BonsaiK said:
It's official, Yahtzee does not like Torchlight, he has no soul.
While most of what he says is just his opinion and therefore neither here nor there (although the fact he didn't find the interface very intuitive amazes me), he actually got one important part of the review drastically, unforgivably wrong - you don't have to click for each attack, you can hold down the mouse button and your character will keep attacking the same enemy until it dies. Even if you're no longer hovering your mouse pointer over it. This is actually one of the most meaningful improvements the game has over Diablo - it's far less of a click-fest in so many ways. He's sure getting sloppy, gone are the days of stuff like the Bioshock review where he actually honed in very precisely on what was really wrong with the game. I guess a couple years' worth of deadlines must finally be getting to him. I think he needs a couple of months off.
Agreed. I have to say I was left unimpressed by that review, and not just because I'm a Torchlight fan.
Compared to current RPGs (that is Dragon Age: Origins, Neverwinter Nights I suppose, Borderlands, Fallout 3, Mass Effect, Drakensang, Oblivion and the swathe of MMORPGs), Torchlight is a standout title. It's got a low selling price, it's got functional graphics that aren't ridiculous, it's easy enough to understand (although I'd say the itemisation is a bit messy), and it's fun.
I have paid more for games I've played for less than Torchlight. There are no Dungeon Running games that I can think of that are as recent or as successful as Torchlight, at least not since the days of Diablo 2. It's a back-to-basics game (as Yahtzee pointed out) that manages to not suck. It's proof that indie games can do extremely well and that you don't need to stay modern to do well.
