As I wrote in the introductory post about starting a Path of Exile 2 playthrough, this is the first time I’ve recorded and uploaded gameplay footage with audio commentary.
I invite you to watch it at the link below (or click here to open it on YouTube). For some more thoughts on this episode, I also suggest reading some of the notes I have from this session right after the embed below.
Path of Exile 2: The opening cinematic
I can’t help but compare the opening cinematic of Path of Exile 2 with Diablo 4, which came out last year. Just like movies and TV shows, it will be subjective, but in my opinion, the Diablo 4 opening was much more dramatic, dark, and intense.
Sure, in games like Diablo and Path of Exile, you don’t really care as much about the story. It’s like an afterthought. It exists to give you some mental pointers as to who you are and why you’re doing all this destruction. But the story is never the focal point.
I watched a couple of PoE II reviews, and many of the seasoned players seem to agree with me. It doesn’t really matter if the story is any good. Still, as far as the opening scenes go, Diablo 4 did it better.
Choosing a class
Of course, the best part of games like Diablo and Path of Exile is the fact that there are multiple classes, each with different types of abilities, weapons, and backstory.
Like I was just saying, the backstory doesn’t matter much, but how you play is a big part that’s influenced by your choice of class.
I admit many times in the video that I’m a noob, but I almost went with Witch simply because she can summon minions that help her in combat.
I forgot what the equivalent class was in Diablo 4, but when I played that class, I really enjoyed having a bunch of skeletons coming up from the ground and helping me do the dishes damage more enemies and do a little bit of crowd control.
However, I ended up going with Mercenary. I heard it gives you a unique machine-gun-like play style with a powerful crossbow, and I didn’t mind giving that a go.
However, I’m not sure if that was the right choice. Why? You’ll see.
The Crossbow with a PlayStation 5 DualSense controller
As I wake up on shore, I obtain the crossbow with a basic bolt. I’m immediately hooked. On a PlayStation 5 DualSense controller, you shoot a bolt with R1, which immediately reminded me of games like Dark Souls and Elden Ring.
I thought, eventually, we’d get to heavier attacks with R2, but it turned out to be a little different. After picking up a couple other options and slotting them into something called a binder, I figured you could press R2 or L1, or Square to choose how your crossbow shoots.
At first, I kept switching to different types of shots. However, I became wise and figured out later that the basic bolt that I was given after waking up on the shore did much more damage, and I should have stuck to it for all the common enemies.
This realization didn’t come until I was already getting frustrated with my choice of class. I managed to defeat the first boss without much of a sweat, but just after town, on the way to finding Mud Burrow, I died…many times!
Clearing Clearfell – Where I clearly fell many times!
I’m fairly certain nobody died in the Clearfell area in search of Mud Burrow as many times as I did. If you want to call me noob, please, be my guest. I’ll join you in the chorus. But I was having trouble with the Crossbow and was beginning to think I had chosen the wrong class.
I mean, I was just out of town, and I had immediate regrets about my class of choice. I had the entire game to go through. If I wanted to change the class, this was the perfect time.
Thankfully, after dying a shameful number of times, I realized Basic Bolt was more powerful. I should only use Loud Armor Piercing Rounds and other options when the situation calls for it.
On to the next one
Finally, I found the next checkpoint, and in the next episode, I’ll dive deep into Mud Burrow, which sounds like a dungeon of sorts, though I haven’t seen any videos of it, so I’ll be going in devoid of any knowledge.
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