Torchlight

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Oct 31, 2008
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Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, said the mathematician Leonhard Euler, and this seems to be more than true in the games industry. A successful game will, without fail, bring in a plethora of clones, copies, and more attempting to cash in on a recent craze. Some would say that Torchlight, a game developed by the actually quite small Runic Games of attempting to do this same thing. Torchlight is a game unashamedly calling itself a clone of the rather successful dungeon crawler game Diablo by Blizzard Entertainment. However, refusing to see the inherent strengths of the game because of this simple fact is probably akin to calling all cookies disgusting because they are essentially all the same recipe.

The gameplay is rather simple: click on an enemy until he dies, pick up any and all loot that drops, rinse, lather, and repeat. However, the way this simple formula is played out makes all the difference in the world. Before beginning on a near mindless rampage of the countless legions of the undead, the player gets to pick between one of three classes: the heavyweight Destroyer, the lithe and agile Vanquisher, or the steampunk Alchemist. Each of the three classes has three additional skill trees to specialize in, enabling multiple combinations of the same class, such as a dual wand wielding Destroyer, or a combat Alchemist. Not all of the combinations are particularly viable, but I'll be damned if they aren't all fun to at least try out. The character is joined by a simple animal companion in the form of a dog or a cat, but it can temporarily transform by feeding the pet a fish caught in Torchlight's simple fishing minigame. The pet can be used as an aid in combat, but the most important aspect would be it's ability to act as a moving stash of items, which, when full, can be sent back to town to sell off everything it's carrying.

Torchlight's rather weak storyline about a once powerful wizard becoming corrupted by an evil power, trying to destroy the town of Torchlight from under it's mines is most likely the weakest part of the game. The storyline is uncompelling, filled with cliched writing and slightly over the top voice acting. However, the story does give a reason for travelling deeper and deeper into the corrupted mines underneath the town. And the caverns below are gorgeous to behold. Truthfully, they don't match the impossibly high standards set by some of the latest and greatest in graphics today (this game can be run on the puny netbook, which is saying a lot for the system requirements), but the art style exemplifies beauty. Every single monster, item, tileset, and character is beautifully drawn and rendered given the low requirements. The game does not bother striving for realism, but creates its own art style which is both unique and aesthetically pleasing.

The thing about Torchlight is that the game is almost literally infinitely replayable. Every aspect of the game is randomized, from the thousands of possible pieces of loot, to every floor of the main dungeon itself. Once done with the main quest, a character can either choose to "retire" and give a new character some bonuses and an item, or the character can attempt to tackle the "endless dungeon", which is essentially what it sounds: a dungeon that endlessly creates floors (within computational limits) for the player to tackle.

The game is great, although there is one small, but impossible to be overlooked, flaw: lack of multiplayer. Diablo was successful as it is because of the inclusion of multiplayer and the chance to play with friends, grinding for hours and finding the best gear possible. However, Runic Games have made the claim that they are currently working on a free to play MMO based on the game that should come out within a few years, which might possibly do well.

Bottom Line: Torchlight is an extremely solid game that perfectly nails the dungeon crawler genre on the head with a two ton hammer.

Recommendation: If there's a better way to spend $20, I can't think of it right now. Buy it.

Side note: this is the first review that I decided to put up on the forums. I enjoy receiving criticism, so please, have at it, although I know this was rather short and I should add a picture somewhere.
 

Discon

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Sep 14, 2009
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It was a nice read, but I would've liked to read a bit more about the gameplay.
 

Christemo

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Jan 13, 2009
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nice review. i love the game too, totally worth 16?. the story is a bit cliché, but i thinks its okay. more classes or harder bosses would´ve been nice, but that would increase the price tag.

pros:
-nice graphics with a greast cartoony style.
-responsive combat.
-living sta- i mean a pet.
-good diablo-ish music.
-only 16?.

cons:
-bosses arent replayable.
-the game is wayyy too easy (i didnt use potions untill floor 15 or so).
-predictable plot twists.
-loading times are annoying (there was no loading in diablo 2 if memory serves).
-no cow level.

most of the cons are nitpicks, but overall an awesome game.
 

Vierran

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Oct 11, 2009
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I am enjoying it quite a bit at the moment and with a good mod community already going strong there is sure to be some good mods and content to be had for awhile.
 

Traze

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Jul 24, 2008
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I enjoyed playing through Torchlight alot, and it's defiantly worth the money.
What the story lacked, the gameplay made up for and the only frustrating thing was the lack of multiplayer :(
 

lordkosc

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Jan 27, 2008
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Indeed, game play was excellent, I liked that you could keep playing past level 35.
 

MrSnugglesworth

Into the Wild Green Snuggle
Jan 15, 2009
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Con - Mods don't work with Steam. It may be fixed in the future, but as of now if you have Vista or 7, it won't work. (Correct me if I'm wrong, please do. I WANT MY RESPEC MOD)
Another Con - Can't respec. Which isn't that bad, considering there's 100 levels.
 

Screens

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Oct 31, 2008
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So is there anything that someone didn't like? I know I can't please everyone, but anything other than to talk more about the gameplay?