GamingPickz
Game vs game · side by side

Path of Exile 2 vs Wolcen: Lords of Mayhem

Path of Exile 2 is an action-RPG horror game from Grinding Gear Games (2024) while Wolcen: Lords of Mayhem is an action-RPG RPG game from WOLCEN Studio (2020).

Path of Exile 2

2024 · Grinding Gear Games

7.2GamingPickz Score

$29.99

Steam: Mostly Positive

Wolcen: Lords of Mayhem

2020 · WOLCEN Studio

5.7GamingPickz Score

$19.99

Steam: Mixed

What each one is

Steam files Path of Exile 2 under Action-RPG and Horror. In contrast, it files Wolcen: Lords of Mayhem under Action-RPG and RPG.

Path of Exile 2

Path of Exile 2 is a next generation Action RPG from Grinding Gear Games, featuring co-op for up to six players. Set years after the original Path of Exile, you will return to the dark world of Wraeclast and seek to end the corruption that is spreading.

Description from its Steam store page

Wolcen: Lords of Mayhem

Carve your path in this Hack’n’Slash free from class boundaries. Purify a world shattered by corruption, and uncover the grim secrets and forgotten horrors lurking in the shadows of this forsaken land as you rise in Power. Your Inner aspect beckons—will you answer?

Description from its Steam store page

At a glance

Path of Exile 2Wolcen: Lords of Mayhem
GamingPickz Score7.2/105.7/10
Steam ratingMostly Positive (75%, 224,979)Mixed (56%, 67,957)
Critic aggregateNo aggregate60/100
Price$29.99$19.99
Install size100 GB18 GB
Steam Deckplayableplayable
Released20242020
DeveloperGrinding Gear GamesWOLCEN Studio

Prices and Steam ratings are read live and move over time.

Path of Exile 2 vs Wolcen: Lords of Mayhem, point by point

Each facet side by side. A round is marked won only where a figure settles it; feel and "which is better" carry no mark, because no number we hold decides them.

  1. Genre and premise

    Path of Exile 2Action-RPG horror game
    Wolcen: Lords of MayhemAction-RPG RPG game

    What each is filed as. Each game describes itself in full above; we do not judge a premise.

  2. How it plays

    Path of Exile 2Action RPG, Hack and Slash, RPG
    Wolcen: Lords of MayhemAction RPG, Hack and Slash, Isometric

    The tags players apply most, in order of votes. A read on feel, not a verdict.

  3. Reception

    Path of Exile 2Score 7.2 · 75% on Steam
    Wolcen: Lords of MayhemScore 5.7 · 56% on Steam · 60 critic

    The GamingPickz Score is a composite of player sentiment, critics and popularity, computed the same way for every game.

  4. Content and scale

    Path of Exile 2224,979 reviews · 9 add-ons · 100 GB
    Wolcen: Lords of Mayhem67,957 reviews · 2 add-ons · 18 GB

    Reach and footprint, not quality: more reviews or a bigger install is not a better game.

  5. Price

    Path of Exile 2$29.99
    Wolcen: Lords of Mayhem$19.99

    Read live from Steam and subject to change.

  6. On a Steam Deck

    Path of Exile 2Playable
    Wolcen: Lords of MayhemPlayable

    Valve's own Deck compatibility rating.

Across the rounds a number can settle, it is level at 1 each. Which one is "better" is the part no figure decides, so we leave it to what you want from the two.

The two on the grid

Compare the whole catalogue

Path of Exile 2 and Wolcen: Lords of Mayhem on the axes the GamingPickz Score is built from, on the full 0 to 100 scale so each dot is its real position. Change either axis to compare them on any measure.

2 games have both

01000100PlayersPopularity

Players. The share of Steam reviews marked positive, pulled toward the catalogue average in proportion to how few reviews stand behind it. A game with 200 reviews moves a long way toward the average; one with 200,000 barely moves at all. Without this a title sitting at 100 percent on nine reviews outranks Half-Life 2 at 98 percent on 278,000.

Popularity. A blend of two things that are not the same. Audience is how many people wrote a Steam review, which is a floor on how many played it. Reach is how many language editions of Wikipedia document the game, which is cultural footprint rather than sales. A game can score high on one and low on the other: a huge free-to-play title has audience without reach, and a landmark console exclusive has reach without a Steam audience at all. Where both exist they are averaged; where only one does, that one carries it.

