Path of Exile 2
Path of Exile 2 entered Early Access on December 6, 2024 for PC (Steam), and is also available on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S during Early Access. Developed and published by Grinding Gear Games. You return to Wraeclast with twelve classes, a six‑act campaign in rotation, and a reworked gem system that lets Support Gems slot into Skills directly. Dual‑specialisation on the passive tree keeps two concepts live at once, so swapping between, say, daggers and traps or ice and lightning feels natural. The climb is still about a plan, a pivot, and a lucky drop that turns the night around.
What’s included
No special editions confirmed at this time.
Review
Path of Exile 2 hits faster and reads cleaner. Encounters set up tells you can parse, then spike if you get greedy. The big swing is the new gem socketing. Six‑linking every active skill cuts busywork and lets builds breathe. Dual‑spec nodes make hybrid ideas viable, so a bow build can lean into traps without feeling split. Boss fights sell the changes: longer patterns, fair punish windows, and travel skills that actually get you out when you commit on time.
The world is denser. Acts push more unique arenas, side objectives pay out smartly, and the Atlas endgame gives you knobs to twist instead of a flat checklist. Loot leans less on vendor recipes and more on targeted crafting, so a good map series feels like progress, not a dice loop. Co‑op holds up, with party scaling and roles that do not delete solo play.
Caveats are honest. It is Early Access, so balance patches can flip a favorite build, and performance can wobble on fresh shader caches. New players still face a wall of terms until the UI catches up. Even so, when a map queue flows and a modest setup spikes at the right moment, the old PoE magic is back.
Verdict: sharper systems and fairer reads, still a time sink in the best way.
PC System Requirements
| Component | Minimum | Recommended |
|---|---|---|
| OS | Windows 10 | Windows 10 |
| CPU | Intel Core i7‑7700 or AMD Ryzen 5 2500X | Intel Core i5‑10500 or AMD Ryzen 5 3700X |
| Memory | 8 GB RAM | 16 GB RAM |
| Graphics | NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960 (3 GB) or Intel Arc A380 or AMD Radeon RX 470 | NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 or Intel Arc A770 or AMD Radeon RX 5600 XT |
| Storage | 100 GB available space | 100 GB available space |
