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.
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.