Torchlight is Diablo. With a dog.
Now, Diablo was a great game, so there's nothing wrong with that. And the dog is pretty crazy. He can carry loot back to town and sell it for you, making him more useful than 99% of all videogame AI henchmen.
I'm not really sure what else to say. Torchlight is fun and polished, with nice cartoon-ish graphics. There are three classes, and each class has three trees, allowing each class to be played in a different manner. For example, the Inquisitor can be ranged weapons, assassin-style melee, or traps. The trees aren't formal trees, as you don't have to put points in lower tiers to get higher talents. You just need to be the correct level and you can cherry-pick talents as you wish.
There are some nice updates, like a stash you can share between characters. Recovering from death is interesting, as you can either: pay xp/fame and respawn at point of death; pay 10% of your gold and respawn at the start of the level; or pay nothing and respawn back in town. Finally, there's a second track other than experience. Defeating named enemies earns you Fame. As your Fame level rises you get additional talent points. That is a nice addition.
Also note that Torchlight is single-player only, no multiplayer.
But it's pretty much Diablo with some tweaks. If you liked Diablo, you'll like Torchlight. If you didn't like Diablo, you probably won't like Torchlight.
I think this is more like Diablo 2.5, I keep noticing new twists as I spend longer in the game.
ReplyDeleteI like the maps to random dungeons and the sidequests -- the difficulty seems nicely tuned in the random maps (they're tuned to your level, whereas the main quest dungeon isn't, so it tends to feel as though they are both harder and have better rewards).
I like the extra use of ambushes (you go into a room and open a check and then get ambushed, or something else that you do triggers the mobs). I like the way the stats work -- anyone can equip anything if you have the stats for it.
I like the way the talent trees play out. Very few of the talents have prerequisites so it's very easy to pick and choose a more unique build. Although there are only 3 classes and it's surely ripe for more, the talent trees do give different ways to play each one.
I like the fishing, it's just fun.
Yes, it's extremely similar and obviously based on Diablo but it has been refined and there is more to it.
I first heard of this game like two weeks ago, so I was pretty excited to find out it was coming out so soon. Then I did some reading, and like you said: no multiplayer! I was crushed, all interest went away.
ReplyDeleteNow your write-up of it makes it sound terribly interesting again... but I don't think I'm cut out for it. With Diablo-style games I can only get in a few hours by myself before I get bored out of my mind. I wonder what the decision behind no multiplayer was. Just no budget? These are the same people behind Mythos, which HAD multiplayer. To me, a game like this without multiplayer is like an FPS without guns. Real shame, it's starting to look pretty cool.
Torchlight looks good, I think I'll put it at the top of my list for when I get bored. Just trying to hold off on buying it for now since I know I'll be busy with WoW, LoL, and NaNoWriMo
ReplyDeleteI've been enjoying this game the past few days. It's tons of fun and a good filler until Diablo III and since I'm pretty much burned out on Warcraft until Icecrown, Torchlight is getting my play time. It's actually kind of nice to not be forced into a multiplayer game. Sometimes I just want to adventure by my lonesome.
ReplyDeleteSold. Diablo with a dog? If I wasn't convinced before, I sure am now. :D
ReplyDeleteThere's no multiplayer now, but I hear they're working on a free-to-play MMO version that's gonna come out later.
ReplyDeleteFor now, I'm having hella fun playing the single-player version =)
The dog concept has been around for a while. Not sure if this was the first, but definitely a few years old:
ReplyDeletehttp://games.wildtangent.com/fate/fate/
Torchlight does look cool though.