Good lord, I don’t even know where to begin.

Imagine if the makers of Diablo 1 and 2, Mythos, and Fate all got together and created a game that took Diablo 2…and improved on it’s gameplay?  And then gave you a construction kit that allows you to go in and create your own maps and classes and other content?  And then only charged $20?

Intrigued? If you have a PC and a pulse, you freakin’ should be.  Hit me after the jump for more juicy details!

First, a caveat.  If you’re familiar with my work, I’m generally sparing on my praise, and am able to find things wrong with everything.  A perfect example: I reviewed Darkest of Days, who I also met at PAX and had a booth right next to the folks who made Torchlight.  I felt bad trashing their game, but dammit, it’s the right thing to do, free copy of the game or not.

So, let me get started with the liberal ball washing that I feel this game deserves.

The small, ragtag group of freedom fighters known as Runic Games put this game together on a shoestring budget and have delivered on all fronts.  I don’t even know where to begin lavishing praise on it.

System requirements: I played it on a three year old Dell XP 1710 laptop, sporting 2 GB of RAM and a 512 MB mobile graphics card.  It would hitch every now and again during big fights, but it ran surprisingly well in 1600×1200 with all the bells and whistles turned up.  So, big points there.

Storyline: you are a wandering adventurer who has come to the town of Torchlight to seek your fortune.  Torchlight is the home to a sizable vein of “ember”, a precious magical element, so treasure hunters and scholars from around the world come to test their luck in the mines to get their hands on the precious ore.  The problem is that the ore has become corrupted as you descend into the mine, and it becomes obvious that a great evil sits at the very bottom that needs destroying.  Storyline is very Diablo-esque, but without the major cinematic cut scenes.

Graphics: What they skimped on storyline, they made up with quirky graphical concept.  Instead of the realistic, gritty dungeon crawler, it looks very similar to a more cartoony version of World of Warcraft…if that’s possible.  While there are still rooms upon rooms of monsters to defeat, they are done in a more graphically dynamic way this time.  Creatures will jump at you from sewer grates and ambush you from hut openings; when you send them to their doom, you’ll blast them off the sides of bridges or blow them into animated puddles of goo.

Gameplay: Well, it’s everything you know about Diablo 2, but improved upon.  You’ve got a hub world where all your vendors are at, including the guy selling random items that you don’t know the stats to until you buy it, etc.

The nice thing I noticed about this game that I didn’t feel about Borderlands was that it flows nicely.  The next level is right around the corner, the floor maps and environments are constantly changing, and while you’re looking for a good  necklace or shield, next thing you know, three hours have gone by.

There are three fixed classes: alchemist (mage),  vanquisher (bowman), and destroyer (warrior), but they can be leveled to any hybrid you want.  My alchemist was a ranged attacker, but I put enough talent points into strength and defense so I could wear heavier armor and wield a shield with my wand.

The big focus of the game is that they borrow heavily when it comes to gameplay ideas, even down to the sounds of potions and items being pulled out of chests and the hub world music, but everything is improved upon.

• Did you hate it when your bags would fill up with precious loot and you would have to portal back into the hub world to sell?  Have no fear, this time, you get a faithful companion dog/cat that can run a saddlebag full of gear back into town for you, leaving you to continue questing while it autosells all your vendor trash!  It’s not just a pack animal, mind you.  I had mine equipped with a healing and fireball spell combo for a mobile support turret.
• Uh, oh!  You just took a rare gemstone and slotted it into a piece of vendor trash! No problem!  There are a pair of dwarves in the main town that will get you your item/gem back after you socket it if you make a mistake!
• Hate having to identify loot using stacks of those damnable identify scrolls? No problem!  Any adventurer can now learn up to 4 support spells, one of which is an identify spell!  Your vanquisher can have an ice bolt spell, while your archer can cast a heal spell! Problem fixed!
• Beat the game and get tired of doing Ba’al runs for exotic and rare items?  No problem!  Instead of having to run the same areas and boss fights over and over again, town vendors sell map fragments that can open portals to level-specific, randomly generated dungeons instantly!
• Well, now what?  I’ve ground my character all the way to the level cap and don’t have anything to do!  Wrong-o!  Your hero can retire to hit summer home, which will in turn bestow special starting abilities/stats to a brand new character!  And, of course, there’s the legendary “hardcore” mode to really challenge the most sadistic of gamer out there; death is with a capital D, and there’s no coming back!
• I just can’t stop using exclamation points here!

Bottom line here: it’s as if the developers went out of their way to listen to people’s complaints about dungeon-crawler style games, and specifically address each and every complaint.  You know, like video game designers should do.

The only complaint that will get a lot of people grumpy early is that there is no mutliplayer element to the game.  So how do the folks at Runic fix that problem?

1) They announce the immediate work on an MMO portion to the game, planning on releasing it 12-18 months from release date of Torchlight.
2) They include an entire construction set/editor which allows people to go in and create their own classes, characters, maps, etc.  Modding community, rejoice!
3) They charge $20 for the damn thing.

There’s much much more I want to talk about the game, but I’m going to have to wrap this up.  If you’re waiting to get your inner loot whore on and don’t feel like waiting until 2015 when Blizzard finally drops Diablo 3, this is a hellaciously inexpensive way to fill that void.

If you haven’t figured it out, I highly recommend anyone with a computer run out and get a copy of this.  Period.

http://www.torchlightgame.com/

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