I wanted a really low stress game to unwind with tonight and Path of Exile released on Xbox One recently so I picked it up, along with the $20 first blood bundle upgrade that gives you an extra stash tab and some currency (neither of which I have used yet.)

I played about 90 minutes as a templar and...it seems okay? It's a low rent Diablo clone with decent atmosphere, passable graphics for a free to play title, and that mashy Diablo gameplay and loot loop that's a personal guilty pleasure.

The Xbox One version has a less than perfect UI and the game isn't great at storytelling, but it's certainly far from terrible. I wouldn't say it's good but it's...ok. Pretty good for a free game.

Be warned that I have encountered some minor bugs, most of which are not a big deal (trade windows closing automatically and the like) but one of which is pretty annoying. Sometimes the game seems to freeze for about 5 seconds or so, ignoring controller inputs, then it catches up with itself and fast forwards with a lot of jumpy movement. I think this is because it's server based and it's like any online game catching up your movement to where you are on the server, but it looks weird and I could imagine it being really annoying if it caused you to die. It's only happened twice in the 90 minutes I played so it's not a huge deal, but it's annoying.

If you're bored and looking for a Diablo clone you could do worse. It's definitely not a must play though, IMO, and I really liked Diablo 3.

ETA: The achievements seem really grindy and tough. I got 0 of them in my 90 minutes of play and a lot of them seem like they will take a long time. If that matters to you, you have been warned.

I gave it a go on xbox. I didn't play it on PC. Thought it looked like 100% a Diablo 2 clone. I haven't played Diablo 2 in forever but that was like my fav type of those games. This game just feels a bit too clunky, imo. Fore example, I picked the witch class (which seems to be the necromancer basically?) and like every 4th shot of the wand goes through enemies without doing damage.

Also, I really didn't know what I was suppose to be doing. Maybe I didn't pay enough attention but I couldn't see a waypoint anywhere or instructions on what I was doing. I think it just said for me to go to "tidal coast" and I have no idea where that was. I ended up making my way to some cave and found a waypoint. I was going to use that to go back to town to sell stuff but the waypoint wouldn't work... couldn't warp back to anywhere. I assume that's what the waypoints are for? I quit after that ;/

Maybe I'll start over as as different character and give it another shot.

@handlas: I have played a few hours. I agree the game doesn't tell you that much about what to do, though I have muddled my way forward. I just killed the first boss and unlocked the first achievement. There aren't really directive markers on the map, you just find the zone you're supposed to finish a quest in and then wander around until you find the quest.

The Waypoints are for fast travel. Did you unlock the Waypoint in town? I think you have to do that to warp there. Also I am not yet sure if every zone has a waypoint.

Overall I'd say the game is pretty boring. There's story but it's bland and forgettable (very dark and forboding but with no interesting characters who cares) and the gameplay is even grindier and simpler than Diablo. Skills come in the form of gems you find and you equip them, which is okay, except that the best weapon I have found is a wand and pretty much all my skills are melee based so all I am doing is wanding and dropping fire traps. It's easy (have not died and haven't even had to use a potion in a couple hours) and boring and bland.

This game has a good reputation generally, I think, but it just seems like an ultra-grind. For a free to play game it's decently well made and seems to have a TON of content that you can experience for free (so a great FTP model IMO) but it's so monotonous...

I may play further because it's an okay chillout game to just hold down the A button while you listen to a podcast or whatever, but I'm disappointed.

Still, it's free, so I would recommend people check it out if they're into Diablo like games. It's not awful and you might like it more than I do.

I started the archer character and had a bit better time. I found the first mission; I went the complete opposite way the first time.

Also, I wasn't using the waypoint right. You have to like hit the d-pad through and then do something else to then be able to use it. I dunno... it was kind of confusing.

And then I ran to the 2nd mission and died. I would agree; it seemed little dull if I'm being honest. I'm not sure I'll go back. But free is free! Worth checking out. No sign-up garbage or overwhelming microtransaction stuff from what I saw.

As someone whose favorite genre of games is Diablo-clones, I think some of your takes on Path of Exile are pretty insane.

If you don't like the genre, I guess I can see why you'd like Diablo III more, but it's probably for exactly the reasons that most of the people who are way deep into the genre hate(d) it.

@ajamafalous: Look, I didn't create this thread as some kind of comprehensive review, it was mostly just to say that the Xbox One version works okay, has a decent frame rate, but also has a clunky UI and some weird issues with freezing and server drops.

