In my opinion, Path of Exile is the greatest ARPG currently available. The fact that the game is free to play, yet offers an incredible amount of depth, frequent updates and solid gameplay sets it apart as not only the best ARPG currently, but also one of the best F2P games created to date. If you are a fan Diablo-style games, then I must recommend you give PoE a go. I have played Grim Dawn, all three Diablo games, Marvel Heroes, both Torchlight games, Titan's Quest and several other ARPGs (these mentioned are the best of the lot to date, in my opinion). It is my favorite style of video game, and that has made PoE my favorite game for some time.

The early game is a bit slower/clunkier feeling than say Diablo 3's due to the way skills work in PoE, but by mid to late game, it becomes much faster-paced. The skill and class system is an interesting thing in PoE. You are not bound to a set of skills or play type by the class you pick. Certain classes lend themselves better to certain playstyles, but you can certainly play a tanky, melee witch and a glass cannon marauder. Skill gems must be socketed into your gear you are wearing to grant skills to be used, and skills can be modified to augment the way they work and their damage by socketing support gems into linked sockets. PoE doesn't tend to explain things, or make things so simple that they require no explanation/figuring out. The wiki for PoE is an extremely valuable source of information, and trading in the game nearly necessitates the use of a third party site - which is essentially an Auction House where one lists or finds items for sale. Nearly every item in the game is tradeable, and the currency in the game is expendable and usable, making it useful both for trading for items as well as crafting/upgrading your own items. There are recipes in the game that still have not been discovered (or at least made public) since the game was released!

That is not to say the game is not without its faults. Chief amoungst them is the game's engine. It was developed before there were great engines available for free to build your games with (such as Unreal Engine and Unity). As such, the developers made their own engine, which allows them to custom tailor it to their game. It also means that upgrades are more difficult and solely on the shoulders of the development team. The engine does not handle graphical effects such as particle effects as well as say, Diablo 3's does, and this can cause framerate issues. As the game has gotten more popular in the past year+, they have been able to expand their team, allowing them to dedicate folks on fixing such issues as well as make regular updates - new content is released every 3 months alternating between an expansion and a smaller content update. ARPGs are a grindfest, a grind for loot and experience. PoE keeps things fairly fresh (or gives you a reason to come back every 3 months, at least) by adding regular content. The 3 month cycle also includes the release of a new challenge leagues, which introduces some new element to the game. At the end of the challenge leagues, characters from those leagues (there is a hardcore and softcore challenge league) are moved to the permanent hardcore and softcore leagues. Sometimes the content/mechanics from these challenge leagues is permanently added to the core game, sometimes it is not. There are a couple things (like stash space and special stash tabs that make organizing things & trading things easier) that are available for purchase that will make the game more convenient. I played the game for a long time without paying for anything though as you are in no way impaired from enjoying the game without extra stash space. Cosmetic items make up the bulk of the cash shop, and provide no stat bonuses or any kind of edge other than looking different.

In conclusion: If you like ARPGs, you really ought to give this a try. It's better (in my opinion) than any other game in this genre, releases new content updates far more often as well, and all of the other games in the genre cost money to play (Marvel Heroes being the other exception). Even if you don't end up liking it more than Diablo 3 or Grim Dawn, I highly recommend at least giving Path of Exile an hour or two. You may find, a couple thousand hours later, you're still learning new things about the game and still having a lot of fun playing it.

In my opinion, Path of Exile is the greatest ARPG currently available. The fact that the game is free to play, yet offers an incredible amount of depth, frequent updates and solid gameplay sets it apart as not only the best ARPG currently, but also one of the best F2P games created to date. If you are a fan Diablo-style games, then I must recommend you give PoE a go. I have played Grim Dawn, all three Diablo games, Marvel Heroes, both Torchlight games, Titan's Quest and several other ARPGs (these mentioned are the best of the lot to date, in my opinion). It is my favorite style of video game, and that has made PoE my favorite game for some time. The early game is a bit slower/clunkier feeling than say Diablo 3's due to the way skills work in PoE, but by mid to late game, it becomes much faster-paced. The skill and class system is an interesting thing in PoE. You are not bound to a set of skills or play type by the class you pick. Certain classes lend themselves better to certain playstyles, but you can certainly play a tanky, melee witch and a glass cannon marauder. Skill gems must be socketed into your gear you are wearing to grant skills to be used, and skills can be modified to augment the way they work and their damage by socketing support gems into linked sockets. PoE doesn't tend to explain things, or make things so simple that they require no explanation/figuring out. The wiki for PoE is an extremely valuable source of information, and trading in the game nearly necessitates the use of a third party site - which is essentially an Auction House where one lists or finds items for sale. Nearly every item in the game is tradeable, and the currency in the game is expendable and usable, making it useful both for trading for items as well as crafting/upgrading your own items. There are recipes in the game that still have not been discovered (or at least made public) since the game was released! That is not to say the game is not without its faults. Chief amoungst them is the game's engine. It was developed before there were great engines available for free to build your games with (such as Unreal Engine and Unity). As such, the developers made their own engine, which allows them to custom tailor it to their game. It also means that upgrades are more difficult and solely on the shoulders of the development team. The engine does not handle graphical effects such as particle effects as well as say, Diablo 3's does, and this can cause framerate issues. As the game has gotten more popular in the past year+, they have been able to expand their team, allowing them to dedicate folks on fixing such issues as well as make regular updates - new content is released every 3 months alternating between an expansion and a smaller content update. ARPGs are a grindfest, a grind for loot and experience. PoE keeps things fairly fresh (or gives you a reason to come back every 3 months, at least) by adding regular content. The 3 month cycle also includes the release of a new challenge leagues, which introduces some new element to the game. At the end of the challenge leagues, characters from those leagues (there is a hardcore and softcore challenge league) are moved to the permanent hardcore and softcore leagues. Sometimes the content/mechanics from these challenge leagues is permanently added to the core game, sometimes it is not. There are a couple things (like stash space and special stash tabs that make organizing things & trading things easier) that are available for purchase that will make the game more convenient. I played the game for a long time without paying for anything though as you are in no way impaired from enjoying the game without extra stash space. Cosmetic items make up the bulk of the cash shop, and provide no stat bonuses or any kind of edge other than looking different. In conclusion: If you like ARPGs, you really ought to give this a try. It's better (in my opinion) than any other game in this genre, releases new content updates far more often as well, and all of the other games in the genre cost money to play (Marvel Heroes being the other exception). Even if you don't end up liking it more than Diablo 3 or Grim Dawn, I highly recommend at least giving Path of Exile an hour or two. You may find, a couple thousand hours later, you're still learning new things about the game and still having a lot of fun playing it.