As Path of Exile 2's review score continues to plummet, another ARPG overtakes it on Steam

If you're a fan of ARPGs, you've most likely heard of Path of Exile 2. The sequel smashed records for the ARPG franchise, which launched into Early Access last December.

Many fans, including me, loved the return of PoE. The game surpassed 500,000 peak players on Steam and became the best-selling title on the platform for several weeks. As many early access titles have seen, player numbers began to dwindle until the next patch of content was released.

Enter version 0.2. An update that saw player counts climb back to almost 250,000 players. However, with the players came reviews.

What's happening with Path of Exile 2

PoE 2 gamers were gutted at the changes Grinding Gear Games had made to the title. Progress has been slowed to a snail's pace compared to other ARPGs, including its predecessor, Path of Exile 1.

Entire builds were nerfed, with the outliers rightly brought down, but even skills that were simply passable prior are now unusable. In many instances, basic attacks do more damage than any combination of skills. Leaving players with spears and crossbows, clicking their way to victory.

In short, the gameplay loop has been transformed into something that many players are struggling to enjoy, resulting in a recent review score of 44%. Here are just a few Steam reviews highlighting the ongoing issues:

"Dawn of the Hunt update, everything feels like a total slog. Every boss fight is incredibly longer than it needs to be. Most of the skills do little to no damage. I understand they said they wanted to slow game play down, but I don't think I will even make it more than 1 week in this league at this point. It just feels incredibly awful right now IF you can even get the game to run and be stable. That is a HUGE if." - Hellexion (200 hours played)

"This fails to understand what makes video games fun." RustedHeroes (263 hours played)

"New Patch ruined the game. If you want to waste your time grinding towards nothing, this is the game for you." Docholliday211 (831 hours played)

As you can see, these aren't new players just starting out in the game for the first time. If a person has played for over 30 days, I'll listen to what they say.

The Last Epoch capitalizes at the right time

Last Epoch is capitalizing at just the right time with their season 2 launch. Within hours of season 2 going live, Last Epoch has overtaken Path of Exile 2's player count by a whopping 40%. Not bad for a game that launched out of Early Access in February of last year.

To make it even more interesting, the overwhelming surge in player count has caused login issues for players. They are still maintaining a very high recent review score, with players frequently noting Path of Exile as a point of comparison.

"Decided to try it out as a breather after 100+ hours in current POE2 0,2 league and GLAD I DID. I forgot how fun and good it can be to play ARPG since the start, and not only in the end game after massive struggles and unfairness to the player."

"This game is up there with PoE 1 in terms of enjoyment for me. Crafting is best in class." - Creeo (266 hours played)

"More Loot in 10min than 1hour of POE2" - Glairmark (122 hours played)

What Last Epoch does best is remove the barriers that something like a hardcore Path of Exile 2 player might need to wade through. The game prioritizes the player's enjoyment over the challenge of the experience.

Both ventures have merits, but it's clear that when one leans too heavily on its own identity, it can alienate the player base. At the end of the day, a game is nothing without its players.

Down but not out, Grinding Gear Games continues to make improvements

Since the 0.2 release, the developers have continued to make strides with Path of Exile 2. They've listened to feedback and made many changes, but not enough to garner enough positive reviews to outweigh the negative ones.

Players are still complaining that, despite modifications being made, most changes need to be entirely rolled back. The core gameplay loop is in turmoil as a result of the major 0.2 patch.

Grinding Gear looks to change that with their upcoming 0.2g patch. While their 0.2f update has recently launched, it will be the next one that aims to address the main loot complaints surrounding the game.

Their Steam page states, "The three main changes you can expect around this are to mitigate unlucky streaks from bosses in the campaign by raising the floor of the quality of their drops. The second is to increase the quality of drops from bosses overall, and the third is to improve the drops from monsters possessed by Azmerian Wisps."

Regardless of your thoughts on PoE 2's current state, it is encouraging to see them actively addressing feedback and making swift improvements. This responsiveness shows their dedication to creating a better experience for everyone!

Blizzard coming in at the right time, too. Diablo 4's Season 8 is a little over a week away

Although it's unavailable on Steam, Diablo 4's next season is also approaching. Again, the focus of these games differs, but this will undoubtedly draw players to the original king of ARPGs.

Even better, Diablo 4's latest season will make calls to player nostalgia, as they add in the legendary boss, Belial from Diablo 3! I'm not even a huge Diablo 4 fan, and even this has me contemplating a return to Sanctuary.

They've also added the ability to wield boss powers and a brand new boss event. You'll face 10 randomized bosses back-to-back, finalizing the sequence with Belial himself.

If you're interested in checking out what Diablo 4's season 8 will bring, check out our preview article by the hardcore Diablo fangirl, Jennifer Young. In it, she breaks down a slew of new abilities and other hellish items coming to the game.