Torchlight Review: Why Wait for Diablo 3?
Torchlight Review: Why Wait for Diablo 3?
A long time ago, a group of developers who made Diablo, Fate and Mythos banned together to create a perfected action-rpg. This action RPG goes by the name of Torchlight. It is far from perfect but you know what? It’s fun and that’s all that matters! These days all we get is realism this, and turn based that, but what happened to the simple click and beat action-rpg?
Graphics:
Talking about graphics is like talking about how shiny a dog turd is. Graphics shouldn’t be the deciding factor for any game but if I may say it is quite decent and the requirements to play this game is minimal at best. A netbook (yes a damn netbook) can play this game and if that could play Torchlight, almost any computer can play Torchlight !
Gameplay
The gameplay completely emphasizes on having fun. You will get monsters climbing up the mining shafts, dropping out of trap doors, jumping off stairs, walls, balconies, and just about anything to get to you. The monsters are unique and in a huge variety. As you go lower into the dungeon the greater variety of monsters you will have to fight. The models do not get reused over and over again (an example would be changing the color of a monster and naming it something else) and each monster is unique with special abilities.
Also Quests are quite short and explanatory. Talking to the npc won’t give you a mountain of text but instead a quick where and why. There is only one “kill x monsters” quest in the game and most of the quests revolve around killing bosses, and finding treasure.
Very Very Brief Overview of the Story:
The town of Torchlight is troubled by the appearance of bizarre creatures inhabitting the local mines. As you are sent to investigate the cause of this infestation, you travel through an interconnected almost endless dungeon until you reach the end boss who resides at the very bottom of the earth. Going ever deeper through the mines, catacombs, necropolis..etc.
The controls are very similar to Diablo I and II (which is no surprise since some of the people who worked on those games made Torchlight). Click an empty space to move. Left click is attack, Right click is use skill. The number keys can be assigned skills and items.
The hot keys are very self explanatory such that even my 6 year old cousin could play this game. Press C for character, I for Inventory, Q for Quest, S for skill…etc. Some games tell you to press “Ctrl + O” for inventory. Why the hell “O” ? Why 2 buttons? God what were they thinking. It’s about damn time someone got this right.
Interface
You have your health and mana bars and then you have two leveling bars. One is the exp bar and the other is the fame bar. You achieve fame points by either killing boss monsters or doing quests. You have four categories of stats to allocate: Strength, Dexterity, Magic, Defence. Each time you level up you get 5 stats and 1 skill point. Each time your fame levels up you get 1 skill point.
The interface is probably has the most minimal learning curve of any game I ever seen. The one thing I like about this game is that it doesn’t bombard you with stat points and skill points right when you start off. It doesn’t force a job system onto you and instead you can do whatever you like depending on which category you put your skills into and your class. Most games make you suffer if you try to build a character with different groups of skills. In Torchlight there are no consequences if you try a hybrid build for your class. It doesn’t make you weaker or stronger. Doing this just offers more different types of playing styles.
There is no multiplayer support !! On the bright side though there are free level editors and mod tools so you can make your own world and story. Many players have been doing this already.
Also for those reluctant to give Torchlight a spin, a mmo (yes Torchlight mmo) will be released in the near future.
Final Say:
I am sick of all this WOW, Witcher and Aion Rpg crap that is flooding the market. Click a monster, watch your character hit it a couple times, yawn and do it over and over again. I have nothing against this, but can’t we speed up the action a bit? Like maybe fight hordes of around 20 enemies all at once and not just slowly grinding and watching your character hit an orge for the 20th time. Why can’t they make a real mmo with instantaneous action?
Torchlight is everything that an RPG has been doing right and what rpgs/mmorpgs should have been doing for the last 8 years. It is reasonably priced for only $19.95, comes with a level editor and modification tool kits. Still don't like it? A MMO based on Torchlight will come out next year.
Comment ( 22 )
i felt like i was really gona like this game until i saw that it supports no multiplayer.....
