Zero Punctuation: Torchlight

[Censorme]

3:31 made my day. Little robot and imp humping the foot-high wall.

 

[SomeUnregPunk]

I agree with everything that ZP has said.
I only found out that I can kill nonstop if I hold down button after seeing that "tip" in the loading screen.

difficulty sucks so much that I had to grab SiN's mod pack [http://www.runicgamesfansite.com/torchlightmods/node/183] to give it that edge I was looking for.

Got annoyed that my cat looked lame and got another mod that changed that to...

The game is pretty lame without modding it first. I knew it was a loot fest type of game but the difficulty really needed to be tweaked.

 

[toapat]

i fully expected the review to go that way.

nothing i didnt expect from Yahtzee

 

[Donrad]

i guess that looks worth an icecream sandwich.

 

[The Great JT]

I wasn't a big Diablo fan (yeah, we exist in the high-level content of World of Warcraft), so I probably won't get a kick out of this.

I'll stick to WoW, thank you. Enjoyable review, though.

 

[hypothetical fact]

Couple of things, guys:


- Those not satisfied with the vanilla game can try to brew their own flavors with its very own company-provided modding tool, TorchED, so you can get rid of everything that made the vanilla game's shortcomings and design your own with complete reckless abandon, and some other third-party developed modding tools.

Modding shouldn't be an excuse for companies to deliver a mediocre game. If I buy a bike from someone, I don't want them to just give me a pair of handlebars and say: "Don't worry, there are tons of bike-building communities out there if you aren't satisfied with your handlebars." How about instead of relying on fans to finish your game for you, you actually spend some time into making it yourself?

Probably because that's what the team is actually aiming for. Honestly, this isn't the first time I've seen cases like this.

That's selling a game on promises that it will get better when the modding community may never form. Alternatively they can make a fine stand alone game like Oblivion then give out the modding tools to make it better.

Also for everyone else,= I have a plan set out to kill the monster, I can follow the plan perfectly, why do I have to hold down the mouse just so the computer can understand that the monster needs to die?

 

[Weaver]

I'd have to disagree this week. Torchlight is a great game for killing time and relieving stress. You're pissed off, you want to kill lots of stuff, it lets you and makes you feel awesome for it. And as for "Clicking everywhere", Yahtzee fails to notice you can hold the mouse button down to continually move and attack.

Why does every "rpg" nowadays need a dog?

You can have a cat instead.

You can also collect certain fish to turn your pet into dozens of kinds of monsters, each one also has a permanent fish which permanently changes it.

I love torchlight, and I don't really understand how yahtzee can be mad about "needing 50 buttons". Really, all you need is left click and right click 99% of the time. I've sunk like 40 hours into torchilght, amazing game.

 

[FoolKiller]

- I take it Yahtzee didn't bother commenting on the modding community, either because he doesn't give a rat's arse about it, or he doesn't have the permission to extend the review to touch upon that.

Actually, I figure it's because the modding community isn't part of the game. It is what develops afterwards: good or bad.

This is the first time in a while I was laughing really hard at a ZP. Good job.

I didn't understand Yahtzee's point about the excessive clicking. It's an adventure RPG on the PC, so you click everywhere you want to go and carpal tunnel comes naturally. This happens in any game like it. What makes Torchlight so different?

Finally... a genre that works better with a controller than keyboard and mouse. They just need to learn to streamline the inventory system.

 

[Shamanic Rhythm]

snip

Speaking as a card-carrying Yahtzee fanboy,I happen to think the whole "but saying bad things in what he does" defence is a load of tosh. ZP's entertainment value, in my eyes at least, lies in sharp assessments on foolish or ridiculous elements of a game supported by wonderful, colourful language. If the man is spending too long skewering a minor or irrelevant point* for the sake of negativity, it's like watching a master boxer fight a weeble doll - faintly amusing, but not as impressive or joyous. If his criticism is factually wrong, then what is the point in bringing it to light. And being positive is not necessarily dull, if it represents genuine enthusiasm. Look at the Prototype review for a good example, which single-handedly sold me a game I enjoyed very much.

I agree people should be a little less sensitive about a guy who is honest about a guy who is not even pretending to be anything but rampantly opinionated (thank god "objective judgement" of entertainment is a dodgy idea at best) but pretending Yahtzee never makes mistakes or should give up on conveying his impressions "cuz its funnier" is equally silly.

*Incidentally, I didn't really feel the TL review was unrepresentative. The AC2 was the best/worst example - dissecting superfluous and pointless amounts of cash, a flaw of every game ever made ever, in reviewing a game that was supposedly enjoyable was surely a mis-step.

Please don't distill my arguments into text speak.

I found the visual gag of World of Warcraft knocking up Oblivion to be hilarious, so I would feign to say that we have fairly dissimilar tastes in humour (ie mine is less sophisticated). Whatever. The point I was trying to make is not that he doesn't make mistakes, but like most artists he's probably selective with the truth or takes minor liberties in order to make a joke, and through it a more resonant point.

Also there's nothing in my post that says he shouldn't convey his impressions; it's just that many people on here don't seem to be happy unless his impressions match their impressions.

 

[zombflux]

Best one in a while.

 

[Ayay]

I guess this proves you cant be on top of your game every day . I think this one seemed phoned in by him .Uninspired , but thats just me And no i have not tried the game. guess i watch Yahtzee´s musings on this game again, and figure out if i missed something.

 

[KDR_11k]

By the way, you can hold the mouse button down to continue attacking an enemy (same as in Diablo 2), no need to play Track & Field with your mouse buttons.

Yes but is this mentioned anywhere in the game?

Honestly no idea, I did it naturally because I played Diablo 2 before.

 

[WaderiAAA]

Why does every "rpg" nowadays need a dog?

See the ENN episode from last week to find out.

Lol, just kidding.

 

[Elf Defiler Korgan]

Excellent, loved it. I play a lot of rpgs or diablo like games and this was a great chuckle.

Go eat an ice cream as a reward Yahtzee.

 

[aarontg]

The game feels allot like diablo on mystery dungeon brand cocaine and I cant help but feel like thats its downfall as the only thing keeping you interested in the dungeons is the environments that of which begin to repeat the moment you start any side quests.

 

[chenry]

I love Torchlight, but yes, "Normal" mode is effin' easy.

 

[Eversor]

Oh noes, an action RPG where you have to click a lot. Yeah right. Hold left mouse button and point where to go, hold left mouse button pressed over the enemy you want smashed, right one over the enemy you want zapped with majiks. It really isn't hard.

The pathfinding is certainly a problem, although the difficulty levels are actually rather fair. When you hold the cursor over "normal" difficulty, the tooltip says that it is meant for people that are new to the ARPG genre. Shock horror, exactly what it says on the tin.