Summary
- Path of Exile 2 offers fewer but impactful choices that shape builds, like the Venom Draught rewards.
- Players can't change quest choices or rewards in PoE 2, unlike the original, leading to locked-in decisions.
- Locking choices in Path of Exile 2 can feel punitive, urging the need for changeability to enhance player experience.
There are still a lot of ways for Path of Exile 2 to grow considering that it's an early access game with over ten years of experience from the developers at GGG making its predecessor, Path of Exile. With a lot of key similarities and differences to the original, the sequel seems to be making a point of how action RPGs can grow and improve over time, which is further seen in its approach as compared to the current Diablo 4 and the iconic Diablo 2. Path of Exile 2's endgame could benefit from some changes, but one that GGG should implement is about choices within the campaign.
Path of Exile 2 is not the first ARPG to have choices be meaningful during its campaign, with its predecessor doing the exact same thing, but to a different extent. One of the most important choices in Path of Exile is which Bandit Lord players should help, if any, as this can dramatically affect a given build. As much as this choice or similar ones can seem all-important and made carefully, they can be changed later on by spending Orbs of Regret. Instead, Path of Exile 2 currently doesn't have this same option.
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Path of Exile 2's The Slithering Dead Locks Players' Choices
There are fewer choices to be made in Path of Exile 2 compared to the original game, but they do matter and can influence a given build quite a bit. An example comes from Path of Exile 2's Ancient Vows quest in Act 2, which tasks players with finding two parts of a Medallion that are revealed to be relics from different factions (the Sun Clan Relic and the Kabala Clan Relic). Reuniting these relics creates a Medallion in the Valley of Titans regions where players can choose one of two benefits and keep it for however long they please, just needing to head back to the Waypoint in the area to change it. This doesn't apply to the Venom Draught quest reward, though.
In Act 3, and later again in Path of Exile 2's Cruel difficulty in Act 3, players can complete a side-quest called The Slithering Dead. Here, players need to venture into the Venom Crypts to find an item called Venom Draught, which will give them a choice between three different rewards when taken back to Servi at the Ziggurat Encampment. These choices include:
- Venom Draught of Stone: 25% increased Stun Threshold (Normal difficulty)
- Venom Draught of the Veil: 30% increased Elemental Ailment Threshold (Normal difficulty)
- Venom Draught of Clarity: 25% increased Mana Regeneration Rate (Normal difficulty)
- Venom Draught of Stone: +10% Chaos Resistance (Cruel difficulty)
- Venom Draught of the Veil: +5 to All Attributes (Cruel difficulty)
- Venom Draught of Clarity: 15% reduced Slowing Potency of Debuffs on you (Cruel difficulty)
These are all valuable rewards in their own right, but some may be dramatically better than others in the endgame. For example, a Chaos Inoculation build will not need the Venom Draught of Stone from Cruel difficulty, and a stat-stacking build with Path of Exile 2's Unique Item Pillar of the Caged God will most likely need the +5 to all Attributes, as small as the buff may seem.
Why Path of Exile 2 Should Make Venom Draught Choices Changeable
The problem is that these choices are permanent, unlike quest choices in Path of Exile or even the Medallion choice in Path of Exile 2. As such, it doesn't make much sense for these to be locked once picked, especially considering how punishing this can feel for new players or if one wants to respec their character and change their build. Path of Exile 2's Ascendancy classes can't be changed either, unlike the original game, so it seems like the sequel is trying to make choices matter even more. At the end of the day, though, this approach can be unnecessarily punitive against players who may change their minds, so it would make sense to allow them to change this choice in some way in the future.
Path of Exile II
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OpenCritic Reviews
- Top Critic Avg: 88 /100 Critics Rec: 100%
- Released
- December 6, 2024
- ESRB
- Mature 17+ / Blood and Gore, Nudity, Intense Violence, Sexual Themes, Language, Users Interact, In-Game Purchases (Includes Random Items)
- Developer(s)
- Grinding Gear Games
- Publisher(s)
- Grinding Gear Games
WHERE TO PLAY
Path of Exile 2 takes place in the land of Wraeclast, a dark continent populated by unique cultures, ancient secrets, and monstrous dangers. A sinister threat, long thought destroyed, has begun creeping back on the edge of civilisation, driving people mad and sickening the land with Corruption.
Path of Exile 2 features a brand new campaign with six acts, 100 distinct environments, 600 monsters and 100 bosses.
Path of Exile 2 features twelve character classes, 240 Skill Gems, hundreds of equipment base types, a six-act campaign, more than a hundred unique boss fights, a deep endgame system and so much more.
Play with your friends without losing any progress with couch co-op, cross-play and cross-progression.
- Engine
- Proprietary Engine
- Multiplayer
- Online Multiplayer, Online Co-Op
- Franchise
- Path of Exile
- Early Access Release
- December 6, 2024
- Platform(s)
- PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S, PC
- Genre(s)
- Action RPG, Hack and Slash, MMORPG
