tl;dr: Path of Exile is what I feel Diablo 3 should have been. If you played D2 to death and D3 was disappointing to you, give Path of Exile a shot. If you've always wanted to play a game like Diablo 3 or Torchlight, but aren't sure you'd like it, give Path of Exile a shot. Its totally free and you've really got nothing to lose...except maybe a few hundred hours of your spare time.

The game is absolutely free to play. No pay to win bull. I haven't spent a single cent on this game and you don't need to in order to get amazing gear. 99% of the microtransactions are little cosmetic items that have absolutely NO effect on your ability to play the game. The only thing you could remotely consider a "pay to win" item would be the additional stash tabs. But you can very easily make mule characters to hold your additional items for you if you find you're always strained for room (and trust me, you will be)

The devs are some of the most amazing I've ever seen. Their involvement and dedication to the community is seriously impressive. They continue to create amazing content for everyone and expect nothing back from you. Yet *many* people are more than willing to purchase the supporter packs they offer. Balance in such a game is tricky but from my perspective (and I am no hardcore PoE player, mind you) everything seems to be well-balanced; though I am a ranger main so you might hear different opinions here :P

As for the gameplay, its what you would normally expect from an ARPG. You get a choice of 7 classes, one of which gets unlocked after your first playthrough of Normal difficulty. The biggest features of PoE are the skill gems and the passive skill tree, both of which are going to take a little time to get used to. The first time you open up the skill tree you are going to be overwhelmed with the amount of stuff. But this is what I think makes PoE the game it is. The amount of possible builds are seemingly endless. The depth of the game is just incredible. No matter how many times you play the game, you can always make a new character and explore a new build. Admitedly, some builds are more dominant than others, and the sheer number of possible builds might be super confusing to a new user. To that end, I will reccommend finding a build on the forums that you think would be fun to play and following that for your first character, to get a feel for how the games mechanics work. Once you are a bit more confident in the system, you can start to experiment on your own. I should warn, though, that builds don't really start looking like anything coherent until very late game, when you've got most of your skill tree filled in and your items are good enough. But getting to that point in a build is part of the fun of PoE.

There is no formal "currency" in PoE. Gold just doesn't exist. Instead, our currency is in the form of orbs. There are a few different types of these orbs, and they all serve a different purpose. Some of them turn a normal item into a magic item. Some of them reroll the stats on an item. Some of them erase all the stats on the item. These orbs will drop randomly as you kill monsters throughout the game. The rarity of the orb and what the orb does sort of determines its "worth" in PoE. This is one part of the game that many find annoying. Personally, I'm on the fence about this way of doing things. You'll start off with nothing, and it will take a while before you accumulate any meaningful amount of currency. So really the only way to acquire currency is to play lots.

The crafting system depends heavily on the use of the orbs I mentioned previously. You will want to save your orbs when you start out as the chances of getting something good with only a few orbs are slim. You're better off saving your currency to buy yourself some needed gear for your builds.

The graphics are really nothing amazing, actually I'd call them sort of lackluster, but for a game like PoE the graphics really don't matter. If you're too busy paying attention to how the textures on that one rock look kind of funny, you won't stay alive very long.

There is a TON more I could talk about, but I think I've made all the points I wanted to make. Refer back to the tl;dr at the top. I think PoE is an amazing game that everyone should at least try for a few hours. Find a build, follow it, and just have fun with the game. Its got a lot of depth to it but once you get into it, you'll have a tough time putting it down.

EDIT: I can't remember exactly how much time I had on the game when I wrote this review, but I have almost 1500 hours in it now and the game just keeps on giving. The more time you put into it, the more you get rewarded. I have long since decided to support the developers by buying some of their extra stash tabs (~$40 USD worth) and I have not regretted it one bit. I stand by my previous pay-to-win statement on the stash tabs, in that the stash tabs greatly improve the quality of life of trading, and the general progression of your characters, and so could be considered slightly pay-to-win, although they are NOT shoving them down your throat or anything. They are still optional and completely dependent on if you find the extra space worth it. The game continues to recieve expansions and it is getting bigger every day. If this game has been on your radar but you haven't tried it yet, please try it! You have nothing to lose... except maybe a few thousand hours of your time.

