I been playing it all day and I'm enjoying it a good bit more than PoE. I'd say it's like 75/80% PoE combat, and that 20/25% is enough to put it solidly in the 'fun' category whereas PoE left me wanting. Some differences:
1. Party size is reduced to 4, but you get Combo abilities to compensate. I believe it's 2 abilities as you max Fear/Loyalty (so 4 total), the early ones being per encounter and the later ones being per rest. I dunno bout you guys but I always hated the spells in PoE just from trying to manage which fight is 'worthy' of spending spells on. I'm all about Per Encounter, and there's a lot more of those in this game (and normal abilities with 20-60+s cooldowns)
2. That weird Endurance system is gone. You got regular traditional HP but going low gives you a 'wound' which reduces 10% total hp and 10% skills, so one or 2 ain't a biggy but they do add up. They're cleared on rest, and you can hold EIGHT campfire supplies.
3. The talent trees make for much more interesting character development than the pages and pages of tiny abilities you got in PoE. I made my warrior with the intent to be 2H / Heavy Armor, but I ended up Light Armor (fuck their dumb delay system) going down the Agility line, which has passives for dual wielding and single wielding (no offhand), and actives that are Monk-ish (flying kick, leg sweep etc) but still work with 2H. Charge, triple attack, whirlwind...good stuff.
4. Mages have a mix n match spell creation system that I find a LOT more engaging than just being inundated with spells (cleric/druid in POE) or choosing 1 and being locked into it (unless you found a grimoire). You use two base signs, like Frost/Fire/Heal + Line/Cone/Target, then add Accents that increase effect, duration, range, etc. As you add these, the Lore requirement goes up, which makes for a pretty cool progression system that lets you tweak out the spells you like to use and improve them as you get higher Lore.
There are definitely some issues, both carried over from PoE and new to this game, but I like the combat and the story is a lot more engaging than the first. I ordered it just a few days ago at $35.99 and it looks like 2 sites still selling it for $38.20
IsThereAnyDeal.com . I'd say it's definitely worth that price.
I think D:OS2 is a better game for combat (can't even compete with co-op!!) but the story never grabbed me, either in 1 or 2. This game really has. The Conquest you have the option to do in the beginning is a pretty good way of both introducing you to and setting up the world. Obviously a lot of names are thrown at you and it's not super clear what's going on, but the game does a good job keeping you informed as you play.
You're also able to say "Fuck you" in pretty much every situation it makes sense. In that Conquest, I had chosen to send my elite guard to secure an area where the local faction wasn't doing a good enough job. About 5 hours into my game, I came across that faction, and they gave me a bunch of attitude, saying WELL LOOK WHO'S BACK, and threatening me. I was given the usual options of acquiesce, appease, threaten, or attack. And attack I did. I just killed those motherfuckers. And it felt good! I also killed a potential group mate cuz I already had a mage and she seemed like a bitch. And I even got an achievement called "This. Is. TYRANNY!!!" and I'll give you 3 guesses what my character did to another character to earn that. (I'm not saying this game invented such choices; I'm just saying they did a good job of keeping the story very open ended)
