I'm gonna be blunt here; As someone who has played over 600 hours I have never beaten the game. I play only on roguelike-nightmare difficulty. I am slaughtered hundreds of times, and it just doesn't matter; For years I've kept crawling back to the game. It's not even masochism, the game just has so much mechanical depth that I can't NOT play it.

It however is VERY IMPORTANT to state that a free version of the game exists on the TOME4 website where you can try before you buy. I say this because if you try the game I bet my life you'll keep playing it.

Unlocks are executed perfectly IMO, with me still chasing new class and race unlocks hundreds of hours into the game. Unlocking new classes is really hard, but each proposes a challenge to overcome and the feeling of accomplishment this game gives is rivaled only by Fromsoft games. The most engaging part of the game is that everyone and everything works off the same set of rules. If you fight a pyromancer, every single one of their abilities and playstyles can be played by the character; A npc necromancer is no different than a player necromancer. This means the game is brutally tactical. A lot of casual or low-skill players will complain about mowing down enemies when suddenly they are two shot by a strong mob:

You are bad at the game. That mob was your class's hard counter and arrogance made you think you could wipe the floor with fodder enemies. This aspect is what actively engages me the most, and the player is rewarded tremendously for knowledge about the game's various mechanics. If you got killed by BS, nothing is stopping you from adopting that strategy next run. (Except unlocks early game)

The prodigy system and skill trees for each character are extremely fleshed out; Each class has a plethora of potential playstyles. Loot system is leagues more engaging than Diablo's system, with the stat varieties and random uniques making every piece of loot worth looking at. Of course, this means the game involves a lot of micro-managing, but less than you'd assume. All of the game's UI and mechanics are modular and can easily be rearranged without delving into tutorials.

The most common complaint I see is the visual elements of the game, which is something that actively kept me away from the game for a while aswell. To that I will say that the screnshots absolutely do not do it justice. Cutscenes and other visuals really tie the game's aesthetic down, and in terms of how traditional roguelikes are developed I don't think the graphical fidelity could really increase. It should also be noted that the screenshots misrepresent the current UI; They are outdated and visually the UI is much more crisp now. If you still hate the visuals, the workshop has a lot of interesting visual mods and the game supports custom character models.

Often times I think to myself: What IS my favorite game? And I think this game deserves that crown more than any other. I just cannot emphasize enough how engaging the game is to me. The gameplay hooked me pretty quickly, but the small details (Quests, escorts, artifact crafting, lore, unique mobs, plethora of optional achievement challenges, difficulty settings, dlc additions) have kept me playing for hundreds of hours.

If you're put off by the game, no matter how much, I'd still recommend picking it up on sale. I waited years to finally give it a try and it's genuinely one of my biggest regrets. Even if permadeath isn't your thing, there are a LOT of other gamemodes that allow you to experience the game at the level of difficulty you prefer. I could easily beat the game if I wasn't such a stubborn ***** and played on adventure-normal difficulty.