LogInAccording to Grinding Gear Games, while Blizzard's Diablo IV chose an "MMO path", they plan to go in a more "Elden Ring sort of direction".
In case you missed it, during the recently-concluded ExileCon 2023, a celebratory event dedicated to all things Path of Exile, Grinding Gear Games shared a lengthy 30-minute trailer showcasing the gameplay of Path of Exile 2, an upcoming action RPG set to enter its closed beta on June 7, 2024.
After the presentation, several members of the PoE 2 development team participated in an in-depth interview about their upcoming game, shedding light on the development process behind it and even discussing the game PoE and PoE 2 get compared to the most by the community – Blizzard's Diablo IV.
Speaking to IGN, Director Jonathan Rogers addressed Diablo IV's current struggles by emphasizing that managing a live game with Seasons is a complex learning process:
"I mean ultimately the learning process for running a live game with Seasons like this is a hard one," he said. "We've learned our lessons about how to do this stuff. Honestly, when I look at that, all I can think is, 'Man, it's tough. It's a real tough situation to be in.' I feel very bad for the developers because I'm sure that they mean well, but yeah, it's a hard lesson to learn."
"Yes. There are times when a developer looks at a thing in their game that is too fast and they think. 'I should slow this down.' However, there is a process for that," added Director Chris Wilson.
When questioned about the distinctions between Path of Exile 2 and Diablo IV, Rogers stated that while Blizzard's action RPG followed an "MMO path," their plan is to take a direction more akin to "Elden Ring," emphasizing action-focused gameplay:
"They certainly have a lot more around like cool down rotations and things like that, but also just the more open world design and that kind of thing," Rogers told IGN. "Whereas we're going more in the kind of like Elden Ring sort of direction. It's much more action-focused, but with a sort of hardcore bent."
Rogers' vision for Path of Exile 2 revolves around action, outstanding boss encounters, and an incredibly vast amount of content. Additionally, he asserts that Path of Exile 2 offers greater depth compared to its predecessor.
"I mean, it is more complex in a lot of ways, but I think that that's something that a lot of players crave and you can do a huge amount of experimentation in our game with the character classes and builds. It'll keep you going for a very long time. So yeah, there's just a lot more going on with regard to the depth in Path of Exile."
Additionally, Rogers revealed that one of GGG's main priorities for PoE 2 is to achieve the right balance upon its launch, emphasizing that this lesson was learned from the experience of Diablo IV:
"I think, that you get the balance correct at launch, because once you have something a certain way, players are very resistant to changing it, in particular in a downwards direction. So therefore we really have to make sure that we're going to have a good beta that actually tells us everything we need to know about that."
You can read the full interview here and learn more about Path of Exile 2 over here. Also, don't forget to join our 80 Level Talent platform and our Telegram channel, follow us on Threads, Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn, where we share breakdowns, the latest news, awesome artworks, and more.