Currently Playing

Torchlight
PC/Mac
View My Steam Achievements



Ah, Torchlight.  This game has been generating quite a buzz in the gaming community recently, or at least I feel I have been hearing a lot about it.  I picked it up on sale recently, as I do most of my Steam purchases.

First of all, a confession:  I never played, even once, Diablo or Diablo II. So I have little nostalgia for either game, or even really this genre.  The closest I have come to a real dungeon crawler loot fest is Dark Cloud for the PS2.  I enjoyed that game, but never really got into the deep grinding that was required just to clear the game, let along max characters and weapons.

But Torchlight was highly recommended, and it advertised a netbook mode settings, so I knew my computer would run it.  Needless to say, I have been devoting some serious time to this game as of late.

I have started off playing as a Vanquisher, which is basically a ranger.  There are only three classes, Melee, Caster, and Ranger, as it is.  There is some paper-thin story, that somehow I believe is unique to each class, but it really is no matter.  Fortunately, while the story is thin, it isn't annoying, awkward or childish.  It is just simple.  Personally, I think that is fine, the story is there but it never bothers you.

The gameplay is very similar to Diablo, you click enemies to attack them, but Torchlight allows for the holding down of the attack button to spare mice.  So far the gameplay is pretty good, I find the killing satisfying, the character movement fluid, and the spells and special abilities easy enough to access.  My only gripes here would be minor difficulties getting the running correct over elevation changes, and the way nothing is explained to you.  These game has almost no tutorial, which is fine, but is also lacking in in-game manuals.  To review the manual, you must exit out of the game, and then open the pdf file.

So far the loot gathering is fun as well, but again I don't always understand what I am looking for in the items.  They may be standard, have magical enchantments (like crit rate +2%), have slots for ember (which in turn gives stat boosts or added effects, like life drain), or they may be part of a set, (the more matching pieces, the bigger the bonuses) or they may be unique (haven't grabbed any yet).  My problem is that I do not yet fully understand the ember crafting system, whereby attaching gems is permanent, but later you can either destroy the item and get the gem, or destroy the gem and get the item.  So I am unsure if I should attach gems, and when I find a better item just destroy my current one to retain the rare ember, or if I should only use the lowest level gems, so that I could hopefully save better gems for end game items.

Anyone else playing this?  Let me know if you have any thoughts.