Three weeks after its launch, the community is drawing its conclusions about the game in Path of Exile 2. Most players find one fundamental feature particularly good.
How is Path of Exile 2 doing right now? Even three weeks after the launch of the ARPG, Path of Exile 2 is still very popular. At peak times, there are still over 350,000 players playing the game on Steam alone (via SteamDB), most of whom have likely reached the endgame during the holidays.
While trading is still plagued by scammers looking for your items, many players are simply enjoying the game and appreciating the good engagement to wrap up the year. This might be the reason for a surprising conclusion.
Have you heard of this helpful NPC in Path of Exile 2?
A feature that makes Path of Exile 2 special
Which feature excites the players? A large part of the Path of Exile 2 community agrees on Reddit that a specific feature makes “Path of Exile 2 outstanding and engaging compared to other ARPGs”.
This feature, according to Reddit user DueRoutine5350, is the control of the game. More specifically, moving the character with WASD instead of the mouse, as is common in other genre representatives. In a comment, he also explains his reasons for this statement.
[…] To clarify my point: What I’m saying is that the way POE2 uses WASD is better than any other top-down RPG. My experience comes from the mercenary gameplay.
- You can navigate your character seamlessly.
- When you move your mouse, your character turns in the direction of the mouse pointer. This makes your movements feel very smooth and refined.
- I haven’t experienced aiming with the mouse while moving in any other game, except perhaps in some horror games like Project Zomboid and similar – but that’s a completely different genre. We are still talking about classic Diablo and POE-like games here.
- You can predict shots on moving bosses (yes, I’m looking at you, Witch on the broom), for example, by “leading” your shot.
The community agrees with him, and other players are also chiming in.
- Marucci writes on Reddit: “I love WASD in PoE2, I don’t think I can play without it anymore”
- AppleNo4479 says on Reddit: “After playing with WASD, I don’t think I can go back to point and move.”
The control using WASD is an important feature for Path of Exile 2, which simply did not exist in its predecessor. In POE2, however, aiming and attacking can be done separately, complemented by the dodge roll.
What about Diablo 4? Although Diablo 4 also offers WASD controls and allows players to dodge with a dodge roll as well, players apparently just don’t find the feature implemented well in Diablo 4.
The reason for this is revealed by vader_seven_ on Reddit: “WASD without abilities that you can use while moving doesn’t feel the same to me at all.”
Shertok further adds on Reddit: “I agree. Probably the main reason why POE2’s gameplay feels better than that of D4 is that you can cast abilities while moving. It doesn’t matter how efficient you actually are – that’s still affected by cast time and movement speed – but it just feels better to be able to move while casting.”
While players seem to have found the best feature of Path of Exile 2 here, one of the worst features already existed in the predecessor and was often criticized there: For 5 years, players have wanted to eliminate a mechanic, but it still annoys in Path of Exile 2
