Gaming Torchlight Review

I've played the demo. The major issue is that the core game is absolutely, totally identical to Diablo in pretty much every way. This isn't so much a "Diablo clone" as it is "Diablo with a different name on it". At least "Diablo clones" like Dungeon Siege do a good job (often a very good job) of differentiating themselves from their inspiration. Torchlight makes damned near no effort whatsoever to even pretend it is anything but a shameless continuation of Diablo's 10-year-old mechanics. Diablo is fun to play and Torchlight is as well. of course. It just bothers me that it doesn't even try to do anything about improving upon its source material. Outside of general playability and visual improvements (which are basically stolen from World of Warcraft anyways), it really is just the same game.

The price point is probably fine for a game of this sort... $20? Sure, that seems in line with most higher-budget indie games. At the same time, I feel like it doesn't deserve my money. When I buy an indie game, I go in expecting something I can't get from a big-budget title, like a challenging and compelling story, or cutting-edge gameplay that doesn't necessarily fit into mass market expectations. In the case of Torchlight, though... why not just play Diablo II? At this point, it's cheaper, it's a bigger game, it has better production values, and you can play online, which is what makes these Diablo-style games most fun to begin with.

 

Three generic classes: Diablo

One town, one dungeon, many levels: Diablo

Developers: Diablo

D:

I thought the graphics for Diablo II were amazing tbh. At the time, 3D was just too primitive looking to have that level of detail. IMO highly detailed sprite graphics > most 3D games stylistically, at least until post-processing and lighting became more fancy.

Yours in "I'm not a grammar Nazi" Plasma,
Docodine

 

Oh man that demo was actually pretty fun. I liked most of it, only a couple of things I would change (a first for a diablo clone). I would buy the game immediately if I didn't still have exams and Dragon Age wasn't out next week. Will wait for a sale/boredom.

 

downloading demo now

 

just spent an hour playing the demo its actually really good spot on review by bit however tbh it just makes me wonder how good diablo 3 could be

 

Idle Thumbs have some really good discussion about the importance of co-op in their latest podcast, 'Bargo Busters', FYI.

 

LOVE THIS GAME

 

My favourite game this year by quite some way and an absolute bargain at the price.

 

downloading the demo. I'll see by myself what are everyone's complaints

 

Fantastic game, like everybody has said though, shame there's no co-op

 

Downloaded the demo from Steam yesterday, loved it so bought this morning.

Loved the fact you can send your pet back to the shop with the drops you don't want so you can carry on without teleporting back to the town every 5 minutes.

I had a nice sword that gave +30 hp for every strike until I tried to improve it. The vendor accidently stripped it of all attributes

 

when this happens: Alt+tab and ctrl+alt+del and terminate the process. Then restart the game. Four things can happen:
- first: the save game saved and you lost some time.
- Second: the savegame became corrupt and you will have to start all over again.
- Third: Hopefully the savegame was reverted to a previous state that the weapon was ok
- Fourth: some other thing taht you can share with us

 

what is with all these cartoony graphic looking games?

 

Thats because you didn't played borderlands. Even the scenario is cartoony!

 

rofl.. I'll try it out been farming in guildwars- made over 800k today on the holloween quests XD

 

i quite enjoyed the demo....

so much so that i reinstalled diablo 1.... gaming at 640x480 looks a bit odd on a 28" screen but it is suprisingly playable

 

Agreeing with many here. No online no buy. I spent a week on D2 offline and then about the rest of my life playing it online. It was a totally different experience and the ease at which I could drop in and play and find people of a similar level/quest was a joy, far easier than any of the MMORPGs I've experienced. It was also a heck of a lot more hardcore too. For a start it has a hardcore mode, but also the depth of the discussions of character builds, items, skills, damage, mana leech, life leech etc...it was a ****ign complex science and you coulda written a degree on it!

HOWEVER, D2 is also my favorite game (alongside Battlefield 2 and Doom) and the sheer crackwhore craving in me will buy anything that might sedate that craving i have for a D2 style hack and slasher. Hell, I even bought Dungeon Hunter for the iPhone to satisy that craving a little! That and a 9, NINE, from bit-tech for an indie game means I'm gonna buy it just to support indie developers who have real talent.

@CardJoe, I appreciate that multiplayer is often just a feature on the back of the box to satisfy marketers and increase sales a few hundred more, but D2 was all about battlenet and the online experience. It didn't break sales records for an offline experience (http://tinyurl.com/y8qqdqx) and it sure as hell isn't because a single player experience that we're still playing that damned game. It was the online that made it a real gem and it really means a lot that this game doesn't have an online feature. Having said that, I've not played the game yet and I will give it a go. If i'm wrong and this game stands up on it's own 2 feet in offline only then I'll swallow my words and maybe my mouse. But I don't think I will ;D

 

I've done that a lot ^_^ the old Diablo is still an absolute classic!

 

Torchlight rocks. I don't care who made it or what it looks like. The game play is straight up fun. Graphics are excellent and the weapon effects are cool. I've got some kind of lightning wand now that you can bounce off walls around corners to hit targets. Yar! I hope the guys who made this make a small fortune and come out with another game. I have to admit, it would be nice to do co-op with a friend, but while I'm tired of WoW and Aion, Torchlight really makes my day.

 

It's surprising me as to how many of you don't know the reason as to why Torchlight is a single player only experience.