Why wait for diablo? Because it will have more characters to choose from, More hours of gameplay, More Fun, Multiplayer,More support,Mods,Graphics,Going to be better polished,ETC
This game sucks. I completed it in 3 hours and it's boring. The number of skills they have is little as well.
look gay
i dont really like this game, dunno why..
Hmm actually I don,t know I mean fast action rpg if you can exemple move backward so the enemy can Hit the ... emptiness would be good but what I liked In rpg is not "action paced" its mostly about storyline I was born with Final fantasy IV so Imagine ( on SNES )
if newcomer wnat action there is action games if they want action rpg well they could try dragon age origin
and as for AIOn its true you point and click but ... I don't suggest to Yawn because if you kill an enemy without skill ... GOOD LUCK but hmm still I understand what you mean but a real rpg Fan won't care Much about ACTION spaced
as for diablo I'm not Interesting yet to play it ( I have many games to satisfy Myself first )
Torch Light is really a good game. lol Thanks for sharing.
BTW, thank you for your visit, too.
what the link to this game
just about your final say... Wow, Aion and what- Witcher ? what those 3 games have to do with this? Witcher is not mmo, its not even just another rpg. Thats most oryginal game last years so think first before you write something.
TorchLight is a good Game Overall I Like It And Eeveryhting It Fells Like Diablo 3 and stuff but the only problem is that there is no multiplayer plus there isn't much choice for classes either also this game feel a little like a game that i played called Fate so yea nice review
Wow, love the review. Short, straight to the point, and provide the information that I need. Good job man, will try this game soon. Haven't seen review like this lately.
Excellent review!
On the subject of multiplayer, fear not, this is a fully moddable game and the mod community are already working on adding multiplayer support to it. See this thread on the official Torchlight forum: http://forums.runicgames.com/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=3569
well i can wait for diablo 3 and i still think torchlight is a good game
Hmm "Fate" engine
Sounds good. and tbh i love flying and shit, but if its not central to the story or used just for fun, then it can gtfo.
And i hate Blizzard. The only good games they made were the original Diablo, Warcraft I,II, and III, and Starcraft-the TRUE originals. Everything else can go suck on my d**k, because they simply aren't good games-just majorly hyped up shit.
your title sucks, while torchlight sp may be a decent diablo clone ( without multiplayer, wich makes it pointless) it doesnt hold a candle to any diablo title. Runic said they'll bring the mmo version in 1 year (!) by that time d3 might be out and that would be the death sentence to torchlight. Anyway, lets be honest, who played d2 through more then 1~3 times, after that its just repetition, what breathes live into d2 is the lan and bnet modes. Torchlight missing that is unable to catch my interest in the slightest. I know Runic (ex Flagship Seattle) can create diablo clones ( been mythos beta tester) but not including atleast a lan modus was a huge mistake.
Nice blog on Torchlight i have it and i gotta say it is fun and i don't have to put alot of hours into it but what would make this blog more appeasing and believable is if you don't try to bash other game types. One don't try to bash other games as a last comment, people have different tastes and although WoW and Aion aren't action-rpgs( and they weren't meant to be), they are still fun also if you have ever played aion you can't stay still while fighting a monster(unless you are in the warrior archtype). I can say this with full understanding because i have played all the games you have mentioned including aion which has a higher diffivulty rating than WoW( and all other mmo's out there at the moment). Flight is not a means only a means of transport and the only people who say it is only that or mainly that have never gone to the abyss for pvp before. Other than that this is a good blog if i do say so myself but don't turn away the audience you are trying to inform.
Cheers :D
"F**** U Aion is one awesome game. What do you mean action-RPG? Aion gots action and flying. NO MULTIPLAYER so your game seems like a total piece of crap." wuhuhuhuh LOL made me laugh "and flying" LMAO
F**** U Aion is one awesome game. What do you mean action-RPG? Aion gots action and flying. NO MULTIPLAYER so your game seems like a total piece of crap.
Yes, this Game is not free - $19,95 one-off payment
Whaaa on the forums it said their future MMO based on Torchlight would be F2p D=. I hope this gets clarified lol. In the meantime i'll edit my post until I find out. Thank you for the infor =)
....funny on its main site it says its p2p
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