Path of Exile 2 is coming, but don't expect a beta until "at least very late 2020"

Grinding Gear Games has announced Path of Exile 2… although it's not quite the sequel some of us might have been expecting.

As reported by our pals at PC Gamer, the reveal was made at ExileCon in Auckland, New Zealand earlier today. But despite that very big "2" sitting after the game's name, however, Path of Exile 2 isn't a new game as much as it is an expansion, but it brings a number of changes and improvements to the base game, including changes to the Passive Skill Tree and an overhaul of many of the game's core systems.

"Path of Exile 2 is a new seven-act storyline that is available alongside the original Path of Exile 1 campaign," the developer explains. "Both the old and new storyline lead to the same shared Atlas endgame. Path of Exile 2 retains all expansion content that has been created over the last six years and introduces a new skill system, ascendancy classes, engine improvements and more."

Taking place 20 years after the events of the first game, Path of Exile 2 introduces characters that are a new set of Exiles who fall into the same class archetypes as those in the original game. "As such, they can pick from a set of 19 new Ascendancy Classes that differ from the old ones that are still available in the Path of Exile 1 campaign," the developer added.

Here, take a peek yourself:

Path of Exile 2 Official Trailer - YouTube

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There's no release date for Path of Exile 2 yet and the developer says it is "unlikely to start a Beta until at least very late 2020", but in the meantime, the team says it is "continuing to release Path of Exile expansions on [its] regular three-month cycle". This content will be available across both the Path of Exile 1 and Path of Exile 2 campaigns.

There's also been a "rework of the mechanics of each of the game's seven character classes" and a "major visual rework with physics-based rendering", such as arrows bouncing or sticking to surfaces "depending on what they're made of".

If you're new to the Path of Exile universe, it might interest you to know we recommended the first game in our 10 games like Borderlands to loot and shoot in round-up. It also landed at #6 on our countdown of the best free games list, too.

Wondering what else made the cut? Here are our picks of the best 25 free games to play right now.