Steam is a wonderful thing. Valve’s digital distribution service lets you get your hands on all sorts of gems that you probably otherwise wouldn’t have discovered. Torchlight is one such treasure that occupied my time over Christmas ‘09.
The Joystiq 360 Fancast mentioned the dungeon battler and it was later recommended by a friend. Being firmly slapped with the label of ‘”Diablo clone” (and a quality one at that) I was keen to give it a go, seeming as Diablo III has been pushed back to 2011.
Torchlight has been rightly pigeon holed but it’s isometric Blizzard-loving core is not where it’s merits end. Playing the game I found many a nostalgic brain cell tickled. From the World of Warcraft colour coded loot system, skill tree and gear enchantments; to the Dungeon Keeper inspired voices, and Hero Quest (!) furniture. Everything was fresh but familiar which made for a comfortable gaming experience with a shallow learning curve.
Torchlight is fun, light hearted and addictive. The plot’s thin but I appreciate this, I can drop into my game at any time and get straight into the action, and action is definitely where it’s at. You may wear out your mouse playing this one. The RPG elements are light; there are just three character types, a handful of stats, three skill trees and your ever customizable load-out. It’s this load-out and loot system that makes this game so addictive.
The maps and scenery change just as I start to get bored and there’s enough variation in hostiles to make things interesting. With a few deviations from the main path (usually leading to treasure) and summonable side quest portals you can stray a little from the beaten track, but only just and not for long. Some of the pathfinding can get a little frustrating as does long range targeting whilst moving. Playing a character that uses pistols and fireballs made this a frequent annoyance. Saying that, it’s not quite enough to sully the overall experience though.
Bright crisp visuals with a comic style and great sound (there’s even voice acting) make this an essential budget purchase for anyone with an Action or RPG bone in their body. At the crazy low price of £14.99 (I got it in the Steam Christmas sale for half that), Torchlight is an absolute bargain and a far better game than some that I pay £30+ for. Developer Runic Games has stated that Torchlight is the basis for an upcoming MMO and they’re off to an excellent start. With the editor already released and a mod manager available, there’s already lots of free content once you’ve finished with the 30 main dungeons, many side quests and gotten all bored of the ‘infinite dungeon’.
Torchlight gets 4 out of 5 Human Torches from me.
Popularity: 22% [?]
Great game, I too got it in the sale and played it to death it over Christmas. Its annoyingly addictive because:
1) The baddies always drop stuff that’s just a little bit too good for you, so you need to keep playing in order to level up and use that shiny new sword.
And 2) because of those gem thingies that you can combine with other gem thingies to make better gem thingies… and if I can just find one more… I get to… ugh… I’ve got to play it now…
good review dude, will give it a bash. seriously, 2011?!?
2011 is what I read man. Blizzard are supposed to be releasing the first campaign/chapter of Star Craft II this year. I can’t see them releasing two games in one year so I guess it makes sense.