Play: Torchlight (Steam)
Originally published at I Am Teh Bagder. Please leave any comments there.
Last week, during the Holiday Sale, Steam had a deal on Torchlight, offering it for $4.99, which was an absolute steal. I purchased it a few weeks ago when it dropped to $9.99 on special, but I’m not bitter. Not me, no. So, what is Torchlight? Think of it as the meshing of single-player Diablo, Fate and Mythos, which is pretty much what it is because the development team for Torchlight were all involved in these games.
How’s the gameplay, you ask? I’ll tell you…
…in one word: Fantastic!
The game takes a lot of things we’re used to in RPGs and enhances it. One of the best features is that it automatically saves as you play, so that you don’t have open up a menu and save the game manually. This has always been one of my pet peeves in RPGs, but it does have the drawback of not allowing you to go back to an earlier save point and starting over. That’s okay though, because this game is all about taking on quests, kicking donkey, and snagging loot.
You get to choose one of three character classes to begin with: the Destroyer (warrior), the Vanquisher (ranger), and the Alchemist (magic user). Of course, like most games, you can load up on powers/spells and magic items, but each class has their own unique spin. I liked the look of the Alchemist class, so that’s what I started playing.
Another great feature is the addition of pets. Not only does your pet fight along side you, and you can upgrade it with spells, rings and necklaces (my cat currently has been loaded with the Fireball spell), but it serves one major essential purpose: removing the need for you to return to town to offload all the swag you’ve picked up and want to sell. Simply load up your pet’s inventory with what you don’t want, and click the icon to send it back to town to sell stuff for you. Depending upon how far into a dungeon you are, it might take some time for your pet to return back from town. You can also use the Fish system (transplanted from Fate) to transmogrify your pet at any point into another creature. This essentially has you fishing at fishing holes throughout the game, then feeding captured fish to your pet and magically transforming them, either temporarily or permanently.
There are four main stats: Strength, Dexterity, Magic and Defense, with a bunch of secondary stats and resistances, all of which can be modified by items and powers in-game. If you’re at all familiar with RPGs in general, these stats will make instant sense to you. Like Diablo and other games, there’s a Skill Tree available that allows you to unlock powers. Some of these powers are automatic and always on, while others operate when required. You can link these powers, and any spells you learn, to function keys or numbers so that you can cast them quickly as needed. You only get four spell slots, meaning that you can only have four spells learned at any one time, and replacing a spell destroys the original spell meaning you need to repurchase it if you want to use it again. Luckily, spells drop as loot, and they’re reasonably cheap to pick up. Some spells require you to have certain attributes at certain levels, particularly the more powerful versions. What’s neat is that you can also equip your pets with spells. Nothing like having the big giant cat that wanders around with you blasting your enemies with it’s own arsenal of spells. Talk about fire support!
You’ll want to return to town to buy, sell and modify equipment. Some equipment come with sockets that allow you to put in any number of special gems or items, thereby enhancing the original item. Some items you get, particularly from quests, permanently upgrade your character, giving you a nice boost without having to get XP points and better abilities through sheer combat turnover.
Using a merchant is pretty simple to do. When you select them, your inventory opens up on the right hand side of the screen, showing what you currently wear and carry. Your pet’s inventory shows below the merchant’s inventory, and you can drag and drop items until you’re happy with the trades and sales. Sales don’t occur until you leave the merchant, so you’ve got no fear of losing items you want at this point. You can also see the spells you have learned, as well as all other spells held in your inventory for later use. This interface is pretty much the same for all merchants. There are a number of special merchants available, including two brothers: one will salvage gems from items, and the other will salvage items from gems.
Once you’ve finished all of your buying, selling and salvaging, you can head back out of town using a Town Portal - available via a scroll or the Town Portal spell. Often, there’s little need to return to town except to buy some Identify scrolls if you’re out, or you want to store stuff in your personal vault, because you can load up your pet and send them back to town to sell off the loot you’ve found in the dungeons. Opening a Town Portal creates a two-way portal that will take you back to the dungeon you opened it in. Sound familiar?
Step back through the portal, and you’re back into the thick of the action. chewing bubble gum and taking names, just as if you had never left the dungeon. Hey, there’s nothing wrong with looting if the people you loot it from are dead monsters, right?
Because I purchased the Steam version of the game, I get the Steam Achievements to unlock. Now, I’m not really an Achievement gamer. I don’t have a 360, and the idea of collecting Achievements, especially playing games to completion just to get those Achievements, has been anathema to me. I’m more interested in just playing the game. However, I have to admit that it is kinda cool to see you progress in the game and unlock these as you play. There are 67 Achievements to unlock in the game, and I’ve unlocked a whopping 6 in the 2.8 hours I’ve been playing the game. Most of these are going to be unlocked throughout normal game play, but a large number of them require a lot of extreme steps, such as permanently changing your pet, dying 500 times (I’ve yet to die once so far), and retiring after 300 levels worth of characters. For Achievement junkies, there’s a ton of gameplay and challenge in this game to keep them going for quite some time.
So, why are you still here when you could be playing the game? Sheesh! GO BUY IT!
Tags: torchlight, diablo, fate, mythos, rpg, dungeon crawl, steam, pc, windows