http://i.imgur.com/jLrWd.png
This evening I downloaded the Torchlight 2 demo on Steam and decided to give it a shot. Right away I noticed that the menus were pretty different from the original Torchlight. Not a huge deal, but it wasn't immediately apparent how to exit the game the first time I launched it. Its the upper right corner and is greyed out, I didn't see that the first time through.

I created an Ember Mage and liked the character customization. After creating my character I was quickly in the game killing things. I was surprised how differently it played from the original Torchlight. One main difference is that your character moves very fast around the screen. Its very smooth and I like the character pacing much better than the original Torchlight or Diablo 3 even. Which is another thing about Torchlight 2, the game is really really smooth. Compared to Diablo 3, which lags the first few minutes in game, moving through Torchlight is like butter.

I like that you are not merely relegated to dungeon crawling in Torchlight 2. The outdoor environments are a welcome addition to my style. After I made it to town I got a few quests and headed out straight for the first one. After taking them down one by one I noticed the enemy and game difficulty ramp up considerably. My third quest in I met up with something like 5 champion mobs protecting the quest ending. They didn't pose a huge challenge but they did take a while to kill and all in all it was very fun.

I stopped playing around level 8 (before I stopped I snapped the pic above) and really enjoyed the game. I would say largely, Torchlight 2 is a big improvement over Torchlight. That said, I had a few nits with it as I felt the graphic style of the original was a bit better than Torchlight 2. As with the first game occasionally my character was behind the forefront graphic and the ghost/outline thing is hard to play through. Again, small things because overall the game was very fun.

No reason to not check it out as it will play on most under computers and the demo is out now on Steam!

MoonWyrd   Supporter wrote on 11/23/2012 at 06:58am

With everything that's been going on in my life I completely forgot about Torchlight II. Thanks for the write up. I'm going to have to checkout the demo. Once Steam finishes downloading the internet, that is.

jdodson   Admin   Post Author wrote on 11/23/2012 at 08:15am

Yeah you can nab the demo now and pick up the full game at a bit of a reduced price during the Steam Autumn Sale now.

MoonWyrd   Supporter wrote on 11/23/2012 at 05:21pm

Silly me, I failed to note that the Mac version hasn't been released yet. Guess I'll have to boot up the Winders box sometime in the next couple days to check this out.

jdodson   Admin   Post Author wrote on 11/23/2012 at 06:31pm

It will get ported to Mac eventually they said. Hadn't heard of an ETA though.

MoonWyrd   Supporter wrote on 11/23/2012 at 07:35pm

Yeah, that's what I gathered from the FAQ. I don't mind checking out the demo on Winders, but I dislike depending on it for long periods of game play. Too many crashes.

jdodson   Admin   Post Author wrote on 11/26/2012 at 05:19pm

Just picked this up during the sale, $10? Yes please. Hoping for a Mac port at some point. A few expansions might not hurt either.

MoonWyrd   Supporter wrote on 12/03/2012 at 03:12pm

Finally had a chance to checkout the demo. Quite fun so far. Very reminiscent of D2. Not likely to be coughing up the $$ for the full game until I fine a new job, though.

jdodson   Admin   Post Author wrote on 12/03/2012 at 04:12pm

We might have you covered as soon we are going to run a Torchlight 2 contest! Woot.

jdodson   Admin   Post Author wrote on 12/04/2012 at 03:28am
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