Torchlight | Cheerful Ghost

Torchlight II Contest Entry.

I never played any Diablo games, so when a friend recommended it to me I wasn't sure what to expect. He said it involved a lot of hack-and-slash and equip gathering. It didn't seem very amusing, but I decided to give it a shot. Boy was I wrong.

First of all I loved the art style for not being so serious, it was a new experience to me, so it made it all seem less intimidating. I soon found myself playing for hours and never wanting to stop. I do confess only having 3 character choices (and no gender options) bugged me a little, but nonetheless I happily played as an Alchemist, with a wolf for a pet. I spent a lot of time fishing too, and I loved loved loved the shape... Read All

I know most of you already own Torchlight, but for those who

I know most of you already own Torchlight, but for those who don't, I put a copy up on Steam Gifts. The drawing closes Friday the 12th at 4pm. Good luck!

http://www.steamgifts.com/giveaway/0bGla/torchlight

I just beat Torchlight a few days ago and I wanted to pen my

I just beat Torchlight a few days ago and I wanted to pen my thoughts while they are fresh in my mind. This is a odd review to write as its now taken me over two years to finally complete Torchlight and we are still in the throws of the Diablo 3 release. That said, Diablo 3 won't change too many of my thoughts as ive had years to solidify them.

I picked up Torchlight about a two+ year's ago after trying the demo out and enjoying it. Since I wasn't really into purchasing games digitally at the time, I bought the box copy for $20. I installed the game and I was pleasantly surprised the full game just used my existing demo character. No restarting, just continuing on. That... Read All I just beat Torchlight a few days ago and I wanted to pen my thoughts while they are fresh in my mind. This is a odd review to write as its now taken me over two years to finally complete Torchlight and we are still in the throws of the Diablo 3 release. That said, Diablo 3 won't change too many of my thoughts as ive had years to solidify them.

I picked up Torchlight about a two+ year's ago after trying the demo out and enjoying it. Since I wasn't really into purchasing games digitally at the time, I bought the box copy for $20. I installed the game and I was pleasantly surprised the full game just used my existing demo character. No restarting, just continuing on. That was a pretty nice feature as most games don't allow you to pickup after the demo when you buy the full game.

I started playing Torchlight as the tank class on a whim because, typically I play magic user and I just wanted to do something different. Immediately I loved the tank and felt like I was a pretty hefty bad-ass killing everything that stood in my way. I was happy that Torchlight ran smooth on my old Desktop. I was running the best AGP video card you could get and it looked fantastic on the old hardware. Torchlight is a game optimised for Netbooks so you can run it on lower power hardware. That said, the game looks beautiful and the art doesn't suffer all all in my opinion.

After a few days of playing it I noticed the game wasn't too much fun after an hour or so of play and over a week or so I stopped playing it and only picked it up every two weeks to a month. Torchlight is fun its just not immersive enough for me to play it more than once a month.

One huge problem I had with Torchlight is if I hovered over a bad guy with my mouse and clicked on them I had no idea my guy was attacking that specific enemy. In Diablo when you hover over a enemy it highlights it. This really helps me understand what I am going to attack. In Torchlight often I would be clicking to attack and I wasn't actually swinging at anything. I evolved a play style where I would use my other abilities more because they were area of effect attacks and I knew I would be hitting things. It wasn't frustrating, I just didn't feel effective and the game seemed broken in that way.

The game also very easy and I didn't feel challenged. I don't believe I died once.

The story wasn't much to think about. I honestly don't remember what went on. Some evil Wizard did something bad? Something about Embers? I don't really remember it wasn't very important to the game.

The hack and slash of the game is fun but there must be a point to all of it or I stop playing. The game was fun enough for a few days of a few hours of play but long term it flattened out for me.

The soundtrack is good and it is VERY reminiscent of the Diablo soundtrack as Matt Uelmen composed it. You can hear the nods to the Diablo 2 themes in the village music and other areas. Fun to hear it and it brought me right into the dungeon crawling mood.

I will most likely check out Torchlight 2 at some point and hope they improve some of the core mechanics and spend a bit longer on the story and characters. The game isn't too far off the mark it just didn't resonate with me in the way it did for other people.

Did you play Torchlight? What did you think of it?