If you want to try a game with POE2's gem systems try Torchlight infinite

I posted about TLI before https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/3277157

and i m posting about it again now. back then i mentioned about it being a POE clone and some people criticized my decision to do so.

now we've had more reveals of POE2, i can highlight what TLI implemented on release (last year) which already has iterations of POE 2's gem system.

for starters, it has the same 1 main skill that can be supported by 5 supports.

unlike POE, gear does not have sockets.

i kinda like this idea. the concept behind sockets for active skills was a way for GGG to increase player interaction. we had to choose if wanted to use a gear because it's stats were good or because it had a lot of sockets/link/colors that we wanted.

this made things have different values, and gave reason and value for currency items such as jeweller/chromatic/fusings to exist.

poe 2's direction went away from poe 1's intentionally restrictive design. you get sockets on gear and it usually already has coloured sockets.

TLI does away from the entire notion of needing sockets for skills. instead it has a skill page. skill slots and support slots are unlocked via level progression. you never feel too left behind in power and you're not hard locked out of content due to bad rng.

you can naturally unlock "5links" just by leveling up.

this makes linking a NON issue. you dont need to farm up 1000 fusings and gamble to get a 6 link.

you dont need to bother yourself with 6 links until mid/end game.

how it works, is everytime you level up, you gain a resource called energy. energy can be used to purchase skill slots and support slots.

of course by max level it's impossible to gain anymore energy this way, instead your gear can also give you energy. for example a chest armor could have energy on it. energy on gear also has rng with the min-max based on item level. TLI's equivalent to rolling sockets/links is energy. you would want to roll as much energy on your gear as possible.

this way its actually easier to unlocking more "links" as you unlike poe, to get a 6L you need the item to be 6L which is the absolute peak. instead you can have all your gear have "decent rolled" energy to unlock 6links. in theory this makes it easy to hit a few multiple 6 links and possibly a large number of skills having 6 links.

unlike poe, skills and supports dont have any colouring requirement.

another game that employs something similar to POE 2's "links on gem" system is actually used in undecember.

similar to TLI, it has it's own skill page but in the form of a hexagonal board. your skill gems are hexagon shaped and placed onto the board. the gems can be supported by support gems placed adjacent to it's sides. having 6 sides means each skill can be supported by 6 supports.

similar to poe, these gems need to be rolled to "allow sides to be supported".

the best outcome is to have all of the side unlocked (6link equivalent). unlike poe tho, it does not have the forced 6Link crafting option. instead it has a pity bar where upon reaching 3000 failed rolled allows players to make the next roll, forced 6L. there are also ways to transfer 6L to other gems at a high crafting cost which destroys the original gem.

you also need to colour the sides, similar to poe's colouring. due to the board, it's possible to have support gems being shared between different skill gems.

TLI and Undecember both have bosses that require learning their movesets and can be beaten with player skill, actively getting out of the way of telegraphed attacks. TLI allows POE1's boss cheesing, while Undecember is more strict using POE2's anti boss cheesing scheme.

that said, personally i feel TLI is like playing poe1 with poe2 skill system.

its a game i play on and off, i would say the devs learned a huge lot from poe. also if you watched exilecon 2023 which featured legendary arpg developers, one of them was david brevik. TLI's devs actually hired him for consultation over their game.

its solid. but with a hint of p2w, tho i would argue the p2w bonuses are insignificant until you want to min max the absolute hell out of your build. really not required as it, as the p2w aspect revolves around a "poe pantheon like" pet system. you choose a pantheon and it's powers. a freeplayer will have access to general pantheon powers that benefits all builds, while going p2w lets you unlock more build specific powers.

8-9/10 would recommend. devs are quite responsive and enthusiastic. unlike d4 devs, they have a good grasp of what theyre doing.