There are a lot of quality of life features missing from this game if compared to let's say Diablo 4 as the staple ARPG, which do not make any sense anymore in 2026 which are possibly due to the identity and direction of the game, aspects which are just a matter of personal taste, but does not necessarily make the game unplayable, just very frustrating to do so.
Downsides:
- inventory management and item identification are just wasted time which could have been used to continue actually playing the game;
- Ctrl-Clicking on items to transfer them require at least 2 hands; if the inventory is open and you click on an item on the ground, you need to drag it manually instead of automatically transferring it; inventory tetris in general has grown quite untasteful for these types of games; the general UX feel when it comes to interacting with the game menus is cumbersome and archaic.
- Comparing gear items is almost always a hassle;
- some stats are quite vague and unintuitive.
The instability present throughout various areas at this moment in time, makes playing Path of Exile 2 quite a frustrating experience, especially if you choose to play it coop, taking the campaign as a sample for this statement. Objectives get bugged and cannot be completed, either they get processed for one party only.
Instance based maps and the way everything gets reset when you die (except the fog of war) seems like a fair system.
The conjuncture when it didn't: Attempt to re-do an expedition (the one where you use explosible to unearth chests and rune monoliths or whatever they are called), for the 3rd time after attempting it with a coop player, finally managing kill everything and start getting the chests and runes and due to a few seconds of lack of attention, getting killed by a mob and coming back to find everything missing and the detonator bugged again.
Some minigames, bringing variety to the gameplay are unfortunately flawed from the conceptual stage; locking passive tree class 'talents' behind a no-hit run playstyle specific to let's say speed-runners and streamer challenges, which might make standard players back down from unjustified headaches. This might also be entirely different based on the class and playstyle choice (I played werewolf druid).
Upsides:
- the skill system and general gameplay of fighting stuff;
- bosses are a delight to fight; the sheer variety and different identity each of them has is quite the achievement;
- level and difficulty scaling is well-balanced;
- Atmosphere and art direction zeitgeist.