I don't claim to be some Diablo clone expert, but in the first few hours the game is boring to me and while I have read about its depth, I find it really offputting that you basically have to rely on luck to set your active skills. Gems drop (or are given as quest rewards) and are socketed and leveled which is a deeper system in some ways, but if your best equipment doesn't match your skill gems it's not great. I admit the game does give you ways to adjust for that, including rerolling or changing sockets on the equipment, and maybe those systems become clearer and more accessible after more than a few hours of play, but once again, I'm not claiming to offer a comprehensive review. I was able to get past the first boss just pressing the attack button and doing nothing else, and the story so far has been boring enough that I'm skipping the voice acting and only reading text, which I never do. Those are my personal experiences, not some kind of objective assessment on the game.

@ajamafalous: Path of Exile is a game that only becomes decent to good once you've put tens of hours into it. The kinda first impressions you see here are extremely typical.

On a different note, have they done much work to make the gameplay more controller friendly ? I really enjoyed playing Diablo 3 with a controller, but that game is much less reliant on precision abilities. And then there's stuff like the absolute necessity for loot filtering and the game being much more reliant on trading. Have they done anything to address that ?

@ares42: As far as I can tell the answer is...kind of? There appears to be some auto aim happening so I haven't had an issue with the abilities yet, but I also haven't found a lot of abilities that I'd consider "precision" so maybe that stuff becomes more of an issue later on?

In terms of loot...your inventory space is pretty small. I'm not sure what you mean by loot "filtering" but you can see stats of items while they are on the ground (except for those that need to be identified) and you can cycle through them with the right stick (I think) so I have not found the picking up of loot to be too onerous.

You can trade in town with other players and there's a trade board so that stuff is definitely in the game, but I'm not sure what you mean by "have they done anything to address that." The systems seem to be in the game and they seemed functional to me but, as with much of the UI, there is some clunkiness.

I got into PoE for a bit recently and after now having just gotten into Diablo III really, I just don't think PoE is very good in the core and I don't actually think it's unique systems ultimately get you to anything that cool or result in any more fun at all, for me.

Finding moves as drops and stuff is cool in theory but in the end often can just be annoying. When I was playing I was trying to be a necromancer build basically but just could not get a pet ability drop for a long, long ass time.

That's exactly the problem. Once you get deeper into the game you're often gonna have 10-20+ items on the ground and only one or two of them are worth picking up (since you have to manage your inventory so carefully). On PC it's very popular to use loot filter mods that make certain items appear with bigger text or colors etc to be able to quickly identify the valuable items.

Great call on inventory too. Free games with constraints ont hat but that are also loot based wear on me so fucking much on me at this point. It's always an annoyance. After every bit of combat there's a nice reminder you are being nickled and dimed.

I don't think that there is any filtering then (though I have not explored the menu system deeply so it might be in there.) You can see the rarity of an item in the color of its name but that's about it. I don't think it's a huge deal to just look at the item names so it hasn't bothered me, but maybe as you say it's a bigger issue later on.

@artisanbreads: Is there even a way to increase your inventory space though? You can buy stash slots but I don't think you can increase your character inventory through microtransactions, which is what I personally find much more constraining. I don't think it's nickel and diming so much as it is a design choice. But it's annoying design choice because you either have to constantly be going back to town or you have to ignore 95% of the loot that drops, which is not great in a loot game.

Played it on pc relies too much on rng for getting abilities, i recommend waiting for grim dawns console release.

@bigsocrates: Honestly I am thinking more of Marvel Heroes which I have played more recently, sorry. I remembered this game doesn't have that issue. It's fine in all the f2p things. Sorry was out of it for a minute there.

My issues are with the rest of the game.

I played it a little bit on PC a couple years ago and on X1 this week, didn't notice much a difference. The only bad thing I would say about the game is that it's easy to get lost. They need to add better markers to show you where to go and a better journal for quests. It seems to handle free to play right, unlike Marvel Heroes, which is basically the same game just set in the Marvel universal. I wanted to like Marvel Heroes since I like that universe better than some random fantasy medieval one, but it has an awful business model, so Path of Exile beats it IMO. I did find the way they handle active powers to weird. I though powers would come from the massive skill tree, which I'd prefer, but instead you have to put gems in your clothes/armors. Just seems like a weird decision.

Full release plays much better than the beta. Much less UI issues and the servers are more responsive for now. Got a few achieves in the first few hrs. too. Was concerned during the beta, but the full release is much closer to the pc game. Picking up loot is still a pain though at times with a controller. Very good game imo, and I'm a D3 fanatic. Still farming for S11 today, lol.