Path of Exile was released in 2013, and Diablo 4 was not released until ten years later. Is it appropriate to compare Diablo 4 to a game that was released ten years prior to its release? Indeed, I believe that is reasonable. This demonstrates how well Path of Exile has held up over the years and how much it has progressed as a game. Let's take a look back at the things that made the first Path of Exile game such a blast to play now that the sequel is almost here. To no one's surprise, Diablo 4 is experiencing enormous success, as evidenced by its phenomenal sales. It is a rewarding game that is also easy to play, and it gives you the opportunity to collaborate with other players from all over the world.

Graphics In this category, there is no contest; the more recent game will undoubtedly have more appealing visuals.
Path of Exile, on the other hand, may appeal to your aesthetic preferences more if you're not a fan of the gloomy and hellish visuals featured in older Diablo games. There aren't many bright and colorful areas in the new Diablo game, and the ones that are there are few and far between. The game leans more toward a gothic and macabre aesthetic. However, the areas do appear to be very beautiful. The slick mud reflects the light, the interiors are thoughtfully designed, and the texture work is exquisite. Even when there are multiple players on the screen all casting spells at the same time, the game does not stutter. On both consoles and the personal computer, you won't experience any hiccups.

Author of the Characters
Path of Exile does not include any kind of traditional character creator, so there is no other game that can be compared to it in this regard. After selecting a class, you are immediately thrust into the action of the game. On the other hand, Diablo 4 exceeds the expectations of its predecessor in every way. Even though the character creator isn't quite as in-depth as the ones found in Bethesda games, it still has a respectable number of customization options.

From choosing the face of your character from a variety of options to changing the character's hairstyle, everything is customizable. Diablo 4 is chock full of action and adventure. Plus, once you're done with them, the characters come out looking fantastic. You won't be disappointed, despite the fact that you won't be able to create a monstrosity like in Street Fighter 6 because there are no sliders here.

Path of Exile: Class Structures

There are only five playable classes in Diablo 4 at the moment: Rogue, Necromancer, Barbarian, Sorcerer, and Druid. Path of Exile initially provides access to seven different classes, with an eighth, the Witch, becoming available at a later time. These classes are the Shadow, Templar, Scion, Ranger, Duelist, and Marauder. Path of Exile currently holds a marginal advantage over Diablo 4, despite the fact that Diablo 4 will, at some point in the future, incorporate additional classes. You should also be aware of the fact that you are free to choose the abilities and skills that your character possesses. Path of Exile allows players to select skills from any point along the tree. Therefore, in theory, you could kit your Witch to deal more damage through melee combat and go in that direction. Even though it wouldn't be as efficient, it's still an alternative to consider.

Skills are straightforward in Path of Exile and Diablo 4, as you gain a level, you receive a skill point, and you use that point to learn a new ability.

You are able to make use of the ability straight away. This is an easier method of using skills, it functions properly, it is quick, and you have the option to change the skill for a small fee.

Path of Exile, on the other hand, makes use of skill gems that need to be slotted into specific pieces of equipment. There are also a variety of gems, ranging from those that improve dexterity to those that improve sorcery or passive skills to those that improve active skills. This paves the way for new avenues of experimentation and allows gear pieces to have connected gem slots, allowing for the possibility of combining gems. Combining an active arrow skill with a passive poison gem will cause your arrows to shower poison over their targets.

Path of Exile: Skill Tree
Path of Exile features a very extensive skill tree. Some people enjoy having a variety of options, while others find the freedom to be overwhelming. Although at first it might appear to be difficult to understand, as you gain familiarity with it, you will find that it is actually much simpler. The only abilities on this tree are passive, but there are some stat upgrades thrown in for good measure. Everything from health boosts to mana increases, stamina recharge rate increases, and shield recharges is included in this update. Because each character in Diablo has their own unique set of skill trees, you will not be able to deviate from the course you choose for your character. On the other hand, in Path of Exile, you can potentially slot in some health-boosting passives on your wizard build. All things considered, you have a lot more freedom to experiment in PoE than you do in PoE.

Diablo 4 Multiplayer
The fact that Diablo 4 is an always-online game like Path of Exile represents a significant departure from the aspects of the game that Diablo fans enjoy playing. On the bright side, this makes the transition between matches in multiplayer a lot smoother and quicker. If you come across another player, all you have to do to gain experience is hang around with them for a little while. Then there is something called couch co-op, which is available on consoles and allows your friends to grab a controller and join you on your journey. It surprisingly works really well, and even when you come across the world bosses, which are enormous and require the combined efforts of multiple players to defeat, there is almost no slowdown.

Diablo 4: The Narrative
There are numerous cutscenes in Diablo 4 that set up the narrative with great voice acting and animations in an overall better presentation than there were in PoE. The story is also handled significantly better in Diablo 4 than it was in PoE. In terms of the narrative, it is not going to blow your mind, but it is definitely a step in the right direction, and the cutscenes alone are of an extremely high quality. There is a narrative in Path of Exile; however, it is not particularly interesting, and there are not a lot of cutscenes that help to set the tone of the game. You can listen to massive exposition dumps that are dispersed throughout the world, but the experience as a whole is a little bit disjointed; therefore, we can only hope that PoE 2 will introduce some much-needed changes.

Path of Exile: Pricing Information
Both Path of Exile and Diablo 4 have microtransactions, but Path of Exile is a free-to-play game while Diablo 4 is a full-priced game with some pretty hefty microtransactions. There is no debate here. Even though Diablo 4 does not display any additional cosmetics on the main screen, the prices of the purely cosmetic armor sets are quite high. Path of Exile, being a free-to-play game that does not require a payment of $70 to begin playing, does contain microtransactions; however, the prices of these in-game purchases are reasonable, as they should be given the nature of the game.