I kind of knew this was going to happen because it has with every Diablo game since D2. I really dived into D3 and recently I was kind of hooked on Path of Exile right up to the point where I wasn't.
If you read what I write here you already know that I accidentally purchased a D4 DLC instead of the base game but after playing POE2 for a few days, getting a bit tired of running the same boards over and over again, I had a few drinks and was staring at the screen to purchase Diablo 4 and thought... what the hell, let's do it.
I have already justified the purchase because I am at least 15 hours in already so $50 divided by 15 hours isn't a terrible return on investment.
I already know what to expect from Diablo games but one thing kind of surprised me playing this compared to POE2 in that the graphics are substantially better in POE2 during combat. In fact, D4 almost seems amateurish in comparison. This isn't to say that it looks bad, because it certainly doesn't, but POE2 set the bar pretty high with this one and honestly, I think they are focusing a bit too much on that rather than having fluid gameplay mechanincs.
The comparison between D4 and POE2 has been made too many times I am sure but one of the main things for me is that D4 is much more casual and far less frustrating to play, it also has a much more fluid story to follow whereas with POE2 I honestly don't have any idea what the story even is.
Diablo hits us with a lot of cutscenes, all of which are able to be skipped, which is good. I like some of them, but if you hit me with too many I am going to opt out.
For me, the best part about D4 that doesn't exist in POE at all is one major thing that I think enables D4 to have a much wider audience.
They recommend that people start on "normal" difficulty but I'm gonnna get out there and tell you right now to not do this. The game is absurdly easy on this setting and you will mow down everything in your path without having any sort of strategy to speak of. For the 2 or 3 hours that I played the game on normal, the only things that so much as did damage to me did so only because I was standing in a pool of fire or poison and didn't realize it. I died only 2 times in those 3 hours and this wasn't because my strategy was wrong, it was because I didn't have one nor did I need one.
One massive advantage that Diablo has over POE is that the world is absolutely massive and it is sort of an open world as well. There are linear objectives but also a ton of side quests that you can perform in any of the various areas that exist and these are a great way to just lean back on your sofa and casually run around and i dunno, fight every now and then.
The above map website is pretty funny because someone put a ton of time into making this interactive map and it is so full of things that happen at various places on the map that you can't even make out where to start, where to click, and what the hell is going on there. Well done to whoever made this helpful mess!
On the "hard" difficulty the game is still pretty damn easy, but I am the kind of player that likes to be able to determine how difficult a game is going to be for me, especially an ARPG. This is one of the big problems I have with POE2 in that they have one difficulty which is very difficult.
Another benefit that I like about D4 over POE2 is the skill tree.
That's the POE2 skill tree. It's absolutely gigantic and when I get a skill point I don't really know what the hell is going on. I am sure that I have specced my character in a not so optimal way. There are a lot of guide out there to get the "best" character but when that happens and someone creates a really good build, everyone just run that build and well, that is kind of boring isn't it?
the 2nd picture is an example of the D4 skill tree. Far more manageable for a filthy casual like me.
You can also respec your character in D4 without major penalty but in POE2 this costs quite a bit of money. For me, I am not trying to be one of the best players in the world, I let the Koreans and Eastern Europeans fight over that, I just want to enjoy the time I spend in the game.
So far, I am enjoying D4 a lot more than POE2 but I am not trying to tell anyone how to do their gaming experience. I like both games for different reasons and readily admit that I am not a terribly gifted gamer and absolutely HATE doing 'research' in order to be able to play a game. That being said, I definitely feel as though the bosses in POE2 are better designed because as a test I fought one recent boss without firing a single shot and just let my minions (I play as Necromancer) do all the work. It took longer, but this doesn't change the fact that I wasn't involved in the battle in any capacity yet still won.
So which one is better? I have no idea. Because I am a casual gamer I enjoy D4 more but will give credit where credit is due. Grinding Gear Games is a very small studio compared to Blizzard, so it is completely understandable that D4 would have more options as far as the game is concerned. I think both are great games, but at the time of me writing this, POE2 still has a lot of work to do because gameplay has so many issues, most of which are network oriented. I have only disconnected from D4 ONE TIME in around 15-20 hours of play.