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RSS FeedsPath of Exile Opens its Doors This Weekend to a Public Stress Test
Category: GamingPosted: September 11, 2012 09:55AM
Author: ClayMeow
You may have heard of a game called Path of Exile, either here on our forums or over at the forums for Diablo 3 or Torchlight II. Path of Exile is a free-to-play action-RPG being developed by Grinding Gear Games and currently in closed beta testing. If you have even a mild interest in the action-RPG genre, it's definitely a game worth checking out, and now's your chance. Straight on the heels of a massive update, a Public Stress Test Weekend will be held this weekend from Friday, September 14 at 5PM PDT until Sunday, September 16 at 11:59 PM PDT. Grinding Gear Games plans on launching an Open Beta soon and hopes this test will prove the company (and the servers) can handle the influx of players.
In addition to being free-to-play, Path of Exile sets itself apart from its competitors in a variety of ways. Active skills are acquired via gems and socketed to your equipment (and can be de-socketed at any time for free, without consequence). As such, any of the six classes can use any skill in the game, assuming you have the necessary weapon equipped if the skill calls for it. All equipped skills level up at an equal rate as you kill enemies. Every time you gain a character level, you gain a skill point that you can spend in an enormous Passive Skill Tree. Once again, every class has the same Passive Skill Tree, but each class starts at a different spot in the tree. So you can, in theory, build each class the way you want, but you may have to spend a few more points to do so. It's a pretty clever way of having an open character customization system, while still making each class feel unique.
If you're a skeptic when it comes to free-to-play games, rest assured that Path of Exile is definitely not one of those dreaded pay-to-win games. Nothing you can buy with real money affects gameplay in any manner. The microtransactions will include cosmetic pets, aesthetic upgrades like new spell animations, extra shared storage space, more character slots, etc.
So head on over to the official site, create a free account, and download the client in preparation for this weekend.
