Most Action RPGs usually focus on two main features: abilities and loot. In Path of Exile these two are intertwined, as all abilities come from Ability Gems which are socketed into your equipment. Moreover, you can use up to five Support Gems to modify a single ability. You could make a Fireball jump between targets, split into multiple projectiles, freeze enemies, drain HP or auto-cast on critical melee hits – perhaps even all of these at once!

This allows for a great degree of customisation which is perfectly complemented by the game's defining feature: the Passive Skill Tree.

Path of Exile features a huge, daunting skill tree composed of 1,325 nodes! These provide all sorts of passive benefits, from increasing stats and damage to more radical changes, such as converting all Evasion into Armour, using Health to cast abilities, or having only 1 max HP but being immune to Chaos damage. All classes share this same tree, they just start at different points. As such, players can focus on the nearby nodes, which provide bonuses associated with his class, or travel all across the tree, mixing bonuses from several different classes.

It may be overwhelming at first, but, no matter how good or bad your build is, you're always learning and evolving – the next character will be easier to make, and you never feel like you wasted your time.

Which is great, since Path of Exile is designed as a replayable, long-term experience. It features an extensive and challenging endgame, which constantly grows bigger. As of late 2017, the game had seven expansions, adding new features such as challenge leagues, new NPCs, player hideouts, corruption, etc. The downside of this is that the game has a bit of content-creep and can be intimidating at first, but the developers keep a close eye on the community.