Hyperbolic bonus: Hyperbolica, a first-person walking simulator set in a universe with hyperbolic geometry. You do odd jobs and play games that explore the strangeness of this geometry. Also, there’s a slight digression to explore spherical geometry as well.
This 2D platformer metroidvania has memorable characters and very cool worldbuilding. You switch between characters to match their abilities to the right situations. They live on a living, planet-sized creature and are fighting off the parasites that are slowly killing their creature-planet. You’ll swim through its blood vessels and explore its organs.
It’s not super long—I finished the story in 9 hours. It’s just about the right length to satisfy.
If you liked the puzzle design of The Witness, you’ll enjoy Taiji as more of that but with scenic pixel art.
Instead of a linear sequence of tutorials and puzzles, Taiji is open-ended. You can wander wherever you want, solve the puzzles you stumble upon, and ultimately discover this place’s secrets. Sometimes you find a puzzle that you don’t understand, so you’ll just have to leave it for later, when you’ve learned more puzzle mechanics. It’s like a metroidvania but gated by knowledge instead of abilities.
All the puzzles are built on grids of tiles that you can turn on or off. There are no tutorials; you have to figure out the puzzle mechanics on your own, hinted by environmental details.
The 2d platforming world and top-down world have smashed together. You control one hero from each dimension, who share the same space in the levels. You switch between platformer and top-down modes and must get both characters to the goal. The boss levels are hard but very cool, combining action and puzzles.
Also features local 2-player co-op and a generous assist mode.
I don’t know how much you’ve been following the game, but we do know the combat is slower and more intentional in 2, with monsters telegraphing their attacks and a greater need to combo multiple skills together. Skills are designed to be more narrow and situational, given you can have more than two six-links now.
Gameplay we’ve seen shows white mobs being seriously dangerous and flasks no longer recharge when killing them. Streamers who have been invited to the preview events in GGG’s marketing tour have stated the game feels harder.
Jonathan says he still wants to let people make crazy and powerful builds, but these changes suggest they’re killing off the one-button facerolling PoE 1 is known for.
Good catch with the gravel texture! I didn’t notice it in the back. On the topic of textures, I know there was a complete but very subtle texture overhaul sometime after 1.0, but I can’t tell if this is before or after that change unless I reference the changed textures side by side.
Director of the game, Jonathan Rogers (who isn’t in this video), has outright cited Elden Ring as inspiration for the design of combat for Path of Exile 2, and this video reiterates that.
For devoted exiles, this promo doesn’t reveal anything new, but it is happening in front of a larger audience. I’m looking forward to more class reveals.
Path of Exile has used its own early access system multiple times before. If it’s anything like the 3.0 closed beta, the most recent time this happened, they’ll send waves of invitations to signed-up site users.
If you liked the puzzle design style of the Witness, check out Taiji. It uses a similar open-ended structure that leaves puzzle rules for you to discover on your own.