Hero Siege

I had seen the game a long time ago but only recently started playing it. So far, I can say that I’m really enjoying it. A large portion of the negative comments about the game are based from the fact that early on HS shifted from a roguelike, bullet-hell, wave-based RPG structure to a PoE- and Diablo-style ARPG and hack-and-slash genre. Since I never experienced or purchased that very early version, this transition doesn’t factor into my own context.
Therefore, for its current state, I can say that it’s an experience worth picking up—especially during sales—offering long-term engagement and successful item, class, and skill mechanics. Its pixel style not only provides a distinct experience for the genre but also allows it to run comfortably even on very low-end systems. In addition, new seasons continue to bring innovations and updates. The developers have also announced that they will eventually make class DLCs free and adopt a more reasonable sales policy. This can be viewed as a positive sign for the game’s future trajectory. Perhaps the possibility that the first version might be released in the future under a ‘Classic’ label could significantly change the negative ratings the game currently has.

I started playing the game when it was first released — it was quite different back then, more of a rogue-like with waves of monsters to kill.
Now, Hero Siege has become a solid hack 'n' slash that's enjoyable to play every season.
It's a seasonal hack 'n' slash with a wide variety of classes (some of which are unlocked through DLCs, though they're never too expensive), and a talent tree that keeps improving with each new season.
If you've played Last Epoch, it's a similar concept: a global skill tree for the class, plus individual trees for each ability.
It follows the formula of most major hack 'n' slash games nowadays — endgame bosses, map farming, targeted farming for specific items, and a fast-paced “zoom zoom” gameplay.
I definitely recommend it — if I’ve played 1500 hours, that says a lot about how worth it the game is.

Hero Siege is a decent co-op ARPG with plenty of content to grind. I would strongly suggest waiting for a big sale to buy it.
Positives:
- Co-op works pretty well once you get in a game together. Having more people can make farming a lot more efficient. If your friends are further along then you can leech to help you catch up faster.
- A lot of classes with many different skills and most active skills can have their behavior customized resulting in a lot of possible builds.
- A lot of opportunities for gear upgrades and sidegrades as you make your way into endgame.
- There's an in game auction house which works even when you're not online.
- There's a lot to grind for and you can make good progress into the endgame with a reasonable investment of time.
Negatives:
- The monetization is really not great. 14 of 22 classes are not included in the base game and are $5-$8 each or you can get them all for $88. The 8th act is not included in the base game and costs $9. There is no single town that has your mailbox, the auction house, your guild stash, etc. in it, but if you subscribe for $5/month you can get a personal house that has everything. This all seems excessive to me and most of it should just be in the base game.
- Requires a separate account for online/co-op. Some online features, such as trading and guilds, require you to verify your email but their verification must be manual, or something equally atrocious, since it can take days for said verification to reflect in game. I wish I could have it use my steam account instead.
- A lot of stats on gear are non-obvious and some could use clearer naming. What's the difference between "+10 to Lightning Skill Damage" and "+10 to Additive Lightning Damage"? The latter is only for attacks, obviously.
- The auction house UI is very unintuitive and lacking useful search/filtering functionality. This makes it very hard to figure out what, if anything, your item might be worth and equally hard to find items that meet your needs.
- The auction house has both a listing fee (1%) and sales tax (10%). The former can be a bit unfortunate if you find a really expensive item when you don't have enough money to list it. The latter seems unnecessary to me but maybe it's intended as a gold sink. Many people bypass both of these by selling expensive items for runes instead of gold.
- There's an option when hosting a game to allow steam friends to not have to enter a password to join but the process to get that to happen is very janky. You first join their game via the steam friends list which will bring you to the character select screen. After that you'll be looking at the chat/lobby screen where you need to hit the hamburger menu above the server list and type in their game name, which I hope you know, then hit the refresh button. As soon as the server pops up in the list you should get shunted to a loading screen for actually joining your friend's game.

I have more hours in this title than all of the other ARPGs I play combined - full stop. I read the negative reviews before posting mine, most of them made me chuckle. This is a must try for fans of the ARPG genre that actually enjoy experimenting with builds, becoming busted over time, complex itemization, seasonal mechanics and the gameplay loop of ARPGs. If you're here for a fun campaign experience or want a character that lasts forever... this is not the game for you.

IMO the best ARPG on the market, it's as if D2 had kept getting updates and actually cared about it's player base. Lots of classes and lots to do, the devs seem to care but the player base is pretty toxic. If you play with friends or keep away from global chat it's a fantastic time.
TLDR
If you like ARPG's this is a master class on how to make a good game, every season brings new and engaging updates. Just be sure to stay away from global chat.

Patch 2.0 is bad. Destroyed the game.
On the good side they allowed old version (for local play at the moment) in latest patch.
Hopefully they'll see their mistake with 2.0, accept it as failure, remove it from the game and move from older version.
I understand that they spend time in development of it and don't want that time be wasted but a failure is a failure.
Recommended for single player mode in old version, not recommended for 2.0.

I really like the game a lot. I think I just stop playing because I get pissed off about how expensive the DLC is. I want to buy it but really the game is still a little too clunky for me to justify paying more than I have for other games with the same pay structure. If the UI was easier to navigate with the controller, I don't know there's just something that bugs me about seeing the classes I can't have when the rest of the game isn't tight and even then $8 for a new character, it just drags me mentally and creates enough friction where I just stop opening it