Grinding Gear Games' Path of Exile released in 2013, but the New Zealand developer has kept the experience fresh by periodically releasing new challenge leagues with different modifiers and features. Its most recent league, Path of Exile: Harvest, took cues from games like Stardew Valley by having players inherit a farm that harvests Lifeforce. The next league, aptly named Path of Exile: Heist, is inspired by films like Ocean's Eleven (2001).
The action RPG's Heist expansion will take players to Rogue Harbour, where they can contract a team with varying skills to embark on heists, grow more skilled, and eventually gain access to Grand Heists with "exclusive new rewards" like weapon enhancements, trinkets, and "alternate quality gems" that grant bonuses. Path of Exile's third expansion for 2020 will come alongside the game's official macOS release. It is planned to come out September 18 on PC, and September 23 on consoles.
In an interview with PCGamesN, Grinding Gear Games Co-Founder Chris Wilson said the idea for a heist-themed expansion was decided upon in February when he and Technical Director Jonathan Rogers looked around on Netflix. Originally they had considered something based on car racing movies, but were inspired by the iconography and characters from films like Steven Soderbergh's Ocean's Eleven, a remake of 1960's Ocean's 11 staring Frank Sinatra and the Rat Pack.
Wilson said the experience will only partially be about stealth mechanics, as once players steal the treasures in question it will alert the whole facility to set up for larger fights that ARPGs are known for. Heist was apparently meant to release in June, but got delayed alongside the Harvest league due to complications working from home amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.
Though Grinding Gear Games is continuing to release content for Path of Exile, its sequel is also in development. Path of Exile 2 was announced during ExileCon 2019, but Wilson said the studio is holding off on launching a beta until "it would ultimately be more useful to [us]" when asked about its progress by PCGamesN.
Updates to the current game have extended further than the occasional new league with special features. In June, the developers rebalanced 50 items in Path of Exile to keep the Diablo-esque, procedurally-generated game as fair and diverse as possible. That attention to detail will hopefully help as players get to play out their George Clooney heist fantasies later this month.
Path of Exile is available now on PC, PS4, and Xbox One.
Sources: Path of Exile, PCGamesN