With Diablo III and Torchlight II having both been released for months now, there's a bit of a void in the action, role-playing, dungeon crawler department. Grinding Gear Games hopes to fill the gap with its free-to-play game, Path of Exile.
Don't let the F2P part turn you off just yet. The philosophy that Grinding Gear goes by is its self-coined "ethical microtransactions", meaning players can't pay to win. Instead, the game is completely free to download and play. Gamers willing to pay will have access to vanity items, such as additional character animations, pets (purely for social purposes), and dyes.
Path of Exile has been in closed beta for a while now and has been financed on a crowdfunded approach. Anyone wishing to gain access into the closed beta can "pre-purchase" the game. There are different reward tiers giving money to the developer, which are the usual game-related paraphernalia seen with most crowdfunded games.
For those willing to wait a little longer, Path of Exile will be entering Open Beta on January 23rd, opening the game up for the general public to play. At the same time, it'll be unveiling new content with the addition of Act III.
Diablo III fans who were looking to get their PvP fix might want to turn to Path of Exile for relief. The game is in many ways what Diablo III could have (and to some, maybe should have) been, as it features a darker, and grittier art style, along with an enormous passive skill tree, and built-from-the-ground-up PvP.
The different tiers to buy into Path of Exile closed beta is available on its official website, with all each tier broken down.