Torchlight II Review

[Denamic]

Btw great review for T2. I was hoping you would talk about the online play more since it is a new feature from the original torchlight but still great overall.

No mention of the Multiplayer? I have 3 copies of TL2 to play with my kids, but haven't found time to boot it up yet. Am I headed for happiness or disappointment?

At the moment, there's not a lot to say about the multiplayer other than the fact that it's there. There's no level scaling or quest sharing mechanics at work; it just doesn't affect the experience positively or negatively beyond being Torchlight II, but with another person around. There's certainly nothing wrong with it - and I'm glad they've included it as an option - but it's like any other feature without a whole lot of personality, like the autosave or respawn system.

That's not true at all.
I assume that by 'level scaling' you mean scaling of their difficulty. Enemies gets a lot stronger with more people, and there's several abilities that's clearly intended for co-operative play. Like the engineer's healbot and damage shield, the zerker's ability to make enemies more vulnerable, the outlander's charge buff, etc.
On veteran difficulty with 3 or more players around, you will need to co-operate, or you're guaranteed to be smashed into a fine paste.

 

[Canadamus Prime]

I'll only play this game if I can have my Carmen Sandiego hat[footnote]Ok it's not really a Carmen Sandiego hat, but I just call it that because it looks kinda like Carmen Sandiego's hat[/footnote] again.

 

[Denizen]

This game was an incredible surprise to me. I got into the beta during the summer and it ended up stealing the show. I haven't been this confident for a release since...(can't even remember the last time) and it delivered on all fronts. I've already sunk close to 50 hours since launch and plan on doing way more. It is a true successor to diablo 2 and it helps that it was made by the original team of d1&d2. The only thing it doesn't have that diablo 2 has is the dark theme and that's it (and maybe the necromancer) but luckily there's modding capability.

It's full modding ability allows for community to fill in any holes left and as I type this there are already fans making new classes. You might ask: Won't there be game-breaking content then? Runic implemented a system where only modded characters/content can only be played with other modded characters/content.

Multiplayer is a huge success, after beating veteran with my first characters (already on my third), my friends and I can do pretty much any dungeon run with the map room.

Can't say much more because I want to get back to the action.

It's a definite delivery, highly recommended.

 

[Snotnarok]

The game is so damn fun, sooo damn fun, getting into the multiplayer for the first time is a bit of a confusing thing since you have to get an account with runic (free) but once you do that you're golden.

6 player monster slaying? Monsters exploding into gibs? Raining ice don on enemies? Sorry to bring up another game but, I uninstalled Diablo 3 and haven't looked back.

 

[Mike Kayatta]

Btw great review for T2. I was hoping you would talk about the online play more since it is a new feature from the original torchlight but still great overall.

No mention of the Multiplayer? I have 3 copies of TL2 to play with my kids, but haven't found time to boot it up yet. Am I headed for happiness or disappointment?

At the moment, there's not a lot to say about the multiplayer other than the fact that it's there. There's no level scaling or quest sharing mechanics at work; it just doesn't affect the experience positively or negatively beyond being Torchlight II, but with another person around. There's certainly nothing wrong with it - and I'm glad they've included it as an option - but it's like any other feature without a whole lot of personality, like the autosave or respawn system.

That's not true at all.
I assume that by 'level scaling' you mean scaling of their difficulty. Enemies gets a lot stronger with more people, and there's several abilities that's clearly intended for co-operative play. Like the engineer's healbot and damage shield, the zerker's ability to make enemies more vulnerable, the outlander's charge buff, etc.
On veteran difficulty with 3 or more players around, you will need to co-operate, or you're guaranteed to be smashed into a fine paste.

To be more clear, I meant there's no scaling in regards to others. So, if you're level 30 and I'm level 3, we're probably not going to have a good time together.

 

[cerebus23]

I hated diablo 1 never played diablo 2 hated gauntlet, played diablo 3 for like 20 minutes on a friends account and never had any interest to even give that game a second look, oh and did play torchlight 1 about as long as i played d3.

So yea hack and slash games are not really my thing.

But i tried t2 the other day and i could not stop playing....

I had to sit and think about this, back in the day i HATED diablo, partly because i never found the chop chop chop a b aaa b or lllllllllrlrlrlllllllrlrr was pretty mind numbing to me without wasd qe space ctrl etc mixed in there because i like a bit more interaction in my games.

I mostly hated diablo one because so many magazines like pc gamer and etc gave d1 rpg of the year, when diablo was not a rpg. it was a hack n slash game with some rpg elements and a story tacked on.

But why was i liking t2....

I think a few major things that made this particular game work for me;

The exploration is great there are always some mini boss to be found or a chest that might have that drop you want, a side quest to find, exploring feels rewarding and challenging at times, the occasional secret area can be found even.

