Author Topic: Torchlight (Read 15941 times)

Seacor · « **on:** December 02, 2009, 01:08:13 AM »

Just downloaded the free demo of Torchlight (via Steam) after hearing Jonathan mention it on podcast episode 172 (thanks Jon!). Totally awesome game!!

If you have played Diablo or Diablo II, you will feel right at home with Torchlight (It also has a World of Warcraft vibe to it). The music is also reminiscent of the Diablo series (pretty sure it's the same composer). It's single player only, but apparently they are working on an online component for a future update or release. If you are in the mood for an overhead perspective action RPG, check this one out.

Stratos · « **Reply #1 on:** December 02, 2009, 03:06:01 AM »

Thanks for the heads up, I'll be sure to check it out.

Morari · « **Reply #2 on:** December 02, 2009, 08:42:07 PM »

I haven't been able to try the demo yet. The game was developed by several of the designers from the (real) Diablo series however, so the resemblance is understandable. The last great action RPG that I played was probably Titan Quest, so I might just give this a go.

Maverick · « **Reply #3 on:** December 03, 2009, 04:33:36 PM »

I saw my friend playing this at his house the other day. I had a sneaking suspicion it was developed in secret by Blizzard until I read Morari's post.

Rize · « **Reply #4 on:** December 15, 2009, 04:40:52 PM »

I've had troubling staying interested in this. With no online mode and with the game initially having difficulty settings available (so no nightmare or hell mode I guess?) it's just missing the core things that kept Diablo 2 ticking for me. I also find that the interface is poorly designed. It's not terrible, but I sure hope they get it much better in Diablo 3.

NinGurl69 *huggles · « **Reply #5 on:** December 15, 2009, 04:43:06 PM »

Not enough achievements, huh.

Morari · « **Reply #6 on:** December 15, 2009, 04:52:19 PM »

Quote from: Rize on December 15, 2009, 04:40:52 PM

I also find that the interface is poorly designed.

Agreed. The interface felt too much like a cluttered, MMO to me.

KDR_11k · « **Reply #7 on:** December 19, 2009, 08:51:28 AM »

Torchlight is the Weekend Deal on Steam, it's down to 10$ for the weekend.

Quote from: NinGurl69 *huggles on December 15, 2009, 04:43:06 PM

Not enough achievements, huh.

They just patched some in.

noname2200 · « **Reply #8 on:** December 19, 2009, 01:21:18 PM »

I requested this game for Secret Santa. Fingers crossed that I get it!

oohhboy · « **Reply #9 on:** December 24, 2009, 12:54:23 AM »

There is a Christmas special running for half price till the 4th of Jan. Get it while it's hot.

kraken613 · « **Reply #10 on:** December 26, 2009, 01:41:59 PM »

It's $5 on Steam today only. Well until noon tomorrow.

NWR_Lindy · « **Reply #11 on:** December 26, 2009, 06:05:27 PM »

I picked this up for $10 the other day. Haven't touched it yet, but even for $10 I've heard too much good stuff to pass it by.

KnowsNothing · « **Reply #12 on:** December 26, 2009, 07:27:00 PM »

At $5 I couldn't pass it up even though I'm about 72% sure I won't like it. Steam is sucking me dry.

Morari · « **Reply #13 on:** December 27, 2009, 10:35:55 PM »

I also went ahead and got it at the $5 price on Steam yesterday. That's about the only time I'll tolerate Steam... really, really cheap games.

Dirk Temporo · « **Reply #14 on:** December 28, 2009, 03:17:57 PM »

I sure do hate convenient and easy-to-use digital distribution software with an excellent support staff.

Morari · « **Reply #15 on:** December 28, 2009, 05:24:40 PM »

I sure do hate waiting hours to download a game instead of taking five minutes to install it off of a disc. I sure do hate seeing that all-too-common "Steam is down for maintenance" message when all I want to do is singleplayer. I sure do hate DRM--any DRM--as that is what Steam is at heart. Steam is nice for having a unified friends list (and thus VoIP), as well a ridiculously cheap games on occasion. Everything else it does is an unnecessary annoyance. I don't mind paying $5 for a game off of Steam, simply because that $5 won't missed too much when the service disappears.

It's just too bad that Games for Windows Live is even worse, or else the PC might actually have a truly unified friends list for gaming.

Anyway... The game has definitely been worth $5 so far.

kraken613 · « **Reply #16 on:** December 28, 2009, 06:12:07 PM »

Steam is never going to dissapear. It is PC game digital distribution. When a service has about 2 million people logged in at most times I think it's doing pretty well for itself. http://store.steampowered.com/stats/

Steam is the best thing to happen to PC gaming in a long time.

And don't complain about download speeds because of your crappy connection. I downloaded L4D2 in 35 minutes and its over 7gb a few weeks ago. Right now the servers are a little slower than normal because the average amount people are downloading with this sale.

http://store.steampowered.com/stats/content/
Thats a lot of data being downloaded.

