The Battle of the Hack’n’Slash: Diablo 4 vs. Path of Exile 2

Introduction

It is often the grand debate among hack’n’slash enthusiasts: what is the best game of its kind? A question that had an obvious answer in the early 2000s. So it was obviously Diablo 2 that mobilized many players. We have even seen it, it influenced many role-playing games that wanted to follow in its footsteps. Ten years have passed and things have changed. The original creators of the first two Diablo games (Max Schaefer, Erich Schaefer and David Brevik) have gone on new adventures by creating their own studio. Of son side, Blizzard wants to continue to capitalize on the license: then released Diablo 3 in 2012, which then received a very mixed reception. Artistic direction far from the traditional dark fantasy, progression of son more linear character… Part of the public feels he has been betrayed. Now it’s the game Path of Exile which is released on October 23, 2013. A free-to-play considered by its players as the spiritual heir of Diablo 2. 10 years later, Path of Exile still exists. He is about to leave his place at Path of Exile 2, around which the developers provided details at the end of July. But we must also take into account the release this year of Diablo 4, several aspects of which mark a return to the source with Diablo 2. distance is then committed: which of Diablo 4 or Path of Exile 2 can appropriate the reference of the genre? State of play of the differences of the two games and attempt to answer in this article.

Summary

The heart of hack’n’slash: customization

Diablo 4 and Path of Exile 2 seems both so close and so different. They both belong to the genre of hack’n’slash, a sub-genre of role-playing game where the very principle is to cut (hack) and slice (slash) everything that moves to recover equipment. Equipment that then allows you to knock out more powerful monsters, to recover more powerful equipment and so on. The fun of these types of games often stems from one thing: the loot that theon recovers and how it affects how we carve and slice. In this sense, Diablo 4 and Path of Exile are similar since they display the same way of recovering said loot. They also display, like their common source of inspiration which is Diablo 2, a talent tree. It is the latter that represents the big difference between the two titles. Without going into great detail, one thing is clearly obvious: customization. possible in Path of Exile 2 is likely to be much larger than Diablo 4 for several reasons.

HAS son launch, PoE 2 will provide twelve different classes (there are 5 for Diablo 4), each with 3 Ascendances (or specializations). As son predecessor, the second episode embeds a system of skill gems: they are the ones that give abilities. These gems can be embedded with other gems, giving combinations of abilities, multiplying the things possible. That’s not counting the passive talent tree, much more colossal than in Diablo 4, which should also make some players’ heads spin. In addition to the many possible builds, it allows you to take advantage of a kind of double specialization. In PoE 2, the player has two sets of weapons. It is easy to alternate between the two but it is above all thanks to this tree that theon can benefit from it: some points talents will be associated with these two weapon sets. What to be able to make an ice/lightning witch, as in the example shown by the studio but above all a character really to son picture. Customizations that can make those of Diablo 4 shy. Nevertheless, the two share qualities and faults but above all are aimed at very different types of players. Since the end of the 90s, Blizzard has never stopped trying to make its games accessible to the most grand number. This was already the case with Diablo 1 in 1996 and it is still the case with Diablo 4 in 2023. The customization of son character in Diablo 4 opens up a lot of possibilities while remaining simple. It applies especially to players who do not have time to invest in tests of all kinds. Conversely, the PoE 2 developer philosophy is perfect for anyone with hundreds of hours to spend customizing son character and wants to take advantage of all the replayability that comes with it.

A way to also address the issue of price, a major difference between the two games must be highlighted. Diablo 4 costs €70 on the official store while Path of Exile 2 will be free-to-play. THE studio Grinding Gears Game makes profit from cosmetic micro-transactions but also uses this model to not disappoint players. The developers are the first to know that it takes time to appreciate the depth of the title. In this sense, they prefer to leave the main players to try.

A different way to play

Although Path of Exile 2 and Diablo 4 are hack’n’slash in isometric view, their gameplay philosophy remains different. We saw it with the second, which is closer to a massively multiplayer online game than a pure action game. In PoE 2 director Jonathan Rogers had this to say: To press son about, the studio explained the difficulties preventing players from using different abilities. He considers adding cooldowns and gaining mana through the use of an ability to be bad solutions. THE studio therefore wants to ensure that each capacity is useful for an instant t. A very different point of view from that used by Blizzard for Diablo 4.

An audience that is not the same

If Path of Exile 2 follows Path’s popularity curve of Exile first of the name, it is likely to display a number of players much less consequent than son direct competitor. It must be said that Blizzard relies on the certain notoriety of its brand and its license: it must deal with more players! Therefore, it is more difficult to satisfy the population larger number of players than that of a Path of Exile.

Recently, Blizzard announced 666 millions dollars in revenue from Diablo 4 sales. While it’s hard to know the exact number of players, on can assume that it revolves around 7 millions. A figure probably drastically reduced before season 1 but which is likely to be higher than that of the PoE 1 player base. son concurrent connection peak hit 211,000 four months ago. It’s worth noting, however, that each new season (or league to speak in Path lingo of Exile) is dragging more and more players into the game, and the numbers below don’t don’t mention console gamers.

Aspects that are still missing

The duel between Diablo 4 and Path of Exile 2 to appropriate the crown of hack’n’slash is therefore already well underway. However, there remain many points questions about Path of Exile 2: the end game content has not been revealed yet, a possible evolution of the setting for the narrative campaign has not been observed, what about crafting and multiplayer play… There is still a long time to come before the release of Path of Exile 2. During this time, Blizzard may be able to correct the grumbling objects pointed out by its community. It should be remembered that nowadays, the genre of hack’n’slash exists via the service game and son season system. A system launched by… Diablo 2 in 2003. It often takes time for developers to implement place something rehearsed and pleasant: it’s more of a marathon than a sprint. In any state of causeit is clear that Diablo 4 and Path of Exile 2 offers different things. However, the two games coexist in the genre of hack’n’slash and this can only be beneficial: it is thanks to competition that the stakeholders get rich. A give-and-take exchange that trickles down to one person in particular: the player. That the combat to be the king of hack’n’slash begins.