Why Large Maps Don’t Work in Path of Exile 2

Path of Exile 2 uses a top‑down perspective, which changes how exploration feels compared to games where you can freely move the camera. In those games, you can spot distant landmarks and decide to head towards them. In Path of Exile 2, that visual feedback is missing, so exploration often means choosing a random direction and hoping for the best.

On smaller maps, this is not a problem, since boundaries and landmarks are close enough that you’ll come across them just by walking a short distance in any direction. However, on larger maps where areas stretch out without distinctive visual cues, it is easy to feel lost. That is why many players run along the edges of the map as soon as they enter the area. It is a habit born from necessity, not enjoyment.

The alternative is to rely on the overlay map, but this means navigating through an interface rather than through the world itself. When players spend most of their time looking at a semi‑transparent map overlay that covers the screen, the environments and level design lose much of their significance. Why encourage this when the game’s world is so visually striking?

Games are most engaging when they challenge our abilities in meaningful ways. Exploration can be one of those challenges when it rewards observation and curiosity, such as noticing a hidden doorway or a faint path leading to treasure. But wandering aimlessly through wide, empty spaces only tests patience.


Edit:

Something else I wanted to add, since my original post only talked about wide open spaces in maps: dont make paths that lead to dead ends too long, and avoid branching them into multiple dead ends too often. Layouts like that break the flow and force players to rely on the overlay map.

Allow me to awaken the artistic beast within me to clarify what I mean:

Good layout:



Bad layout:



I’m not saying the main path needs to be a straight line. I’m saying the path should be recognizable among the dead ends.


Edit 2:

Another point I would like to make: sprinting and mounts are a band aid for video game environments that are too large and empty. Holding down a key to move faster is neither fun nor interesting. No reviewer has ever said, “Good combat, but you can’t sprint” or "Wish I could hold the shift key with my pinky more"

For some reason you decided to make sprinting even more annoying to use in your game.


Edit 3:

All I care about is progressing through the campaign and maps without having to stare at the map overlay constantly. Backtracking because of a missed spot on the other side of the map isn't something I care for either. Especially when the layout, on top of being absurdly large, is a maze. It's not fun.

Picture yourself in the bottom right corner of the layout in the second picture and finding out the objective is in the top left corner of the layout.

Just forget it. People have been complaining about the huge mazelike maps since 0.1. They slapped a patch on act 3 that didn't do anything and called it a day, never again touching the issue even though act 4 is just as bad if not worse, not to mention interlude which probably won't stay anyway. It's quite clear they're keeping the maps this way intentionally, it's a design choice and not an oversight

They're clearly aware the vast majority of the playerbase hate those maps, the act 3 patch is proof of that, but bigger maps = more time played

We also got sprint which is the bandaid fix GGG decided to add to the game for exactly this since at a certain point people were pretty much rioting. The maps still suck, but now they can say "well, we gave you sprint"

Large maps were fine when you could scale Monster and Pack density.

They removed that for less monsters / density for Effectiveness (more loot from smaller tougher packs) while keeping the huge empty maps with Sprint. Pandering to feedback about getting overrun in act 1,2,3,4 + Interludes + t1~15 maps because they expected the game to carry them into end game and not need to look at their gear or resistance post act4.

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Nokkhi#3142 a écrit :

Large maps were fine when you could scale Monster and Pack density.

They removed that for less monsters / density for Effectiveness (more loot from smaller tougher packs) while keeping the huge empty maps with Sprint. Pandering to feedback about getting overrun in act 1,2,3,4 + Interludes + t1~15 maps because they expected the game to carry them into end game and not need to look at their gear or resistance post act4.

You're factually wrong. [Removed by Support] the feedback they received from players was specifically about getting overrun in endgame, they only changed monster density in maps, not in acts/interlude.

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mattia2103#3008 a écrit :

The alternative is to rely on the overlay map, but this means navigating through an interface rather than through the world itself. When players spend most of their time looking at a semi‑transparent map overlay that covers the screen, the environments and level design lose much of their significance. Why encourage this when the game’s world is so visually striking?

I agree with everything you said especially this part in specific, if you open any poe stream you will find that 99% of them have the map overlay toggled all the time, that makes the game look and feel so uninviting idk

Also, many maps really are way too big. And no matter how many enemies or stuff to do you put in them, they're just exhausting to navigate and that is the problem.

Added a couple of things to the original post.

Guys, large maps only work if you get twice or three times as much reward for them.

Three small maps should have the same amount of loot as one large map.

I understand that some people would prefer that there be no large maps at all, but that's nonsense. Just please reward the large maps better in the future. Reward them significantly better.

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Darosius#3984 a écrit :

I understand that some people would prefer that there be no large maps at all, but that's nonsense.

Good argument.

We can have large, small, medium, streamlined, convoluted, and everything in-between maps.

Because if you sufficiently explore the atlas enough to the point where you have an opinion on qualitative map attributes, there are also enough waystone nodes available for you to cherry-pick the ones you like and avoid the ones you don't.

There's plenty of people who get to level 100 without ever running specific waystones that they don't like.

For real?

Since I played a warrior, the prolly slowest character in the game, I would rather see bigger maps and longer maps.

The mentality that big maps don't suit PoE 2 is only a problem for zoomers which need a straight line.

Proof me wrong.