It's a recommendation motivated by nostalgia and faith in the future.
It's a recommendation I make in support of Grimlore Games trying to revive this franchise.

I've finished the prologue and pushed into the first chapter a little bit.
There's some good stuff there, but some problems too.

Firstly, I would say that the general pace of combat could stay close to this and it wouldn't be a problem. It's slower than Last Epoch, but less brutal and tedious than PoE 2. It has some old-school vibe to it that feels satisfying. It's actually quite close to PoE1's early game with a tad more "oomph" to the base attacks.

The game is quite pretty, and I think the art direction succeeds in modernizing the IP. The UX is not super refined yet, but is already OK, and some QoL features like inventory auto-sorting are really welcome.

The map design already feels quite cool in the prologue and is promising.

I encountered some frustrating FPS drop issues. I'm running the game on a GeForce RTX 5080, so it's not a hardware problem. I wouldn't worry too much though, UE5 is notorious for bad optimization, and Grimlore has proven to deliver gorgeous games running perfectly well in the past.

I do have questions about the direction they want the game to take though, especially in the current ARPG space. Where do they aim to land? What do they want to achieve with this game?

I think there's a place to take in between PoE 2 and Last Epoch.

GGG’s design philosophy with PoE2 still has to find its exact expression, but I don't ever see them being challenged on system depth, production value, and content. PoE1 and 2 require extreme commitments though, and the friction they bring can sometimes feel discouraging. Last Epoch is a more casual answer to the extreme time investments both GGG games require. But to me, LE is also too easy, their artistic direction heavily lacks a "charm factor," and their IP is weaker than Titan Quest.

What worries me here is that LE has excellent design baselines, and their build options and skills are extremely accessible and immediately fun to toy with.

From what I'm seeing, it's Titan Quest in 2025. But that also means it has a lot of the Titan Quest and Grim Dawn defaults. It's a core design problem: the skills are not that fun or impressive to use from the get-go. And a lot of the modifiers you can put on them are actually stat modifiers like "+x% damage" or "+y% chance of this or that effect."

For a modern ARPG, this is not great. And it should be the very first thing Grimlore aims to fix. Points put in X or Y direction on your tree should be felt. And basic skills should already be generous and cool to use.

From the skills I've tested, some were already cool, like Warfare Leap doing what it should if you take the proper point. But the synergy in the modifiers should come from creating skills that feel unique to your playstyle, not from stacking passive effects. This is not 2006 anymore.

Without that, I think the game will miss the mark of being a true revival of the IP. It'll end up being played for its nostalgia factor, but it won't carve a spot in the ARPG genre.

This is my main beef with this current proposition. And it's based on a very-early game experience. I might come back and modify this take later once I have more experience with the game.

It's a recommendation motivated by nostalgia and faith in the future. It's a recommendation I make in support of Grimlore Games trying to revive this franchise. I've finished the prologue and pushed into the first chapter a little bit. There's some good stuff there, but some problems too. Firstly, I would say that the general pace of combat could stay close to this and it wouldn't be a problem. It's slower than Last Epoch, but less brutal and tedious than PoE 2. It has some old-school vibe to it that feels satisfying. It's actually quite close to PoE1's early game with a tad more "oomph" to the base attacks. The game is quite pretty, and I think the art direction succeeds in modernizing the IP. The UX is not super refined yet, but is already OK, and some QoL features like inventory auto-sorting are really welcome. The map design already feels quite cool in the prologue and is promising. I encountered some frustrating FPS drop issues. I'm running the game on a GeForce RTX 5080, so it's not a hardware problem. I wouldn't worry too much though, UE5 is notorious for bad optimization, and Grimlore has proven to deliver gorgeous games running perfectly well in the past. I do have questions about the direction they want the game to take though, especially in the current ARPG space. Where do they aim to land? What do they want to achieve with this game? I think there's a place to take in between PoE 2 and Last Epoch. GGG’s design philosophy with PoE2 still has to find its exact expression, but I don't ever see them being challenged on system depth, production value, and content. PoE1 and 2 require extreme commitments though, and the friction they bring can sometimes feel discouraging. Last Epoch is a more casual answer to the extreme time investments both GGG games require. But to me, LE is also too easy, their artistic direction heavily lacks a "charm factor," and their IP is weaker than Titan Quest. What worries me here is that LE has excellent design baselines, and their build options and skills are extremely accessible and immediately fun to toy with. From what I'm seeing, it's Titan Quest in 2025. But that also means it has a lot of the Titan Quest and Grim Dawn defaults. It's a core design problem: the skills are not that fun or impressive to use from the get-go. And a lot of the modifiers you can put on them are actually stat modifiers like "+x% damage" or "+y% chance of this or that effect." For a modern ARPG, this is not great. And it should be the very first thing Grimlore aims to fix. Points put in X or Y direction on your tree should be felt. And basic skills should already be generous and cool to use. From the skills I've tested, some were already cool, like Warfare Leap doing what it should if you take the proper point. But the synergy in the modifiers should come from creating skills that feel unique to your playstyle, not from stacking passive effects. This is not 2006 anymore. Without that, I think the game will miss the mark of being a true revival of the IP. It'll end up being played for its nostalgia factor, but it won't carve a spot in the ARPG genre. This is my main beef with this current proposition. And it's based on a very-early game experience. I might come back and modify this take later once I have more experience with the game.