I thought this needed a reminder, and hopefully a few people here into Arpgs (hack n slash, Diablo-like games) will give this a shot.
This is the ARPG king, and its free-to-play.

Early access requires a key, gained from buying a "Path of Exile 2 - early access supporter" pack (for 30$).
Now this gives you 300 points to spend in the ingame shop, for skins (armours, weapons, effects,portals,ect), stash tabs (more loot storage), pets and the like.
So this isn't like your wasteing 30$ to play it 6months early.
Chances are high, that after you try it, you'll eventually want more storage space ect.
(in poe, you have more space for items, than in diablo.... but can you ever really have enough?)

Trailer for POE2 early access looks like this:




All I can say is I have likely spent 1,000+ hours in POE1.... and enjoyed my time with it, over the years.
In that sense, the value of this free-to-play game is insane.
I've spent like 100-150$ over like last 8 years or so, and honestly they deserve every penny.
You can play POE1 for free, and never spend a dime if that is your goal, and still do everything in game.


Here is the link to POE2 site:
https://pathofexile2.com/

You can however also just use POE1 account, login, and buy the supporter pack, get your steam/epic key and be good to go.

I’ll check out POE2 at some point later in December since I’ll still be finishing up Stalker 2 and I still have Indiana Jones.

I enjoyed the first game, but it didn’t have the hook I thought it would. So I’ve primarily been playing Diablo 2 Resurrected and Grim Dawn for my isometric ARPG fix. I’m also really looking forward to Titan Quest 2!

Let me know how POE2 is shaping up as you’ll definitely get around to it before I get to.

I'm a huge fan :)   (so there might be some bias towards it there)

"let me know how POE2 is shaping up"

I have high hopes, lets just say that.  I'll likely report back, that its the greatest thing since sliced bread.


About that "hook", did you get through the acts, and start map progression? Did you run into a few end-game bosses atleast?
Get around to massing a fortune of currency (go mega tycoon tradeing)? or try learning to craft? the thing with the endgame, is you can customise your gameplay loop, to the type of content you enjoy to do (with there really being no wrong way to go about it, with the atlas passives).

Here is what gameplay looks like in POE2: