Nov072009
Gaming Break: Torchlight
Filed under Gaming by Kim at 5:33 pm on Nov 07 2009
I was browsing the Diablo III blogs, like you do, and I saw the headline “Torchlight: A Diablo Clone?” and I thought, now here we go again – another Sacred. (That game kind of blew. I mean it was fun, but buggy as hell.) For the record, I don’t think I have ever loved a game more than Diablo II. Possibly only Zelda 3. So I’m sort of bound to like something that’s considered a clone of it.
Torchlight turned out to surprise me a little, not due to gameplay and the much ballyhooed pet inventory/errand dog feature, but because of the smoothness! The action in the game just looked way better than I expected for a game that seemed to come out of nowhere with no multiplayer option (?!?) and working on the same principle that many games have long since tried to move beyond: the principle of click-kill-random number generate-loot.
I don’t mean that to sound derogatory. It’s something I quite enjoy for relaxation purposes.
Jack is always trying to get me to play these challenging games like Portal. Oh, god. Please spare me another mental meltdown like the one I had playing Myst. Please. I solve puzzles, essentially, on the job; I have zero need to be frustrated and stumped at home. Give me that old fashioned action with reward.
Anyways, a number of folks out there have written very helpful reviews on the game. I don’t think I need to say more than this: If you like the Diablo games, and you don’t mind the less dark atmosphere of a WoW type art style, then you will probably like this game. You have three character classes to choose from and pretty varied skill trees. The game is probably even hard if you don’t play it on easy level like I do. 
And, well… OK the pet feature is awesome, I shall sing its praises alongside everyone else.
You can see the menus and inventory all probably look pretty familiar. For some “action” shots see here and here. For the low low one-time price of 19.99, I’d say it’s a pretty good deal. I obviously won’t get the play time out of it that I might get out of a Diablo game, but that’s ok.
1 John A. Bilicki IIIon 11 Nov 2009 at 12:52 pm
Runic Games is doing a free MMO of Torchlight with premium features (from what I’ve read) and they decided it was best to do a single player game first to start getting some revenue flowing.
It’s definitely a Diablo II clone and I think I’ll try playing it on the hardest setting. It felt a little too easy and a bit more cartoonish…nothing wrong with that though the levels are rather linear. If they had monsters spawning instead of a cleaned-house level effect (where when you kill all the monsters there will never be any more monsters on that level) it would make the player feel like there is more importance in their decision making. I ended up with a ton of potions and only used them in boss fights. Still it was an awesome game even if though it lacks the need for critical-strategy thinking skills.
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Kim Reply:
November 11th, 2009 at 1:07 pm
Being somewhat of a strategy moron, I am surprised to say that I agree with you; for example, even the old Warcraft games used to seem to hard to me – I never liked dealing with strategy. But this game could really use some base level of it.
That said I haven’t played on the Medium or Hard levels, only on easy. I don’t know if it’s just a question of “more monsters, more beefed up” or if there’s more to the harder difficulties.
I was hoping on the one hand that how I planned my skill tree would create a challenge but so far at level 26 I got the advanced skills and I am killing everything very quickly as the ranged character.
I find it amusing that you already used the past tense “was” as in “it was an awesome game”. I assume that means you’ve completed the story, but implies something more – that it’s fast and easily dispensed with.
Of course if the MMO aspect happens, then it brings us back to the present. For now though I will enjoy playing through with each character class and gearing them up.
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John A. Bilicki III Reply:
November 11th, 2009 at 1:24 pm
I should have clarified that I only played the demo (hence was) so my fun ended when the game told me to buy it. I’ll try a second class though when I get more time. I didn’t notice any monsters with resistances, I presume that the game has some? Does the game have a normal/nightmare/hell mode separate from the easy/normal/hard modes or is once through the game it? Granted $20 isn’t a lot for a game though I’m not sure how much game-play you get for $20.
As Diablo II becomes increasingly more difficult gear and skills become increasingly important if you don’t want your character to die off quickly. I did notice the game-play increase in difficulty a little with boss fights but the different magic spells did not seem to have much effect where as in example frost spells would freeze mobs in D2 however I would have liked to see a shocked or knocked back effect on mobs hit by lightening and maybe a pause of burned monsters (putting their hands on their wounds would slow their attacks) but in general and most especially in hell mode you couldn’t use just one magic tree.
Again I only played the demo and one of my concerns with Diablo III is the limited looking number of (though we haven’t been able to play it so it’s strictly a feeling of sorts) spells in the Wizard’s skill tree. In example I think certain skills should have more specific effects. Frozen orb could in example freeze a wall of monsters on both sides to let you run through a cleared path and firewall should ward off monsters from attacking from one side instead of them mindlessly walking in to it endlessly by running around them (moo!) By doing this I’d like to see basic spells that you’d never use in hell mode become strengthened by higher spells. A basic fireball should do massive damage to a single monster in hell since by that time you’ve been using it (in character time?) for years and have “mastered” it over time and it’s draw back (reason for using other spells) is that it only damages a single monster. Nothing horridly difficult I think especially considering the amount of time you adjust to the character.
As far as the Warcraft series…yeah…nice but I stay the heck off of Battle.net. There is a happy medium between enjoying a game with a little strategy and playing against some guy who has done nothing but master the game like Michelangelo mastered art. Diablo III will still own though and destructible/interactive environments will only sweeten the deal!
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Kim Reply:
November 12th, 2009 at 3:39 pm
I meant to ask – how did you come across my blog here?
Thanks for your thoughtful replies! I would say more but you pretty much said it.