14 DAY TRIAL // The MMO world is a rather expansive and diverse one, therefore finding THE best title is no easy task. Fortunately this time around, one of the contenders managed to stand head and shoulders above the rest.
While not really a traditional MMO, Path of Exile certainly qualifies as this year's undisputed champion of the online world.
It entered open beta testing in January and launched during October, seeing more than 20 content and balance patches along the way, constantly improving the game for its several million players. Developer Grinding Gear Games really paid attention to what the community wanted and they moved swiftly to fix exploits and glitches.
Many of its players have said that Path of Exile managed to offer what everyone wanted of Diablo III, which is no mean feat, and the game being completely free-to-play and available to all makes an even greater incentive to join the ranks of the exiled.
The game is a definite star of the action role-playing game genre, representing a true success story of the implementation of the consecrated formula: some story, a lot of furious grinding and multiple character development paths, a central town hub and the whole world to explore in each act, and progressive difficulties that make you rinse and repeat while presenting a more challenging experience.
In a truly inspired move, fresh endgame content was introduced in the form of random maps, so you don't end up hating some poor boss' guts. The maps have various affixes much the same way items do, and you can tailor your experience to your liking (or to your strengths and weaknesses).
Character development follows a novel concept, based on three main stats, a robust passive skill tree and spells in the form of socketable gems that gain xp and level up as you play. All classes get the same stuff at the beginning, but they start in different areas of the skill tree (or graph, if you will), thus changing the way they progress through it and what is more readily available to them, ending up with the different play styles traditional classes offer.
The passive skills are pretty well implemented, some of them offering small bonuses to main stats, damage or defenses, while others completely altering the way you play the game, like using health to pay for spells instead of mana or having your blows always hit but never crit.
The game is like iced tea on a hot summer day for ARPG enthusiasts and it's hard to find big problems with it. It allows playing in multiple leagues (standard, hardcore, timed event) and the devs are working on implementing even more, it's a lot more fun when you play it co-op with your friends, and it even has 1v1 and 3v3 PvP arenas, as well as special competitive events.
The best thing about it is it gives its players a real feeling of accomplishment, if you put in the hard work you get the results, there are no shortcuts and there is no pay to win as all donations go toward cosmetic additions, not gear or spells.
That being said, Grinding Gear Games managed to defeat some pretty heavy hitters that deserve an honorable mention; Neverwinter, Prime World, Dota 2 and EVE Online (with both its add-ons) are all envious of Path of Exile's champion title, while at the same time being not too shabby themselves.