WebsiteThe long awaited, several times delayed EA of the game launches next Friday. EA keys cost 30$ and give you the key as well as that much MTX coins to spend (good deal to get some storage if you plan on playing seriously). EA should run trough the next year unless there's changes and the game goes free with the full release if you don't mind waiting.
What's in there so far?
3 acts of the story (out of a planned 6), 6 classes (out of a planned 12) and 2 ascendancies for each (subclasses essentially, 3 planned for each eventually). There's also an endgame in place, with multiple systems and leagues ported over from the first game in some form (stuff like breach or ultimatum). So already a ton to do, arguably way way more than what some 70$+ titles offer with way more on the way.
Big draw of the game is the much more engaging combat as well as a streamlining of some of the gnarly elements of progression that might've driven people away from the first game. Combat seems to be leaning more towards the tactical lethality of a souls-like with well telegraphed attacks, dodges and even blocks as opposed to the mindless blasting most ARPG's settle for. There's now support for WASD movement as well and with some of the weapons and classes they've shown you can pretty much play it like a twin-stick shooter if you so desire. Much more emphasis on using multiple skills and doing cool combos with them rather than focusing on one super powered move to nuke everything with.
The classes in so far are also damn cool and with each shown I went "Oooh I wanna play that" so that's a strong case for replayability, even tho the skills aren't class limited there's clear archetypes they had in mind when designing them (doubly so for the subclass ascendacies). Stuff like the monk which is a quick and nimble fighter that uses elemental damage and executing enemies to power up big finisher skills. The warrior which is a big beefy dude who can do these weighty slams that take skill and timing to land but boy do they hit hard. The mercenary which uses crossbows and plays like a shooter game with different ammo types and modes of fire for skills. The witch who can do tons of summons, curses or even turn into a literal demon chick eventually. Sorceress who does elemental spells and can ascend into a mage that manipulates time (freezing enemies in place or resetting your cooldowns). Ranger who is your standard bow user but gets some neat stuff like flinging elemental flask grenades or just getting real good at shooting tons of arrows.
Other planned stuff is the druid which can shapeshift and gets cool abilities and interactions with that or the huntress which can get a literal mount so she can keep mobile while firing or use cool spear skills.
Anyways, I'm super hype for this, can't wait, seems the rest of the community is too as the two weeks leading up to the release has been everyone just being so excited and impatient to play that they're like kids who've found a new interest and can't stop talking about it. Launch will probably be rough when it comes to servers as I doubt they'll be able to prepare for the amount of folks jumping in (EA has been in the top 10 for a week now on steam, slowly coming down with the autumn sale).
Any of you folk plan on jumping in?