Path of Exile - Ascendancy Preview @ GameRevolution

Blake Peterson (GameRevolution) has checked out the upcoming expansion Ascendancy for Path of Exile:

Get ready to ascend to the next level.

I learned several things at my meeting with Grinding Gear Games to see Path of Exile: Ascendancy, their new expansion for the action-RPG, Path of Exile: Awakening. One is that New Zealand is the primary English-speaking test-market for cellphone games and applications, due to its small but technologically progressive population, making it a kind of eco-bubble perfect to try out new strategies on. Grinding Gear Games, I learned, is a bit of an oddity in that it's a studio that isn't built around mobile development.

Path of Exile: Ascendancy adds two new sections to the game, the Trials of Ascendancy and then the more comprehensive Lord's Labyrinth. In-game legends say that centuries ago, the Emperor Izaro built a labyrinth to decide his successor, and any who reached the heart of it would take his place; but he was betrayed and sealed within his own maze. He waits there still, after centuries, for you (cue eerie music). Or something. That's the general gist of the expansion.

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Thanks Couch!

Its a terrific hack&slash game, except that I couldn't swallow the low quality animations and unimaginative setting any more…

Waiting for Umbra and Lost Ark

Yeah, I suspect PoE has had its main heyday, it's just cycling on habits now, each new thing bringing in the same crowd for a month every 4 or 5 months to try out the new bit, a little more bored each time. I wonder if they'll ever bother going for the full 10 stages or if they'll just do something new at some point.

I hope there will be a sequel

Originally Posted by lackblogger
Yeah, I suspect PoE has had its main heyday

Um, no. PoE is bigger and better than it's ever been. Both player numbers (according to the dev) and game quality. If anything PoE has entered its golden age with the 2.0 release in July. And this expansion looks to add the most meaningful end-game content ever.

For years, PoE has suffered from no proper end-game. All you can do is play brief maps that require much grinding to even play. And the maps just reuse existing tilesets and add basically no new gameplay.

So Ascendancy is looking amazing, and the timing is good since PoE now is really big in Russia/Brazil/other places besides the English world.

What evidence do you use to quantify that opinion? Not being difficult, genuinely interested, I thought they had a policy of not releasing numbers, except the usual nonsense of 'number of accounts opened' which means nothing.

Evidence is always questionable at best.

According to every comments section in the history of gaming WoW has been "dying" since its first patch. Yet somehow continues every year. Regardless of the numbers or "evidence" or graphs released, people are gonna defend the games they love.

PoE is still the best DII-like game out there. Grim Dawn is in an eternal beta state and D3 is/was a mass disappointment to anyone looking for variety in character builds. So, I fail to see how it's had its heyday when GGG continues to push out both technical and content updates at a regular pace.

Originally Posted by lackblogger
What evidence do you use to quantify that opinion? Not being difficult, genuinely interested, I thought they had a policy of not releasing numbers, except the usual nonsense of 'number of accounts opened' which means nothing.

Well, you have to read between the lines. First, they just recently opened a quite nice new office space. And they've hired many new employees, as can be seen in some of the pictures. As a business, you do not expand to a new office and hire more people when you are struggling or looking at a downturn.

Second, they recently partnered with Garena to open in Asia and other area servers. And they've said it has worked out quite well. PoE's free game with cosmetic MTX is a perfect fit for Asia.

Third, they sold a very large number of Divination Card supporter packs. GGG's CEO was very clear that he was very happy with the response. That's another way of saying the money is rolling in.

Forth, new player accounts does mean something. And they keep growing.

Fifth, PoE is still in the top 25 Steam games played. This is big considering PoE does NOT require Steam. Point is PoE is beating hundreds of other big games on Steam with just a fraction of the PoE user-base on Steam.

Sixth, well, let me turn it back on the naysayers. Why do I have to post evidence but others can just say PoE is dying and past its prime?

Anyway, I'm not some rabid PoE defender…PoE has tons of issues and needs big improvements…but it isn't dying.

Originally Posted by Drithius
D3 is/was a mass disappointment to anyone looking for variety in character builds

Respectfully disagree. D3 is quite fun these days with each class having two or more interesting builds. Sure the builds are just the Set builds, but they are truly unique ways to play.

I personally think PoE's combat isn't diverse enough compared to D3. PoE can make a Fireball/Arc/Nova/Crit/Non-Crit build, but each plays the same way…you cast spells at things and they die. I love my Tornado-Shot Ranger and Arc Witch and Cyclone Marauder, but they all require very little thinking when playing.

Contrast this with D3. An Uliana Monk first applies Exploding Palm in packs, then rounds up the pack and blows it all up, and if you play well you keep the chain going. A Maurader Demon Hunter has to carefully place Turrets and Vault around finding the optimal place to stand.

I just think the actual moment-to-moment gameplay in D3 is more intellectually engaging because the classes in D3 require you to change up your play style.

That example about the build diversity is what I was talking about, about people getting a bit more bored each time and a sense of having seen everything. I'm sure the physical numbers are going up via garena and potatoland, but I think the novelty of the new is wearing off in the primary western markets where people have wider choice and tastes with games like these. Their garena market could be booming for all it matters to this aspect.

Good answer Brumbek