  • PC

Every point links to that game's entry. The value map and the reception map are fixed views of the same data.

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How positions are decided

No paid placement, no favouritism, live third-party data
  • Placed by the published method, not by us. Every coordinate is computed from the axis definitions and weights printed on this site. Nobody moves a point. See the axes.
  • Nothing here is paid for. No sponsored placements, no promoted slots, no arrangement of any kind affects a position. If that ever changes it will be labelled and sit outside the ranking.
  • No favouritism, including our own. The 16 games we have written full reviews of are scored by exactly the same formula as the other 1,510, from the same third-party inputs, and they land where it puts them. Our own opinion of a game does not enter its coordinates.
  • A position is not an endorsement. It says how a game was received and what it costs, not that we recommend it. Where we do recommend something, it carries a written review with a name on it.
  • Fetched from live third-party data. Player sentiment from Steam, critic aggregates as published on store pages, prices checked hourly, attention from Wikipedia. Each figure carries its source and the date it was read, and we do not adjust any of them.

Which to pick, by what you want

  • The higher-rated of the two: Path of Exile 2 (GamingPickz Score 7.2)
  • The cheaper right now: Wolcen: Lords of Mayhem ($19.99)
  • Lighter on storage: Wolcen: Lords of Mayhem (18 GB)
  • The safer bet by weight of reviews: Path of Exile 2 (224,979 reviews)

What they have in common

Both are tagged by Steam players with:

Action RPGHack and SlashRPGDark FantasyIsometricActionLootDungeon Crawler

Where they differ

Path of Exile 2 is also

Souls-likeMMORPGEarly AccessInventory ManagementCraftingHorror

Wolcen: Lords of Mayhem is also

SingleplayerIndieFantasyTop-DownControllerMedieval

Tags players apply to one game and not the other.

Difficulty and who each is for

By the tags players apply, Path of Exile 2 is demanding, for players who want a challenge. Wolcen: Lords of Mayhem is demanding, for players who want a challenge.

System requirements, side by side

Path of Exile 2Wolcen: Lords of Mayhem
Minimum GPUNVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 960 (3GB)NVIDIA GeForce GTX 560 Ti / AMD Radeon HD 6850
Minimum CPUIntel® Core™ i7-7700Intel Core i5-4570T 2.9 GHz / AMD FX-6100 3.3 GHz
Minimum RAM8 GB8 GB
Install size100 GB18 GB

Can your PC run them? Check each against your own kit: Path of Exile 2 · Wolcen: Lords of Mayhem.

Accessibility features

Steam store pages declare 1 accessibility feature for Path of Exile 2 and 1 for Wolcen: Lords of Mayhem. A declaration is a floor, not a review.

If you like one, also try

Close to Wolcen: Lords of Mayhem

Common questions

How different are Path of Exile 2 and Wolcen: Lords of Mayhem in scope?

Path of Exile 2 has drawn 224,979 Steam reviews, ships 9 add-ons and installs in 100 GB. Wolcen: Lords of Mayhem has drawn 67,957 Steam reviews, ships 2 add-ons and installs in 18 GB.

Is Path of Exile 2 or Wolcen: Lords of Mayhem better?

By the GamingPickz Score, Path of Exile 2 rates higher (7.2 to 5.7). That is a composite of player sentiment, the critic aggregate and popularity, not our taste. "Better" also depends on price, length and platform, which the table above lays out.

Which is cheaper, Path of Exile 2 or Wolcen: Lords of Mayhem?

Wolcen: Lords of Mayhem is cheaper right now at $19.99, against $29.99. Prices move, so this is read live from Steam and can change.

Do you rank one above the other for a fee?

No. Neither game, nor anyone else, pays for placement or a verdict here. The order and every figure come out of the same public data the rest of the site uses.

How we compare, and what we will not do

The GamingPickz Score is a composite of player sentiment (adjusted for sample size), the critic aggregate and popularity, computed by the same code every ranked list on this site uses. The Steam rating label is Valve's own, reconstructed from the positive percentage and review count. Prices are read live. We do not write an opinion of which game is "better": we report the numbers and say which wins each measurable question above.

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