We can finally get our hands on Path of Exile 2 when it hits early access this November

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It's been five years since Grinding Gear Games announced Path of Exile 2—five years that I've spent wondering feverishly when I'll get to reenter the endless grind for build-perfect loot. Now, thanks to a reveal at Gamescom's Opening Night Live earlier today, we finally know when the sequel to the free-to-play Diablo-like will be playable. Path of Exile 2 is entering early access on November 15, 2024.

The trailer accompanying the early access announcement has every aesthetic hallmark you'd hope to see in a Path of Exile follow-up: It's got fleshy horrors. It's got ominous religious overtones. It's got an overzealous figure declaring their intent to "sweep aside this world and build it anew." It's all in there.

We also get a look at a lineup of bosses we'll almost certainly be farming hundreds of times over. A haunting figure wearing a bizarre skull headdress emerges from a pit in an underground tomb. A four-armed, blood-smeared creature brandishes flaming braziers and axes. A looming golem covered in an uncomfortable amount of hands raises a shattered sword. There's even an extremely angry plant.

Finally, we get our latest glimpses of Path of Exile 2 gameplay, showing off exiles fighting bosses solo and in co-op in a variety of detailed environments, from deserts to temple rooftops. There's a lot of PoE 2's new dodge-rolling in there.

It'll be a tough three months of waiting before PoE 2 opens the gates, but hey: It's a good excuse for me to try out the latest PoE season in the meantime.

Lincoln has been writing about games for 12 years—unless you include the essays about procedural storytelling in Dwarf Fortress he convinced his college professors to accept. Leveraging the brainworms from a youth spent in World of Warcraft to write for sites like Waypoint, Polygon, and Fanbyte, Lincoln spent three years freelancing for PC Gamer before joining on as a full-time News Writer in 2024, bringing an expertise in Caves of Qud bird diplomacy, getting sons killed in Crusader Kings, and hitting dinosaurs with hammers in Monster Hunter.