The level progress is paced nicely i been playing on normal diff and i been hitting the slightly over level areas as i went typically but you explore and etc you can level up once or twice per map, you are always just one more area clear or side quest away from becoming noticably more powerful.

The loot drops are decent, yea the rng gods are cruel that 2 hand sword you really really want never drops and hardly every shows up at the merchants. But armor rings upgrade gems will drop inthe green and blue variety at a fair clip, golds show up on occassion, so your always getting some kind of loot that may boost your character and if not the next pile of loot is not too far away. But it seems your characters will get better via gear at about the same pace as your getting stronger via skills and stats.

The whole pace of the game feels right for this kind of thing, lest sofar for w/e reason this hack n slash is holding my attention way way way more than any other i have played.

 

[Vigormortis]

I'll just say this:

When the game went live and I was finally able to play, the Runic servers were down due to traffic overload.

Yet, unlike some ARPGs, I was still able to create a character and start playing. And I don't mean I just picked a character, I created a character. Picked his look, his stats, his skills, and even his pet.

Then, within the first few minutes, I found myself wandering beautifully designed environments, bludgeoning undead monsters with a giant wrench and watching their bodies explode into a mess of blood, fire, and gibs. All the while picking up oodles of loot and gold.

The next day, I took that same character into an online game with five of my friends.

The game's violent. It's cathartic. It's "pretty". It's addictive.

And yes, I'm hooked.

[sub]Sorry Blizzard. You lost this round.[/sub]

[edit]
Also wanted to mention that I love the art styles and themes in this game. It's pure opinion of course, and even though I do really like the gothic stylings of Diablo, I'm enjoying the fantasy-mythology-meets-steampunk look of Torchlight more.

 

[Swyftstar]

It's a damn shame I can't run this game, yet.

I'd hope it, somehow, makes it way to the PSN...but, I'm not holding my breath.

They have already said that Torchlight 1 just barely fit in the memory on the consoles and that Torchlight 2 just would never make it. Maybe on next gen if anyone has an interest.

Damn. I really liked the first one but I like to play these types of games with people so I was looking forward to this. Maybe they can release it on disk. I'd pay $30 or so for an Xbox version.

 

[seule]

No mention of the Multiplayer? I have 3 copies of TL2 to play with my kids, but haven't found time to boot it up yet. Am I headed for happiness or disappointment?

Just a quick note, you don't actually need the runic account stuff if you play over a LAN, I do that with my kids and wife now, having a lot of fun

 

[ExtraDebit]

Tried out 3 of the 4 characters and their individual skills doesn't seem to have much synergy with each other. There really isn't much depth regarding the talents and the mechanics seems really boring.

 

[Vigormortis]

Tried out 3 of the 4 characters and their individual skills doesn't seem to have much synergy with each other. There really isn't much depth regarding the talents and the mechanics seems really boring.

Not to call you out on this, but.....I'm totally calling you out on this.

No synergy? Did you actually read the skill trees? There are lots of synergistic builds one can follow.

Let's take the Berserker, for example. Or, more to the point, my current build for my Berserker.

At this moment, my character is level 28. Which means I've had well over 28 skill points with which to dump into skills. (counting basic leveling and Fame levels)

And even though I was tempted by several of the skills and skill trees, I ended up just dumping virtually all of my skill points (*) into three skills that work exquisitely together. As in, "synergisticly".

Those are:
Frost Breath
Cold Steel Mastery
Shatter Storm

The first gives me a pseudo-AOE effect that can freeze and/or immobilize enemies. The second increases my effectiveness and damage out put with melee and ice-damage-enhanced weapons and skills. The third causes frozen enemies, that I kill, to explode causing AOE damage and freezing other nearby enemies.

So basically: freeze - punch till dead - explodes - rinse and repeat.

Seems pretty synergistic to me. I've found several setups like this for the Berserker, as well as the other classes.

As such, I'm not quite sure where you're getting the impression that none of the skills are synergistic.

[sub]* with exception for a few other passive buffs; like Shred Armor and Rage Retaliation. I'm also considering dumping a few into Raze for increased damage output for boss-fights[/sub]

 

[major_chaos]

Snip

Yes passives and actives have synergy, that's what passives are for, but in TL2 none of the active skills seem to work well together, I never found myself doing "combos" so to speak. As an example: (I'm going to assume you have played enough to know what i'm talking about, if not I apologize)

Spoiler

The engineer has the Coup de Grace passive that causes you to do massive damage to stunned enemies, but IMO it would have been more engaging if this was some kind of active AOE that did the same thing alowing you to "combo" by, say dashing into a bunch of monsters with shield bash then using Coup de Grace to deal massive damage. I would say this is an overall weakness of TL2's skill system, it just feels like the best builds always come from maxing a bunch of passives and the 2-3 actives that benefit from them the most.

