Review: Torchlight - Page 2 of 2 - IndianVideoGamer.com

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The game also features an enchantment system, socketed items and a transmutation system – all lifted straight from Diablo II. It’s worth noting that the enchantment system feels a little unbalanced at times as it allows you to enchant a single item over and over again at a relatively small cost. There is no weapon degradation and hence no regular visits to the blacksmith for repairs.

Although you’ll be following the main storyline quest for the most part, you can also take up additional side quests and explore optional dungeons by buying map portals at vendors. The quests are generally involve nothing more than exploring a dungeon to find an item or kill a boss. There’s nothing new or innovative here. Still, the dungeon crawling is as fun as you’d expect and the levels themselves (despite being randomly generated) are actually a lot of fun to explore. With varying architecture and loads of nicely rendered enemies both large and small, not a single dungeon ever gets boring. The combat itself is fast paced and works exactly like Diablo, only a lot smoother. Your primary and secondary attacks are mapped to the two mouse buttons while other items and skills can be accessed from the hotkey bar which is mapped to the numeric keys. If you’re familiar with action RPGs, you’ll feel right at home with it.

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The main storyline should take you around 10 hours to finish but there’s always the side quests and optional dungeons to play through. Also once you finish the game, a ‘never-ending’ dungeon gets unlocked. The level cap is 100 and there is also an option to ‘retire’ your hero in order to pass on their valuable experience to your newer characters. The character classes are varied enough to make each playthrough feel different and there are also multiple difficulties to try out, including a Hardcore mode, where your character dies permanently if he or she falls in battle. I must also point out that the game is quite easy on the Normal difficulty setting, and if you’ve played similar games before, I’d suggest starting on harder difficulties if you’re looking for a decent challenge.

Despite its extremely low system requirements, Torchlight is a gorgeous looking game. The stylised, exaggerated art style is a treat to look at and the game looks amazing in motion, especially since framerates typically go up to 60+ on a well-equipped PC. The environments are full of color and detail and the dungeons themselves are quite varied. From underground mines to moss-covered jungle temples to volcanic prisons, there’s a nice variety in the locations. Little details such as harmless critters scampering about give a nice touch to the already pretty looking environments. All armour and weapons are rendered in full detail and look very cool once equipped. The font selection could have been better though as the default font is quite large and at times feels a bit obtrusive.

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The music is composed by the same folks who worked on the first two Diablo games and is another standout element of the game. It sounds very much like the music from Diablo but also different at the same time. It’s easily one of the better soundtracks you’ll hear in a game this year. The voice acting although quite limited is fairly decent.

There are a few things that keep Torchlight from becoming an instant classic though. For starters, it’s all too similar to Diablo – which is subjective. You can either look at it as a good thing or a bad thing considering there is very little that the game does to set itself apart. The story is nothing to write home about and the quests are all of the fetch/kill variety. And then there is the whole ‘no multiplayer’ issue. A large part of Diablo II’s success is a result of its addictive and time-tested co-operative multiplayer component. However at the moment there isn’t any sort of multiplayer in Torchlight, which is a real shame since there was clearly a huge potential here. Runic Games apparently has no plans of adding a multiplayer feature at the moment, but we can hope for it to get added sometime in the future along with downloadable content, especially since the fan feedback on this game has been extremely positive.

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At $20, Torchlight’s price point may hit a sweet spot for overseas gamers, but it’s still higher than a regular retail copy of a new PC game in India. Despite that, if you’re a fan of action RPGs and want a similar game to keep you busy until Diablo III, you really can’t do much better than this. This is as close a game can get to the perfecting the Diablo formula. In fact, it does some things better than Diablo. For example, the inventory and map system are actually better but some balance issues and the lack of multiplayer hold it back. But it still has the ‘one more level before I sleep’ quality which is more than enough to warrant a purchase.

Conclusion

Torchlight is a surprisingly lightweight and highly addictive action RPG that no fan of Diablo should miss. It looks fantastic, plays great and offers enough content to keep you busy for weeks. The low system requirements are a huge plus. As a single player experience, it does almost everything right. Be prepared to lose a significant amount of sleep though.

(+) Hands down the best Diablo-clone till date
(+) Gorgeous vibrant visuals with an endearing art-style
(+) Very low system requirements
(+) Highly addictive

(-) No multiplayer
(-) Some minor balance issues
(-) Highly addictive

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