Broken Oath vs Path of Exile 2 — The New Benchmark

Broken Oath (Steam app 5452900) is a single-player Windows action RPG from Crater Studios, set in the Dwarven Realms universe, and it is not out. A Steam playtest through app 5461470 has run since 30 October 2026; Early Access is estimated at six to twelve months, with no date or price announced. The confirmed shape: six classes, skill gems with behaviour-changing supports, a passive tree with notables and keystones, a Forge fed by rune stones, and Ruptures — randomised maps with eight danger bands and a Guardian at the end.

Path of Exile 2 (Steam app 2694490) is Grinding Gear Games' action RPG, in paid Early Access since 6 December 2024 and free-to-play from 1.0 on 11 December 2026. It is always online, supports co-op for up to six, and runs a trade economy that resets each challenge league. On 7 November 2026 it is still an Early Access build: Acts 5 and 6, Shadow and Duelist, and the Conquerors of Wraeclast league are announced, not playable.

The difference is maturity. PoE 2 is a running game with leagues and a traded economy; Broken Oath is a playtest slice with a confirmed skeleton and a long list of blanks.

PoE 2 treats skills as items. A skill gem grants an ability, and up to five support gems can be attached, each changing how it behaves. The 1.0 announcement promises a rebalanced support pool; the notes were not published at check time, so that is a plan, not a playable change. One shared tree covers every class, with two weapon-set point pools for two specialised setups; at 1.0 jewel sockets move into clusters.

Crafting runs on currency orbs that reroll and add modifiers, plus a rune and alloy tier added in 0.5.0. At 1.0, a castle-treasury material replaces unwanted modifiers with random fractured ones.

Broken Oath uses the same vocabulary at a smaller scale: six classes, gems with linkable supports, a tree with notables and keystones, observed charging 2 gold per refunded node, and Blessings and Curses as a second layer. The store's examples are a Cyclone that fires Ember Bolts while channelling, a burning legion, and arrows raining in a chosen element. The Forge takes rune stones found in each land and recipes learned from Edda Ironhand — Heartblood for life, Ox Brand for strength, Emberward for fire resistance. One creator calls the Forge deterministic in the Last Epoch sense; that is a player's read, not a studio statement.

The gap is documentation, not ambition. PoE 2's build space is mapped down to individual nodes and gem tags; Broken Oath's link limits, support list and respec economics are unpublished. Six classes and keystones are a start, not a comparison.

PoE 2's endgame is the Atlas: fixed points of interest, Towers, Tablets and Waystones, six league storylines, and a separate tree of more than 300 nodes. Atlas Masters carry small ascendancy-style trees of their own, and Pinnacle bosses exist in quest and repeatable versions, so each has a one-off kill and a farm version. A league starts on a fresh economy and expects a campaign replay; Early Access has had no wipes, and characters migrate to Standard.

The time ask is the point. Broadband is a minimum and recommended requirement, there is no offline mode, and the install wants 100 GB. Trade is first-party — a trade site, asynchronous trade and an in-game market since August 2025 — with Solo Self-Found for players who would rather opt out.

Broken Oath's loop is the Rupture: randomised maps across forests, deserts, snow peaks, swamps and the Underrealm, with weather, time of day, eight danger bands and Guardians that gain attacks and phases. An observed panel shows a level-70 Rupture with three lives, one of three checkpoints, three of eight rares left, a running timer, and objectives such as breaking a seal or reaching an obelisk. Loot runs magic, rare, red unique and Primal.

Offline is the structural difference. The 5 November news post took the online realm down for a rebuild, reopened it on 6 November and reset online heroes; offline characters were untouched. That is alpha maintenance, not a season model — leagues, wipes and the real time a Rupture costs are all unannounced.

PoE 2 sets the bar in four places: build depth that is the product rather than a side system, an endgame that existed before 1.0, a working player economy, and hardware coverage that includes consoles and a Verified Steam Deck build. Its costs are just as clear: always online, an onboarding cliff, a campaign replay every league, and an Early Access build that changes under your character.

• A build loop with decisions after the campaign. Links, supports and respec cost have to interact the way gems, tree and ascendancies do in PoE 2.
• An endgame ladder rather than an endgame room. Ruptures have modifiers, danger bands, objectives and Guardians; the question is whether they stack into progression or repeat at a fixed ceiling.
• Offline that survives launch. Offline characters exist in alpha; a shipped build that plays without a connection is the one item PoE 2 cannot answer.
• The hardware promises. Full controller support and Steam Deck are on the roadmap and still in progress.
• A date and a price. Until both exist, this is a shipped Early Access game against an alpha slice.

None of that requires Broken Oath to be as large as PoE 2. A six-class single-player ARPG with a map loop and a Forge is a coherent product. It has to ship, and be honest about what is missing.

These games answer different questions. PoE 2 is a running Early Access game that becomes free-to-play in five weeks, with a trade economy and an Atlas that already works. Broken Oath is an undated alpha with offline characters and no price. One has patch notes; the other has a store page and a playtest.

If you want build depth and an endgame with an economy tonight, choose PoE 2. If you buy this month, you are paying for a build that 1.0 will rework; waiting until 11 December gets you the release version free. If you want to judge the game rather than the 1.0 trailer, the Early Access build is the one that exists today.

If offline single-player is the requirement, choose neither today: wait for Broken Oath to announce a date, a price and an Early Access build, then judge whether the Rupture loop holds past the campaign. If you need something to play this week and a connection is not a problem, play PoE 2. If you are waiting specifically for an offline ARPG, wait for Broken Oath.