and supplies from the small, struggling village that sits between them atop a stone dam. Ignored by the squabbling bandits, strange newcomers clad in black armor have been seen skulking around various large ruins, their purpose both mysterious yet unsettling. Atop a sheer cliff of ruptured mantle, straddling the river feeding a mighty waterfall, lies the fallen capital of the Eternal Empire. Its former glory rots amid the ruins of a blasted cityscape, the buildings decrepit and mouldering. But Sarn is far from uninhabited. Many of the original citizens still lurk the dark recesses, their humanity washed clean by the cataclysm of centuries past. These Undying monsters roam the city at night and skulk the shadows during the day, for the naked sunlight is anathema to their shrivelled, leathery skin. The sun-scarred days are far from peaceful, however. A legion of soldiers from Oriath has occupied the area to the west of the river, and is fighting an all-out war against the multifarious denizens of the city. Every day their black-clad soldiers battle twisted insects that scuttle and breed, feasting on anything that moves. Every day they throw battalions against the army of floating, red Ribbons that eviscerate all who trespass on their domain. Every day they skirmish against a small group of exiles who have barricaded themselves on a small island in the middle of the river, caught between certain death on both sides.