Morari · « **Reply #17 on:** December 28, 2009, 06:40:16 PM »

Quote from: kraken613 on December 28, 2009, 06:12:07 PM

Steam is the best thing to happen to PC gaming in a long time.

And way to go. You totally backed up that statement by listing all of the features and benefits I get with Steam. Again, outside of the friends list, Steam offers nothing of real value.

I wouldn't consider my connection crappy, it generally runs around the area of 7mbps down.

Steam will disappear sooner or later. It will be changed or "upgraded" to something not at all like it currently is. Valve could go out of business and someone else could buy the entire thing and start charging you per hour to play the games you've downloaded. There are thousands of possibilities. Will it happen any time soon? Probably not, but one day it will. That's the problem with not having control over what you've purchased, you're at the mercy of someone else.

If you want to license games with nothing to show for it other than a Steam user name, then go ahead. It doesn't bother me. I however will continue to accumulate discs, so that a decade from now, if I want to play a game, I can without worrying about what's happened to the authentication servers and why the underlying DRM won't install on my modern operating system. Putting faith in a company, any company, is a terrible mistake to make.

Now that we've established that (thanks for dragging it out, by the way), we can get back to the topic at hand: Torchlight. I really wish it had multiplayer. I'm not too thrilled about an upcoming MMO based on the property, but would be excited to play this over the LAN with a few other people. Sadly, I don't think anything will ever have the feel of Diablo... Hell, even Diablo 3 looks to be more akin to WarCraft than anything.

NWR_insanolord · « **Reply #18 on:** December 28, 2009, 11:56:39 PM »

I bought this for $5, but I'm thinking about going out and picking up the Diablo Battle Chest since I never played it and everyone seems to think it's better than this and I could play it without booting into Windows.

Morari · « **Reply #19 on:** December 29, 2009, 12:09:46 AM »

Diablo II with the Lord of Destruction expansion pack is, without a doubt, the best hack-n-slash game there is.

KDR_11k · « **Reply #20 on:** December 30, 2009, 11:59:44 AM »

Will you stop whining about Steam? You can make a separate thread for that, this one should be about Torchlight.

noname2200 · « **Reply #21 on:** December 30, 2009, 10:25:36 PM »

Quote from: insanolord on December 28, 2009, 11:56:39 PM

I bought this for $5, but I'm thinking about going out and picking up the Diablo Battle Chest since I never played it and everyone seems to think it's better than this and I could play it without booting into Windows.

Diablo II is better than this game, but if Torchlight doesn't interest you in the least, neither will Diablo. So think of this as a trial run for the Diablo series.

Morari · « **Reply #22 on:** December 30, 2009, 11:06:48 PM »

After playing for a few more hours, Torchlight is definitely a charming game. It's art style hurts it though. I don't mind the cartoony, Warcraft-esque visuals, but the broad, ridiculously bright color pallet makes it difficult to distinguish enemies and effects from one another and the environment. The lack of multilayer definitely keeps this from being worth much more than $5.

Rize · « **Reply #23 on:** February 03, 2010, 01:06:09 PM »

Quote from: Morari on December 29, 2009, 12:09:46 AM

Diablo II with the Lord of Destruction expansion pack is, without a doubt, the best hack-n-slash game there is.

Truly, the more I think about it the more I loathe Torchlight and wish I had encountered an honest review before spending money on it. It copies Diablo II on a superficial level, but the end result is junk. Diablo's story may not be the greatest, but it's so ridiculously deep that I can't even come close to absorbing it all. When I run into a character, I just known that somewhere there is a 10 page backstory. The world just seems so much more alive. Then there is the music. Diablo 2's music was just incredible and it went a long way toward defining the world and atmosphere. Torchlight's music sounds like a Diablo 2 remix which is just wrong on so many levels. It doesn't fit the art style at all and it sounds essentially like D2's music was ripped out and stuffed in Torchlight (I understand it's the same composer, but you think they could have had him do original work for the game).

Then there is the interface. It's hard to see things, the mouse doesn't cover the screen well or with good accuracy due to higher resolutions and the size of the mouse pointer and the combat just isn't satisfying. The new inventory where everything takes up the same amount of space just encourages hoarding giant piles of useless junk for selling to the shops. In Diablo 2 it was always a good thing to get past the first part of the game where you had to pick up every piece of junk to sell it for cash.

Finally, the sound effects just aren't there. Diablo 2 had very satisfying effects for killing monsters and all the rest. It helped give a visceral action-like feel to a game that is ultimately point and click.

The one good thing I can say about Torchlight is that I like the gem system where you can retrieve either the gem or the item by destroying one or the other. That has potential.

Again, I hope they're smart enough (or relentless enough) to get Diablo 3 right.

noname2200 · « **Reply #24 on:** February 03, 2010, 07:06:51 PM »

The problem you have is that you're comparing it to Diablo II. The original is a much more apt comparison.

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Author Topic: Torchlight (Read 15941 times)