Torchlight Review

The fact that Torchlight plays a lot like the Diablo games is no coincidence;
the designers behind Torchlight were also the creative minds behind Diablo and
Diablo II. The Diablo games certainly inspired a lot of clones that paled in
comparison to the originals, but Torchlight comes from the people that
practically invented the action-RPG genre and it shows. Torchlight not only
encompasses everything that makes action-RPGs fun, it streamlines the whole
package so that you can spend most of your time doing what you love to do best:
killing monsters and collecting loot. And to top it all off, the game is only
$20, can run on a system that's several years old, and comes with a free level
editing tool. I could just end the review at this point, letting you know that
if there is any inkling of fondness for action-RPGs in your heart then you
should just buy this game and spend tonight in Torchlight's dungeons staying up
way past your bedtime. However, I know that gamers tend to be the curious sort
when it comes to knowing what they're getting themselves into and that
developers love to read about what people liked about their games, so let's dig
into it a little deeper...
Torchlight takes place in the town of the same name - a mining boom town sitting on a rich reserve of Ember. Ember is an element that can power magic and is thus highly sought after, but it's quickly becoming apparent to the citizens of Torchlight that it has a mysterious corrupting influence on those who come near it. Adding to Torchlight's woes is the fact that their mine has broken through to a large series of mines that go deep within the ground, and are teeming with all manner of monsters and evil creatures. The people of the town are now forced to stay out of the mines, and are in desperate need of adventurers to clear out the mines, investigate what is going on down there, and to take on the tasks they need to accomplish down below but can't do so because of the monsters. Not too surprisingly you're an adventure who has just made his/her way to Torchlight, and motivated by a mix of altruism and greed you begin to help the townspeople with their problems...
As for the type of adventurer you are, you have three choices at the start of the game: Destroyer (melee warrior), Vanquisher (ranged thief), and Alchemist (petmaster battle mage). You may be a bit disappointed that you can't select the sex of your character (the Vanquisher is female, the other classes male) or do anything about their looks, but the look of your character changes to reflect the gear currently equipped and so it will be changing often enough throughout the course of the game. When creating your character you'll be able to choose his/her name and whether his/her companion pet is a cat or a dog. Once that's all done you're off to the town of Torchlight...
The game eschews Diablo's dark gothic look for one that's closer to that of World of Warcraft, with cartoon-like graphics with vivid colors. Monsters have a cartoon monster look to them as well, and many are intentionally more humorous than they are scary. The world of Torchlight has an almost Steampunk meets medieval fantasy quality to it, with guns and robots occupying the world alongside broadswords and orcs. It all gives the game a great look and atmosphere, and certainly gives the game a lot of character.
The mechanics of the game will be familiar to anyone who's played an action-RPG before with its mouse-driven, click-to-kill style gameplay. The interface is laid out well and it's easy to map actions to the mouse buttons and hotkeys and to shuffle those actions around. Inventory is easy to manage as all items take up the same amount of space in your pack, and you can transfer items to your pet's inventory to store more loot. If things are becoming too tight, you can send your pet back to town with the click of a button and it will return a short time later with an empty inventory and gold for your purse.
Your pet is more than just an inventory bag with legs, though; it will fight by your side when you're facing monsters. You can also equip rings and a necklace on your pet to give it stat boosts, and even teach it a spell that it will automatically cast in battle. You can also transform it into other animals and magical beasts by feeding it certain types of fish which you can obtain by dropping a line into fishing holes at the town or down below.
In addition to the main story line the game provides a number of side quests as well as what amount to loot runs that are initiated by buying a treasure map and using it to open a portal to a self-contained, randomly generated dungeon. Completing quests and slaying monsters rewards you with experience, and as with any RPG when you level up you get points to boost your stats as you see fit. The game also has three skill trees per class, and you can specialize in one spec to get to some really good high level skills or pick your favorites from between the three. Again, nothing really new here, but it's all really easy to work with and works well.
This philosophy pervades the game: there's a chest in town to store your loot until you're ready to use it, but there's also a shared chest that you can use to transfer items between characters. Weapons and armor have sockets for stat-boosting gems, but there are also vendors in town who can remove gems from sockets. In all the time I spent with the game, I didn't find anything that was frustrating, annoying, or problematic with the game. I was free to enjoy slaying monsters and finding loot, and, as the game's stat screen was kind enough to point out, I slayed legions of them. Some gamers may be disappointed to hear that there's no multiplayer option in the game, but there's so much fun to be had in the dark reaches under Torchlight that you won't really mind.
In The End, This Game Hath Been Rated:
90%. If you like action-RPGs, you'll love
Torchlight.
Final Rating: 90% - If you like action-RPGs, you'll love Torchlight.
Note: A review code for this game was provided by the publisher.