This review is for those with experience playing Path of Exile 2; new players are encouraged to play the game to develop their own opinions.

To be clear, Path of Exile 2 has the potential to evolve into something great… the greatest ARPG ever in fact. Even small design shifts like the introduction of a dodge roll have added substantial tactical depth to the gameplay. But despite these improvements, the game’s publicly stated design philosophy is increasingly at odds with the actual gameplay experience.

GGG has repeatedly insisted that PoE2 is meant to be slower and more deliberate. That’s a fine vision; but in reality, endgame mapping and enemy speed blatantly contradict this claim. The pace remains just as frenetic as it was in PoE1 and there’s just as much onscreen effects which can make it exceedingly challenging at times to even know what’s going on. If the intent was to slow things down, then loot distribution should have been adjusted to match. It hasn't been. On the contrary, this current iteration has made currency even more scarce, doubling down on grind without commensurate reward. The trade system? Still a disaster, faithfully carried over from PoE1 with all its archaic inefficiencies.

GGG seems unwilling to internalize a lesson that should be fundamental by now: punishing gameplay is not the same as challenging gameplay. Many systems are saturated with negative modifiers that drain momentum and morale rather than inspire mastery. Nowhere is this more obvious than in end game mapping, where stacking mods can paradoxically make a map less playable due to sheer mechanical overkill. Several mods outright mean that if you luck into the wrong map suffix you will automatically be throwing that map in the trash (I’m looking at you temporal chains).

Yes, the game is in early access, but GGG seems to have misunderstood what early access is for. It’s supposed to be a testing ground, a sandbox for players to explore systems, theorycraft, and search for broken interactions. In a game that’s loot dependent, that requires access to resources. Instead, loot is miserly. I constantly run over 100% magic find and still see abysmal returns. Divines are rare. Exalts bizarrely drop more often than Chaos, Regals, or Alchemy orbs. Orbs of Annulment or Chance? Nearly mythical (I say this after playing for over 420+ hours).

Crafting is nonexistent in any meaningful form as the entire system has been reduced to pure gambling. The tools are there and were shown to work in PoE1, but in PoE2 there’s no actual semi-deterministic crafting so experimentation dies on the vine.

Defense stats in PoE2 remain deeply imbalanced. Armor is still underwhelming, scaling poorly in the face of high incoming damage. Evasion is serviceable. Meanwhile, energy shield continues to dominate across most content. This persistent asymmetry undermines build diversity and reinforces a stagnant meta. This is further exacerbated by the aforementioned lack of currency and crafting, which often leaves players stuck if they’re not wealthy enough to regear their characters in a different manner.

The Trial of the Sekhema is one of the more baffling screwups in the game. The central mechanic, an “honor” meter that diminishes when you’re hit, actively punishes entire archetypes of play. Builds that rely on taking damage as part of their identity such as anything melee related, thorns-based, armor-heavy, or self-damage synergies, are effectively penalized for functioning as intended. The concept of "honor" in combat might make sense thematically, but from a gameplay perspective it's incoherent. “Oh but honor isn’t an issue if you stack honor resist”, ok, stacking “honor resist” is a lazy workaround, not a solution. “Well you can do the Trials of Chaos then”, sure, let’s talk about the ToC.

The Trials of Chaos continue the trend of stacking punishment under the guise of difficulty. Layer upon layer of negative modifiers are applied to both the player and the environment, creating scenarios where success often feels less like a result of skill and more like surviving Jonathan’s spite. Once again, the issue isn’t that the trials are difficult, it’s that GGG confuses misery with difficulty. These trials don't challenge a player's decision-making or adaptability so much as test their tolerance for suffering. Some of the modifiers will 100% of the time be a death sentence, which is ridiculous for a game mode that demands you run a gauntlet.
To reiterate: punishing gameplay is not the same as challenging gameplay. And until GGG takes that distinction seriously, much of the game's potential will remain unrealized beneath the weight of its own contradictions.

And then there’s the death penalty: a flat 10% XP loss. It’s an outdated design relic that punishes players disproportionately, especially in a game this unstable. The optimization is rough; CPU usage spikes inexplicably, screens freeze, and enemies with invisible on-death effects can wipe you before you even register the threat. The game already limits player through currency scarcity and map restrictions, why stack another misery mechanic on top of it all? Literally nearly every one of my high level deaths has been due to the game freaking out and freezing for a split second at the most inopportune times. This is the mechanic that makes me rage quit. This is the mechanic that makes me put the game down and leave it for extended periods of time. This is the mechanic which makes me rethink spending money on stash tabs, cosmetics, mystery boxes, etc.

Let me be absolutely clear here: the XP penalty is not just frustrating, it’s demoralizing. It actively discourages continued play and reveal a fundamental disrespect for player time. Once you hit the late 80s or early 90s in level, even fully juiced maps roll several levels below your character level, making XP grinding a slog. Combine that with PC performance issues and what you’re left with is a bad experience. And yes, I can already hear the diehard fanbase trotting out the same tired defense: “There have to be consequences, otherwise people will just spam content and they won’t learn how to get good.” Sorry, but no. That argument falls apart under the most basic scrutiny. Players can’t spam the same content; maps are gated behind RNG & limited runs. The system itself is already self-limiting. You don’t need an additional punitive XP penalty to “preserve challenge”; you need a well-balanced game that respects player time and rewards effort instead of eroding it in a hot instant.

Things I would like to see:
• Campaign Skip After Completion
Once a player has completed the campaign, they should be allowed to skip it on subsequent characters.
• Make the Remaining Campaign Choices Reversible
In both Act 3’s, characters are forced to make two decisions regarding stats that are currently permanent. This design is incoherent, especially given that ascendancy choices can now be changed freely. Please allow these decisions to be changed as well (Let Doryani be the interface to make the changes).
• League Character Imports
The requirement to re-run the campaign for each new league or character is, again, tedious. A solution could involve importing characters back into a new league; either starting fresh at level 1 or with a baseline (e.g., level 60 with 500k gold and access to early maps).
• PoE1 Atlas Skill Tree
The Atlas passive tree in PoE1 was amazing. The current iteration in PoE2 is by comparison a poor imitation. Bring back that depth!
• Boots: movespeed is necessary, so make it an implicit
• An Actual Early Access Philosophy: Treat the current state as a live experiment, not a soft launch. Be generous with currency, unique’s, and loot bases (hell let Ketzuli have another few tabs that just sell white bases), focus on testing systems rather than preserving some arbitrary economy that can easily be reset or wiped.

This game is a great representation of toxic relationships in life.
It hurts you, but you keep going back to it because you can't find a better one...

Foundations of this game is not very well planned, each patch makes the game worse and developer team and Jonathan needs more vacations, If you(Jonathan) don't understand the player's desires leave that position and bring someone else who can understand that. Worst part is they killed PoE1, RIP. PoE concept was grinding yea but this game is just waste of time with lack of loot and efficiency. Don't cover your mistakes by early access ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥. GGG has over 10 years of experiences. So bring the PoE1 developer team, bring Chris and just watch what will happen.