Don't Starve vs Path of Exile
Don't Starve
Don't Starve is a pretty dreary and dark survival game set in a rich world filled with plenty of animals/game to hunt, monsters to kill, and resources to gather. With a gothic-like theme, the game's best feature is perhaps the way it hands the reins to its players and let these players decide what sort of survival game they'd want to play and how difficult will the game be. You can literally customize everything in the world you'll be playing in, ranging from the weather, how frequent lightning strikes, how long a season lasts, how much resources are spawned and many more.The game also has a very nice selection of characters that you can gradually unlock as you play the game. Each character will even have their own specialty that you can then make use of when the situation calls for it.
Don't Starve is a survival game that's as punishing as it is vicious. Expect to die a lot in the game and turn all those deaths into useful lessons that you can then build upon. If you fancy surviving with your friends in tow, then you might want to get the multiplayer version of the game, Don't Starve Together, instead.
Path of Exile
Path of Exile is a game come true for fans of the dungeon-crawling MMO genre, much like Drakensang Online. However, this game has a much more similar theme to the dark and brooding tone set by the Diablo series as opposed to the more lighthearted tone in the Torchlight series. Like most dungeon crawlers, the gameplay in Path of Exile is pretty much a straight-up hack-and-slash but interestingly, the character you play has a variety of passive and active abilities that provide players with the freedom to create whatever build they like. Of course, these builds and the players' skills will be put to the test when they attempt to take on an epic boss which if defeated, will shower their group with plenty of amazing loot.Another interesting aspect in Path of Exile is its robust and thriving player-driven economy. Similar to Diablo 3's albeit failed auction system in some way, players who raid often can sell any loot they don't need on the market rather than a mere AI vendor usually at a marked-up price. Other players who don't have that much time to raid but money aplenty can then spend the necessary amount to buy the stuff they need.
Path of Exile is definitely the sort of free-to-play game fans of Diablo, or any dungeon crawler game really, will love to play. If you happen to be one of them, then what are you waiting for? Try the game now!