WELL, I played a few hours of the beta tonight, and I have to say that so far I'm impressed with PoE. That's not to say it's perfect. It is lacking some of that Blizzard spit and shine that they give their games. Just little details in interface and such that Blizzard really does well. However, I'm having a blast with the passives tree and these skill gems. Their is a lot of customization to be made here, and most importantly, CHOICES. I get to build my own character, not just pick what skills I want to use out of a huge pool that unlock as I go. It's a nice feeling to be able to build a character and then have that character grow and develop as I level, based on choices that I make, not the development team.
It's amazing how much of a difference that little detail can make when playing a game.
And the graphics. If only Diablo III had the art style of PoE. I can't believe I'm saying that. It's so incredibly reminiscent of Diablo II so far, PoE is clearly inspired by it.
I really like the game. Can't wait to get further into it and really delve in to playing around with building characters.