Path of Exile 2 (POE2) has been a year-long adventure. Ahead of its Early Access launch, we had the chance to speak with developers at PAX East, go all in on couch-co-op at the console test event, and then, of course, cover its last preview event and review the title. The important thing about the game is that neither of us had played the original Path of Exile for more than a few hours. Learning a new game with complex systems can be daunting, but for this one, it was exciting, and more importantly, with POE2 Co-Op, we could do it together.
While you can read my colleague’s review here, where she praised the game’s accessibility to newcomers and creativity, this POE2 Co-Op review is here to discuss the game through the lens of playing with someone else. Does the complexity and creativity hold up when you’re progressing with someone in a drop-in-drop-out game? How does picking who gets the loot drops work?
The simple answer is that POE2 Co-Op, like playing alone, is one of the best gameplay experiences this year. The longer answer is that Grinding Gear Games’ thoughtful approach to systems and team synergy, as well as offering different ways to play, has all the reasons why Path of Exile 2 is the perfect game to play with others.
How does POE2 Co-Op manage difficulty scaling for parties?
Alone, many of the bosses in POE2 can be a lot to handle. With a teammate, they’re much easier. While small-world bosses can usually be burned through depending on the builds of you and your party (we ran a Ranger/Witch combo), the larger ones, or those that use their environments to great effect, can become difficult quickly. In contrast, some bosses have lots of space between you and your party members and are easy to handle. Once you start tackling bosses in close quarters or with large environmental objects that obstruct the view and even smaller stages, the difficulty ramps right back up.
Because any minion or body, in general, isn’t something you can just ghost through, roll-dodging out of incoming AOE (area of effect), attacks can quickly become too much to handle. More often than not, without proper communication on where the boss is being pulled by the player with more DPS or which direction everyone is going to, collisions happen repeatedly, and death is right around the corner when you do so. The variety of team communication needed for fights, even clearing mobs, always keeps POE2 Co-Op interesting.
Additionally, nothing in POE2 Co-Op ever feels too easy because just hitting Revive takes a very, very, very long time. The most complex elements are timing, reviving your downed partner, and the boss’s rotation. On top of that, splitting adds between each player is also something to manage so that both players, assuming they have a mana or life regen per kill skill account, can recover enough and recover more health flask charges to heal.
POE2 Co-Op is about being aware of your environment, partner and building team synergy when possible.
How those skills and abilities work together in tandem with your Co-Op partners can affect how you develop your character. While you can join a game with someone else without their build in mind and get by just fine, choosing complementary skills and building synergy is worth taking advantage of, especially when it comes to elemental damage.
POE2’s loot system can be hit or miss – but hey, you can trade.
The loot system in POE2 Co-Op doesn’t drop duplicate items for you and your partner to claim individually. Instead, you share. Par for the course when it comes to the drop-in style of Co-Op the game has, this can mean that talking with your party and letting them know what armor pieces you need, what abilities you need, and whether and just how you’re building your character can be essential just in case the greed wins out. Outside of quest-related skill games, those dropped through encounters are also beholden to whoever picks them up.
That said, from playing together, it does look like some loot drops feature a delay on when each party member can pick up the item. After some boss battles, I could pick up the loot immediately, and in the following encounters, my partner could. This allows enough time for each person playing to talk about the loot and figure out their rhythm.
Ultimately, though, certain boss encounters yield special merchant opportunities only the party’s host can interact with. After defeating cultists at the end of Act 2’s Ominous Altars boss, The King in the Mists, you’re granted a Gembloom Skull and unlock the favor system that allows you to acquire rewards from the Druid Ritual Altar in exchange for tribute (through the favor you acquire). It’s not the end of the world, but it’s frustrating when you realize that you’ve been fighting a boss only not to have access to the rewards that it unlocks.
It’s all about communication. While you can’t trade gold, you can trade items that you pick from loot drops. You can also buy items from vendors and trade them with your partner since each merchant displays different items to each player.
Server stability was already a launch day hiccup; what about Instances?
Instances haven’t been a huge issue in our time with POE2 Co-Op. As you move from area to area, you’ll often need to enter an existing instance or create a new one. If you choose to create a new one, and so does your partner, you have to leave and reenter to be in the same instance. If you select the same option simultaneously, you’ll probably have to go and come back, too. But if you wait a minute, you won’t see any problems when it comes to joining instances.
Along those lines, using the return to town portal can be inconsistent. Sometimes, it can port you to the wrong location. Here, it is like musical chairs with Portals, so the safe bet is to enter the town on your own and leave on your own.
That said, if you find yourself stuck, it’s easy enough to have the other player return and have you use theirs without much issue. The ability to go through other portals that aren’t yours can be a bad idea if you don’t pay attention, but it’s great when you’re paying attention and not pressing “A,” which makes them a win overall.
Convert all your friends to Path of Exile 2 with Couch Co-Op.
The broad strokes of POE2 Co-Op are that none of it feels like an afterthought. Since the game will offer crossplay, it makes sense that drop-in and drop-out co-op best fit the game’s style. That said, where POE2 does up the ante in terms of creating a communal experience is through its couch co-op component.
Online co-op is how I play most of my co-op games. However, the added tactile nature of the couch co-op component in Path of Exile 2’s combat makes it an easy highlight for the game. Additionally, it creates a simple way to get friends involved in your new ARPG obsession. You can also have someone sign in with their GGG account and ensure that they can use the character that they have. It’s a choice that pays off in spades and helps facilitate a game that is much better with other people.
Ultimately, there isn’t much of anything that holds back POE2 Co-Op. From trading to battles and balancing, it seems the developers at Grinding Gear Games have put a concerted effort into ensuring that the experience doesn’t shift significantly across solo play and co-op. That’s important because it ensures that the players, regardless of their preference, can explore the way that fits them. Player power is alive and well when it comes to Co-Op.