I don’t know about you, but during the couple of years I’ve spent investing way too many hours into Path of Exile, the one thing I honestly never paid a lick of attention to was the story. I know there are some pretty big issues between the various characters; Sin wants all the Gods dead, Clarissa desperately wants to revive Tolman after she finds him dead, and Sin and Innocence really don’t like Kitava. There’s some more in between, I’m sure, but you get the picture. The story’s there, but it really only sticks in the more challenging quests along the way that take a bit longer to complete as you make your way through the acts. After seeing the Path of Exile 2 early access livestream and GGG put on for us, I actually have hope that the story in PoE‘s sequel might be one worth paying attention to.
Since I saw the livestream on Path of Exile 2, though, I’m thinking that’s going to change quite a bit. The story continues from the end of the first game, but after a long period of peace where everything was fine, until the Count of Ogham decides he wants to come in and mess shit up by stealing a relic of the old world. That, however, ends up being a bit of a problem that gets most of his team killed, majorly pisses off all of Wraeclast, and unleashes something horrific.
I can’t really throw shade on GGG for what happened with Path of Exile‘s story. The game’s amazing, and after you run your way through the acts dozens of times over the course of several years, there’s a good chance nobody’s really going to remember the first time they played through and gave even an ounce of thought to anything other than speed running to hit mapping as soon as possible. The way leagues are set up, it’s almost a requirement. You get through the acts, you start mapping, then you move on to bigger and better things that reward you with currency and gear worth selling to fill your stash tabs. I enjoy it. Everyone else enjoys it. It’s just a thing. The fun is in the grind. The story just doesn’t matter much there.
I’m actually drawn in to whatever story this could become, excited to see what happens and pay attention to more than just the grind this time around, and I’m pretty sure it’s because of some of the other key changes in the sequel. Not only does it seem like there will be a whole lot more in terms of challenges and difficulty, but it also feels like PoE 2 will be geared more toward the story in general, since there will only be 6 acts upon the full release, rather than the 10 I’m used to. In my eyes, I would say that less acts would mean longer acts, and thus, more story, which aligns with GGG’s assumption that completing the first three acts alone would take around 25 hours. With fewer acts, I can see how GGG would be putting much more effort into the story in general and focusing on the quality of it, over the quantity of it.
