Path of Exile 2 has been officially announced as a massive expansion to the original that completely overhauls the base game in the process.
Grinding Gears Games had been mentioning for years that a significant update was being planned to address the aging visuals and gameplay mechanics of the acclaimed action role-playing phenomenon. Path of Exile 2 is that very same update but branded as a sequel, not a seperate game. In other words, both the sequel and the original will coexist within the same sphere.
During the first-ever ExileCon fan event last night, Grinding Gear Games dropped a ton of details to convince the community to start boarding the hype train.
Path of Exile 2 will feature a brand new seven-act campaign that takes place two decades after the death of Kitava in the original. Society has been slowly rebuilding since then but corruption has found its way back into Wraeclast.
Both the new and old campaigns will lead to the same endgame content — the Atlas. Path of Exile 2 will also retain all expansion packs and related content that have been released so far. The difference being the massive changes to classes, skills, equipment, visuals, animations, presentation, mechanics, physics, and more — all thanks to an improved game engine that finally allows the developer the integrate features that were previously impossible.
Over the years there have been many changes that we would have loved to make to Path of Exile but couldn’t, because they would break existing characters. Path of Exile 2 is an opportunity to make all of these changes in one large update.
Grinding Gear Games has made it clear that Path of Exile 2 is still a long way off. The sequel will be free to play but a release date looks to be somewhere in 2021 at the earliest. The developer noted that even beta testing will start in late 2020 if there are no unprecedented delays. Until then, the original will continue to be supported and Grinding Gear Games will be regularly informing the community about how Path of Exile 2 is shaping up.
Just to clarify, any content and patches released between now and when the sequel launches will be available for all since they are essentially the same game. In addition, players need not worry about their accounts. All cosmetics (and progression) will carry forward as well. Path of Exile and Path of Exile 2 are within a single ecosystem, an ecosystem that’s being impressively evolved.
