I've got one huge complaint with Torchlight II, and lately with the genre in general, and that is the fact that they made Act II take place in a mother fucking desert. I think we can all agree that Diablo II was one of, if not *the* best mouse destroying action-rpg of all time, but do we seriously need to keep setting our second act in a fucking sand castle? I laughed when Diablo III put it's second act in the dunes like its predecessor did, but now I just have to call bullshit. If Act III is in a swamp, I am going to shit myself in anger. That's what angry people do, right? Shit themselves?
Now that the hard part is out of the way, I fucking love this game. I've put more time into it nonstop since its launch than I did into Diablo III's, and that doesn't even consider the fact that I can actually PLAY this game at launch by myself. Offline. What a fucking breakthrough. Granted, the multiplayer is broken as I write this, but that's almost expected at this point with a PC launch. As long as they get that fixed in a timely manner, I won't really let it bother me because I CAN PLAY THIS GAME OFFLINE.
I also actually feel like a bad-ass, sometimes dropping up to five or six monsters with one attack. Normal difficulty is a bit easy if you have even heard of this style of game, and there is even a Casual selection. Who is that for? My fucking cat? Veteran seems to offer a nice sweet spot for anyone who understands how they should be spending their stat points each level.
The game is colorful and pretty to look at. It might not have the detail of Diablo III, but it is easier on the eyes, and seems to have more character in its artwork. Color is used nicely, without being all up in my shit, and gives the environment life. Blood and gibs shower down around me nicely, without getting in the way of what I'm trying to see.
The world is also much more open and alive than in the previous game. I'm not stuck in one town, and I'm not always in a cave. I'm half way through Act II and the game already feels much larger than the original by far. The quests aren't as bland as they were the first time around, and there are even little monsters that spawn portals to challenge areas when you kill them. One of these had me raising various totems while fighting some skeletons with shitty wooden shields that broke once I smacked the damn thing once with my massive axe.
I'm fucking this shit up as an Engineer, which is kind of like if Diablo II's Barbarian and Necromancer got it on under the Armor cart on a cold night, and shat out a steampunk baby. Healing bots and machinegun turrets can help out in a pinch, and I can summon up some spider mines like I am Jim-Fucking-Raynor. I've got a nice spread of passive skills to improve survivability, and I have my main attacks figured out. The skill trees are not as restrictive as we have seen in the past. They aren't really trees at all, really. You don't have to know a prerequisite ability to learn the one you are after, and if you plan ahead, you shouldn't have any points that feel wasted.
The sound department is the one area I think they could have spent a little more time on. The music is just kind of there, and at this point I'm not sure I could even distinguish it from Diablo II's soundtrack. It also seems to repeat a little too much, and I find myself wishing it just wasn't there at all and I had some better ambience to set the mood. I can of course turn it off, but I can't magically summon up some background noises. Yet.
The TorchED Mod tools that they are promising us sound amazing, and I am really interested to see what the community does with them. Depending on how much they let us play with, we could end up with some amazing mods. And no, I'm not talking about that fucking mod that makes everyone?s clothes fall off and gives them huge anime eyes that will hit the servers in literally five seconds after the editor is released. Will they give us tools powerful enough to completely change the gameplay? Some fucker turned Quake into a racing game, so can I turn Torchlight II into god damned Mario Brothers? I'm very curious.
Overall, the changes from Torchlight to Torchlight II are about what we had when we went from Diablo to Diablo II. This game really kind of feels like Diablo II II, if that makes sense. We get outside areas, new towns, new class/skill trees, and it refines the same gameplay we have come to expect from these clickfests. Torchlight II sports an easy 20 dollar price tag. Much cheaper than Diablo III, and in my opinion, a much better game as well.
Now that the hard part is out of the way, I fucking love this game. I've put more time into it nonstop since its launch than I did into Diablo III's, and that doesn't even consider the fact that I can actually PLAY this game at launch by myself. Offline. What a fucking breakthrough. Granted, the multiplayer is broken as I write this, but that's almost expected at this point with a PC launch. As long as they get that fixed in a timely manner, I won't really let it bother me because I CAN PLAY THIS GAME OFFLINE.
I also actually feel like a bad-ass, sometimes dropping up to five or six monsters with one attack. Normal difficulty is a bit easy if you have even heard of this style of game, and there is even a Casual selection. Who is that for? My fucking cat? Veteran seems to offer a nice sweet spot for anyone who understands how they should be spending their stat points each level.
The game is colorful and pretty to look at. It might not have the detail of Diablo III, but it is easier on the eyes, and seems to have more character in its artwork. Color is used nicely, without being all up in my shit, and gives the environment life. Blood and gibs shower down around me nicely, without getting in the way of what I'm trying to see.
The world is also much more open and alive than in the previous game. I'm not stuck in one town, and I'm not always in a cave. I'm half way through Act II and the game already feels much larger than the original by far. The quests aren't as bland as they were the first time around, and there are even little monsters that spawn portals to challenge areas when you kill them. One of these had me raising various totems while fighting some skeletons with shitty wooden shields that broke once I smacked the damn thing once with my massive axe.
I'm fucking this shit up as an Engineer, which is kind of like if Diablo II's Barbarian and Necromancer got it on under the Armor cart on a cold night, and shat out a steampunk baby. Healing bots and machinegun turrets can help out in a pinch, and I can summon up some spider mines like I am Jim-Fucking-Raynor. I've got a nice spread of passive skills to improve survivability, and I have my main attacks figured out. The skill trees are not as restrictive as we have seen in the past. They aren't really trees at all, really. You don't have to know a prerequisite ability to learn the one you are after, and if you plan ahead, you shouldn't have any points that feel wasted.
The sound department is the one area I think they could have spent a little more time on. The music is just kind of there, and at this point I'm not sure I could even distinguish it from Diablo II's soundtrack. It also seems to repeat a little too much, and I find myself wishing it just wasn't there at all and I had some better ambience to set the mood. I can of course turn it off, but I can't magically summon up some background noises. Yet.
The TorchED Mod tools that they are promising us sound amazing, and I am really interested to see what the community does with them. Depending on how much they let us play with, we could end up with some amazing mods. And no, I'm not talking about that fucking mod that makes everyone?s clothes fall off and gives them huge anime eyes that will hit the servers in literally five seconds after the editor is released. Will they give us tools powerful enough to completely change the gameplay? Some fucker turned Quake into a racing game, so can I turn Torchlight II into god damned Mario Brothers? I'm very curious.
Overall, the changes from Torchlight to Torchlight II are about what we had when we went from Diablo to Diablo II. This game really kind of feels like Diablo II II, if that makes sense. We get outside areas, new towns, new class/skill trees, and it refines the same gameplay we have come to expect from these clickfests. Torchlight II sports an easy 20 dollar price tag. Much cheaper than Diablo III, and in my opinion, a much better game as well.