tl;dr: Path of Exile is what I feel Diablo 3 should have been. If you played D2 to death and D3 was disappointing to you, give Path of Exile a shot. If you've always wanted to play a game like Diablo 3 or Torchlight, but aren't sure you'd like it, give Path of Exile a shot. Its totally free and you've really got nothing to lose...except maybe a few hundred hours of your spare time. The game is absolutely free to play. No pay to win bull. I haven't spent a single cent on this game and you don't need to in order to get amazing gear. 99% of the microtransactions are little cosmetic items that have absolutely NO effect on your ability to play the game. The only thing you could remotely consider a "pay to win" item would be the additional stash tabs. But you can very easily make mule characters to hold your additional items for you if you find you're always strained for room (and trust me, you will be) The devs are some of the most amazing I've ever seen. Their involvement and dedication to the community is seriously impressive. They continue to create amazing content for everyone and expect nothing back from you. Yet *many* people are more than willing to purchase the supporter packs they offer. Balance in such a game is tricky but from my perspective (and I am no hardcore PoE player, mind you) everything seems to be well-balanced; though I am a ranger main so you might hear different opinions here :P As for the gameplay, its what you would normally expect from an ARPG. You get a choice of 7 classes, one of which gets unlocked after your first playthrough of Normal difficulty. The biggest features of PoE are the skill gems and the passive skill tree, both of which are going to take a little time to get used to. The first time you open up the skill tree you are going to be overwhelmed with the amount of stuff. But this is what I think makes PoE the game it is. The amount of possible builds are seemingly endless. The depth of the game is just incredible. No matter how many times you play the game, you can always make a new character and explore a new build. Admitedly, some builds are more dominant than others, and the sheer number of possible builds might be super confusing to a new user. To that end, I will reccommend finding a build on the forums that you think would be fun to play and following that for your first character, to get a feel for how the games mechanics work. Once you are a bit more confident in the system, you can start to experiment on your own. I should warn, though, that builds don't really start looking like anything coherent until very late game, when you've got most of your skill tree filled in and your items are good enough. But getting to that point in a build is part of the fun of PoE. There is no formal "currency" in PoE. Gold just doesn't exist. Instead, our currency is in the form of orbs. There are a few different types of these orbs, and they all serve a different purpose. Some of them turn a normal item into a magic item. Some of them reroll the stats on an item. Some of them erase all the stats on the item. These orbs will drop randomly as you kill monsters throughout the game. The rarity of the orb and what the orb does sort of determines its "worth" in PoE. This is one part of the game that many find annoying. Personally, I'm on the fence about this way of doing things. You'll start off with nothing, and it will take a while before you accumulate any meaningful amount of currency. So really the only way to acquire currency is to play lots. The crafting system depends heavily on the use of the orbs I mentioned previously. You will want to save your orbs when you start out as the chances of getting something good with only a few orbs are slim. You're better off saving your currency to buy yourself some needed gear for your builds. The graphics are really nothing amazing, actually I'd call them sort of lackluster, but for a game like PoE the graphics really don't matter. If you're too busy paying attention to how the textures on that one rock look kind of funny, you won't stay alive very long. There is a TON more I could talk about, but I think I've made all the points I wanted to make. Refer back to the tl;dr at the top. I think PoE is an amazing game that everyone should at least try for a few hours. Find a build, follow it, and just have fun with the game. Its got a lot of depth to it but once you get into it, you'll have a tough time putting it down. EDIT: I can't remember exactly how much time I had on the game when I wrote this review, but I have almost 1500 hours in it now and the game just keeps on giving. The more time you put into it, the more you get rewarded. I have long since decided to support the developers by buying some of their extra stash tabs (~$40 USD worth) and I have not regretted it one bit. I stand by my previous pay-to-win statement on the stash tabs, in that the stash tabs greatly improve the quality of life of trading, and the general progression of your characters, and so could be considered slightly pay-to-win, although they are NOT shoving them down your throat or anything. They are still optional and completely dependent on if you find the extra space worth it. The game continues to recieve expansions and it is getting bigger every day. If this game has been on your radar but you haven't tried it yet, please try it! You have nothing to lose... except maybe a few thousand hours of your time.