'Torchlight' surpasses 'Diablo' series as action-RPG
Bartholomew Klick
Issue date: 11/19/09 Section: After Hours
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Torchlight's flaws are mostly aesthetic. For the most part, Runic Games gets it right. Every musical score in the game is memorable and mood evoking and the dungeons are colorful and gorgeous, but the storyline feels well trodden, and the voice acting tends to be stilted and unprofessional. The developers avoided the modern trend of having all the dialogue be spoken, like in "Oblivion" or "Mass Effect," which was a sound financial decision, since many players skip that sort of content. The result, however, is that players looking for a well-presented story are left out, and that psychographic is more prevalent in the single-player market.
Yes, "Torchlight" has no multiplayer mode, and frankly, I laud Runic Game's decision. Outside of player vs. player, action-RPG (role-playing) games tend to have weak multiplayer modes. Developers tend to rely on online-only content to make their multiplayer modes interesting, and this cheapens the experience, and leaves solo players out.
"Torchlight" has only three character classes, all of which fit neatly into the warrior, rogue and mage archetypes. The low cost and the vast degree of customization available for each class, however, more than make up for this. Not being able to pick the character's gender was irksome, and making the warrior class (destroyer) and mage class (alchemist) male, while leaving the archer class (vanquisher) female reeks of sexism.
If this stops anyone from experiencing "Torchlight," it would be a cultural tragedy. At its heart, "Torchlight" is "Diablo," perfected. It addresses every issue that fans of the genre have been craving; there's a shared stash between all of the player's characters, an endless dungeon, an easy to understand character sheet and an intuitive interface. Players get a pet that follows them around, holding additional items, casting a customizable selection of spells at enemies and even running back to town to sell loot, which began to feel like a chore in similar games.
Players can choose their difficulty setting straight from the beginning, a stark improvement over the "Diablo" series, which forced players to complete the game before moving into medium and hard difficulty modes. Easy mode produces weaker monsters with stronger loot, while higher difficulties generate stronger monsters and valuable items become more rare.
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