The Path of Exile 2 Drama: What's Really Going On?
Let me tell you about the latest buzz in the ARPG world. Path of Exile 2 has been making waves lately - and not just because we're all excited to play it. The first reviews are in, and they're looking really good. But here's where things get messy.
The Early Review That Started It All A YouTuber called Fextralife dropped their review way ahead of schedule. We're talking about a six-day early release. Oops. The review was glowing - like, "best ARPG ever" levels of praise. But that's not what got people talking.
Here's what Fextralife loved about the game:
It's giving serious Dark Souls vibes (yeah, we're never escaping that comparison)
Maps are massive - takes an hour to cross
Combat feels more dynamic than any other ARPG
Campaign runs about 35-40 hours
The whole package feels like three games in one
But there were some rough edges too. They hit some bugs, saw a few crashes, and felt the maps could use more stuff to do.
The Drama Deepens Here's where it gets spicy. Everyone thought there wouldn't be any early access before, well, Early Access. No review copies, no previews, nothing until December 6th. Finding out that some people were already playing the full game? That didn't sit well with the community.
Grinding Gear Games jumped in to clear things up. They admitted the early review was their fault - a communication mix-up. Having worked in gaming media myself, I can tell you this happens more often than you'd think. Sometimes it's as simple as someone typing the wrong date in an email.
The Real Issue But here's what's really bothering people: the idea that someone could "solve" the game before launch. It's like getting the answers to a puzzle before everyone else starts working on it. The community wants to discover everything together, especially those crazy endgame builds POE is famous for.
GGG tried to address this by saying reviewers can't post guides or unedited gameplay. They're playing on separate servers, and nothing carries over to launch. But when one of those reviewers runs a wiki... well, you can see why some folks are concerned.
From where I'm sitting, though, I don't think we need to worry too much. The real meta-defining builds? Those will come from the hardcore POE community after launch, not from early reviewers.
The good news in all this drama? The game sounds incredible. And on December 6th, we'll all get to judge it for ourselves.
Now we wait. And maybe double-check those embargo dates. Just saying.
