Review: Torchlight

I feel like I could say it's a pretty Diablo with a dog and knock off for the night. I still may do that halfway through this thing, who knows. Maybe I'll just start talking about chocolate. The possibilities are endless.  Read more


Anyway, Torchlight was a fun as hell game. It has a very old-school mentality with a very modern coat of paint. That old-school mentality however does come with a few touch-ups of learning from past mistakes, mainly addressing the problems of the first Diablo. First of all, the game is not the absolutely torturous  potion spam that Diablo was. Yeah you need to heal, and especially toward the end, heal a lot, but you don't need to eternally have one button hovering over the heal button if you know what you're doing.

Also I love, love, love the art in this game. The exaggerated proportions of you armor and body type really immerse you in the class you're playing. I first started playing as the mage type, the Alchemist, and the gloves you wear are always fucking enormous, like they're insulated for magic; and the steampunk goggles mixed with rugged leather adventuring gear helps drive home the fact you're no nancy-boy mage hiking up your skirt shooting magic missiles into the darkness. Fuck that, I had a mace and shield and was beating the crap out of demons just as much as I was hurling magic at them.

To further expound on this point of great art direction, I ended up beating the game as the Destroyer, also known as the warrior, also known as a shaved bear in armor. Every single armor style looked slick and really let you know that things were going to die in horrific ways by your hand. From gladiator-style leather pieces to spikes all over plate, the game makes sure you know exactly how you're playing and does so in such over the top, colorful ways you cannot help but smile with glee as 40 imp things are cut in half at your feet.

Lastly, what I want to say about this game is that on normal, the game does not outstay its welcome, not being terribly long at all. It's like the developers realized that really you're doing the same thing over and over, so they did not feel like beating you to death with it. Thank fuck for that. Granted, it seems the game can go on quite a while more with extra dungeons and quests, but they are by no means mandatory, and are there for the hack-o slash-o fanatics. It's really a great way of doing things, good length for the gamer looking for a short, fun experience, then expanded gameplay for the potion chugging, quick mouse clicking aficionado.

The game has some obvious issues though, and while by no means making the game unplayable, it simply serves as a detractor for playing the game again.

First of all, the item drops are too often, totally fucking useless. In an MMO, I never really mind getting some sort of item my class has absolutely no use for, as I can usually pawn it off on someone else using whatever auction house system is available. In Torchlight, the game might as well just drop straight cash. My warrior has no fucking use for a sword that adds to my magic stat, let alone a wand. I get going back to the hub to sell everything the little bastards drop is a hallmark of this type of game, but with the modern touches already added to the game, why not streamline this too? I also get you can just send your dog/cat back to town to sell everything, but again, just give me the gold and stop wasting my time.

Not that you will ever...ever need the gold for anything. Everything you need, potions, scrolls, weapons, armor, cooking utensils, and jars of jam can all be found in the freshly crushed limbs of your foes. I tried the gambling thing a few times and never got anything of value. The only time I ever found the money worth using was the enchanter. Sometimes boring, basic weapons I found would be nicely enhanced, and as opposed to the loot system dropping whatever it feels like, it seems the enchanting more often than not adds things you want for your class.

Gear and useless pawning trips aside, my biggest gripe about the game is how the characters play. Granted, I only played two out of three, and they seemed different, if you tried. However it seems the game will throw at you an area of effect ability that is so tailor made to how this game works you're going to use nothing but that. For the Destroyer and the Alchemist, said god-skills are on the first tier of their fucking talent trees too. So I all I did was level up those skills, and whatever side skills that ended up helping those skills. Oh an Adventurer, because really it makes you level up faster and makes potions better. Might as well call it the I win button. In the end you do not need to use these skills, and not using them I can see changing how the game goes significantly, but what it does do is find a way of taking classes that seem otherwise so awesomely distinct and makes sure there is at least one way to make the choice all not matter.

Those problems aside though, the game is fun, and may actually be better than either of the previous Diablo games that so obviously influenced the making of this game (a few Runic members having had a hand in Diablo). Oh also I have not mentioned the story at all. It's not good, it's not bad. It's there...I guess. Did you ever really care why you're traipsing down 60 flights of stairs? I never really did so long as there were bodies to mangle along the way.

I also get that this game has been out for a long time now and this is basically a retro review. I bought the game during Steam's Summer Sale, so this was my first crack at it. So fuck off.