Torchlight Review

Runic Games

Who are Runic Games? I hear you ask (yes you did).
They are a small development studio based in Seatle, alot of them are ex Blizzard Employees.

AARPG

Whats an AARPG? (yes I heard that too). Auto Adjusting Role Playing Game.
Basicaly the environment and characters level as you do, so it should always be a challenge.

So, down to the nitty gritty. What it all about? Well if you press me to give a 1 line summary I will.
Torchlight is a single player version of what Diablo 2.75 would be, had the game ever existed.

Its single player? Correctamundo my observant chums.
A small development team and time constraints made this a single player experience only.
There is an MMO in the works, but thats a few years away imo. Runic basicaly promise more of the same, but with a richer story, more characters/ classes and group play. Will that be what people still want in 2 years time?

Ive played through the main campaign once on the “Normal” setting and found it an enjoyable romp.
The graphics and environments are great to look at,even if you do seem to plow through them quite quickly.

The sound effects add to the gameplay and the music is very much like theDiablo Series (so good).
Which comes as no suprise since its the same music dude.

On the 2nd playthrough on the next skill setting,
and a different class I find myself allready not playing the game as much.
The new char is still plowing through the content.
I managed to pimp my gear by using the “shared stash”,
not sure if this is classed as an exploit but its made the game extremely easy.
(NOTE this was apparently an exploit and has been altered/”improved” with the first patch).

The game doesnt stop when you kill the final boss though.

There is an infinite dungeon which just keeps going on and on and on, even with repeating quests for you to do. Its basicaly the same 3 quests over and over again though.
We all know from WOW burnout, after a while even the most hardcore get bored of the same repetative stuff.
(Except Lini apparently)

The developers designed the game from the ground up with Modding in mind.
All the development tools are to be released as a patch.
There is much exitment on the forums about modding and even total conversions.
One guy has even managed to mod in partial multi player support before the tools are even live, so maybe there is alot more life in the game.

There is also a “Hardcore” mode.
This comes with permanent death and no access to the shared stash of the lower level characters.
Maybe that would make the game more fun, but I doubt it. The only time I seem to die is due to crappy pet AI so that would suck.

Ive now tried a Very Hard – Hardcore character. He died. In my defence thoug it was to a boss and I made it to around level 12 I think. My excuse is that the patch stole 10% block from me.
I came to the following conclusion.
It makes the game longer. Its designed to exercise the finger you use to pop Health Pots.

Plus Points.

Its a very polished game. Looks and sounds great.
Your pet can sell your stuff for you back at town so you dont have to keep stopping and also learn a couple of spells. A heal and a minion summon seam to be a winner.
VERY low system specs. It even has a netbook mode for those uber low spec OAPCs.

Negative Points.

A bit short.
I nailed the “campaign” in a couple of days. Im not a hard core gamer, so that seemed a tad short to me. The idea is to dive into the infinite dungeaon and keep going and going, but seriosly meh.

Repetative.
Even changing classes and starting again the game doesnt feel any different.
I still have the same easy mobs and same difficult mobs. (Yes, those damn lizzard men)

Easy. Pull->Use overpowered special move->Clear mobs->Heal pet->Repeat.
In HC mode just add “run like a pussy and kite lots” to the above rotation.

Annoying bit in soundtrack sounds exactly like the “Battery low sound” on nokia phones. Does my head in.

It could have been so much better,   I would be playing it a shed load more if I could play it with others, even with its faults.
Its not getting shelved, I think ill probably play a few hours a week and just see how far I can get.
Is it a contender for taking the crown we all expect to go to Diablo3? I doubt it. Like I said its D2.75.
I know we havent played D3 yet. But we have all seen the videos.

I know a few other TOers are playing the game and there opinion may differ greatly to mine.
So if you want to add a quick summary / differences of opinion and cake score it can be added to this review to give a better overall picture.

Heres the launch video if you want to see the game in action.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ghQBj6Gf … rofilepage

Here is a decent (short) player made video that shows the repetitivness.
In fact this video http://www.youtube.com/user/Webbstre shows the game and the above to great effect.

The game is great for a single play through, just so you can say you have played it.
It realy does have some good points, at least try the steam demo.
Is it worth buying? Probably not unless you REALY liked playing D2 on your own.

Oh yeah, and just because Ive seen it done elsewhere and it looked pretty funky.
Here are some screenies with an Inksketch filter applied.

Here is the steam link for the demo.

The eggy cake rating for Torchlight is 5 slices out of 8.