Is the initial run as easy as PoE?
Hard to say. I died early on a couple of times, but then had smooth running for the next couple of hours, then died against some heavy duty random (ice lich or something), and then died against the centaur boss about 3 hours (?) in.
It's not particularly hard, nor are there many massive mobs, but that means you can get lulled into a false sense of superiority.
Of the last couple of deaths:
(1) I was distracted while showing my son what happens when you add a fire relic to a weapon ("hey son, look at how much damage I'm doing now!" <points to screen, looks away for a second> "aw, shit"),
(2) I fought a much higher level boss (10 vs my 5), and screwed up my timing when running away so I could duck back in for another go after some heals.
Contrast this with PoE, where I just hold down Cleave or Reave most of the time and wade through the hordes.
(Obviously take everything I say with a grain of salt, because this is the furtherest I've been in TQ, haven't experimented with builds, etc)