Path of Exile is honestly just one of those games that can get repetitive fast. You rush through the Acts to get to Maps, then you start diving into endgame mechanics and perfecting your build. There isn’t much that really shakes it up and gives PoE a “whole new game” kind of feeling. The latest league though, Settlers of Kalguur, takes everything to a whole new level and gives us the opportunity to experience 3.25 in a way we never have before, which includes building an actual town and becoming the “mayor” of it. In my opinion, this is the best league I’ve seen in years, and I freaking love it.
Honestly, I’m all for Path of Exile‘s usual gameplay. Standard is literally my go-to, and while Leagues can definitely add to the excitement factor and bring the game back to life every so often, I really haven’t enjoyed a league in a while. When I found out my whole guild was going to be participating in Settlers of Kalguur, I knew this one was going to be worth it. I waited for a while to get in (apparently everyone else in the world was going to be playing Settlers too, if the 54,843 people in queue in front of me were anything to go by), but I can truthfully say that it was so worth it.
I’ve always been a big fan of any games that involve town building and management, and Grinding Gear Games just effectively brought my favorite gaming elements into Path of Exile in the form of Kalguur (Thank you, Tencent).
It all starts with Johan the King’s Hand. Johan pops up as soon as your reach your first town in the Acts, and from there, takes you to a quaint, little, seriously under-developed town called Kingsmarch. It might not seem like much, but I can assure you, it’s much. Kingsmarch gives you the ability to hire workers for your town who will mine ores, smelt them into ingots, disenchant items, ship goods to neighboring settlements, and even run maps for you, provided you’ve done your end of the work to pay them and collect the hard resources they require.
Honestly, the idea is amazing. The loot is questionable at best until you’ve gained the gold and Ingots necessary to level up your settlement quite a bit. After that, though? It’s fantastic. I pulled a raw Div from a 30-minute shipment of Corn to a neighboring settlement in one of my very first experiences with shipping, and my map runners are getting pretty good at waiting at least two maps or so before they die.
All jokes aside though, GGG made a great call by adding Kingsmarch into Path of Exile for the Settlers of Kalguur league. I’ll be sad to see it go eventually, but that sure as heck doesn’t mean that I’m not going to enjoy it while I can.