OT: I'm certainly enjoying it for $20 but there are a lot of little annoyances that add up to make the game less than great.
[sub] Disclaimer: I freely admit this is all opinion, so the rage that TL fans seem to be showing to people who dare say the game isn't perfect is wasted on me [/sub]

 

[Evil Smurf]

I want it, but it does not run on a mac

 

[VanQ]

Snip

Yes passives and actives have synergy, that's what passives are for, but in TL2 none of the active skills seem to work well together, I never found myself doing "combos" so to speak. As an example: (I'm going to assume you have played enough to know what i'm talking about, if not I apologize)

Spoiler

The engineer has the Coup de Grace passive that causes you to do massive damage to stunned enemies, but IMO it would have been more engaging if this was some kind of active AOE that did the same thing alowing you to "combo" by, say dashing into a bunch of monsters with shield bash then using Coup de Grace to deal massive damage. I would say this is an overall weakness of TL2's skill system, it just feels like the best builds always come from maxing a bunch of passives and the 2-3 actives that benefit from them the most.

OT: I'm certainly enjoying it for $20 but there are a lot of little annoyances that add up to make the game less than great.
[sub] Disclaimer: I freely admit this is all opinion, so the rage that TL fans seem to be showing to people who dare say the game isn't perfect is wasted on me [/sub]

Go read your Engineer skill trees again. He has an active AoE stun, I'm playing through as Embermage and my friend is playing through as Engineer and we have been working very well together BECAUSE his unending stuns keep the pack off me while I shower frost and flames on them from above.

I even put points into a stun to help increase his damage output to keep his aggro high enough to tank for the huge amounts of DPS I can output.

 

[SlaveNumber23]

My Torchlight 2 review: Buy this game. Just do it. Please. I'll pay you.

Cons: The host of a server can't kick people, you have to call a vote.

Pros: Everything else.

 

[major_chaos]

Snip

You either misread my post or I did a horrible job of getting my point across (which is common for me). My point wasn't that engie does't have stuns, it was that if Coup de Grace did the exact same thing it does now but as a AOE attack rather than a on-hit passive it would be more interesting (IMO).

 

[Vigormortis]

Yes passives and actives have synergy, that's what passives are for, but in TL2 none of the active skills seem to work well together, I never found myself doing "combos" so to speak. As an example: (I'm going to assume you have played enough to know what i'm talking about, if not I apologize)

Spoiler

The engineer has the Coup de Grace passive that causes you to do massive damage to stunned enemies, but IMO it would have been more engaging if this was some kind of active AOE that did the same thing alowing you to "combo" by, say dashing into a bunch of monsters with shield bash then using Coup de Grace to deal massive damage. I would say this is an overall weakness of TL2's skill system, it just feels like the best builds always come from maxing a bunch of passives and the 2-3 actives that benefit from them the most.

OT: I'm certainly enjoying it for $20 but there are a lot of little annoyances that add up to make the game less than great.
[sub] Disclaimer: I freely admit this is all opinion, so the rage that TL fans seem to be showing to people who dare say the game isn't perfect is wasted on me [/sub]

I'm not sure who's been "raging" at you, but it's certainly not coming from me. I've no qualms with people who aren't fans of the games I like. "Different strokes for different blokes", so-to-(crudely)-speak.

However, I still submit that, certainly not all, but quite a few of the actives have synergy.

For example, the Berserkers Frost Breath and Raze go quite well together; as I've just come to learn. You freeze them in place with Frost Breath and then spam the hell out of Raze. The damage output is quite impressive.

Same goes for the Engineers Flame Hammer, Seismic Shock, and Onslaught. You use Onslaught (or Storm Burst) to leap into a group , you burn and stun with Seismic Shock, and then you dish out the finisher with Flame Hammer. You can chain a lot of damage on groups with this combo.

I'll grant most of the synergistic combinations involve a few actives with a few passives. Even so, there are more than a few actives that work very well when combo'd.

(though I wish there were more)

 

[major_chaos]

I'm not sure who's been "raging" at you, but it's certainly not coming from me. I've no qualms with people who aren't fans of the games I like. "Different strokes for different blokes", so-to-(crudely)-speak.

That part wasn't aimed at you, it was more a cautionary disclaimer because currently it seems that on both the GFAQs board and the Steam board for this game (and to a lesser extent the official forum) even an extremely mild criticism causes vast amounts of rage, and I wasn't sure if any of that had leaked on to the escapist.

 

[Goofguy]

This game is an absolute steal for $20. Loads of fun and a crapload of equipment and skill customization options. I definitely recommend it to fans of the genre.