Torchlight

Moby ID: 43225
Windows Specs
Buy on Windows
$2.99 new on Steam
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Description official descriptions

Thick veins of the magical ore Ember lie beneath the streets of Torchlight, and fortune seekers have been flocking to the small mining town since its discovery. To extract the valuable ore, a labyrinth of tunnels has been dug deep into the earth. What the miners don't know, but will soon discover, is that something much more deadly resides beneath. Ruined civilizations, now long forgotten, have hidden horrors no one can even imagine .. and now those horrors are about to surface. It is up to you and your trusty companions to stop the onslaught of monsters and save the town's citizens.

Torchlight is a single-player action role-playing game in which you play one of three character classes: The Destroyer (a warrior), The Alchemist (a spellcaster), or The Vanquisher (a rogue). Each character class has unique weapons and armor and three skill sets.

Although the majority of gameplay is handled in typical Diablo-like fashion (exploring, killing monsters, completing quests, buying and selling, levelling up, etc.), there are a few distinguishing features. For instance, your character has a private stash for storing excess items. All of your party members also share an additional pack which can be used to transfer items between them.

The animal companion you choose at the beginning of the game can be used for a variety of purposes. This pet can wear two rings and an amulet, can carry as many items as you can in its own pack, and levels up with experience. Its items can be sold to shopkeepers or shared between the party. You can teach your pet tricks, like fetching dropped items or to cast two spells of your choosing. To turn your pet into a vicious fighting monster, feed it fish before a battle. Different fishes found or caught by you in the game have varied effects on your pet.

Most levels in the game are randomly generated. Inside you'll find secret rooms, traps, swinging bridges, levers, shrines, non-monster encounters, and elevation changes. The game features an auto-map feature to help you find your way around, and tool tips for getting acquainted with the gameplay.

Spellings

  • 火炬之光 - Chinese spelling

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Credits (Windows version)

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  • Megalomaniac
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Reviews

Critics

Average score: 82% (based on 64 ratings)

Players

Average score: 3.6 out of 5 (based on 68 ratings with 4 reviews)

Fun hack and slash experience, but nothing more.

The Good
I liked a lot of things, really. The pet was awesomely implemented. Feeding it fish to transform it into some other creature, sending it to town in order to sell the random items that you previously found, enabling it to cast spells (mine became a summoner basically), everything works fine and is great fun. I think the pet system was the best thing in the game.

I also enjoyed the game as a whole. It was definitely fun. Maybe not as fun as Diablo (hell, Darkstone, another Diablo "clone" was a bit more fun as well), but great fun nonetheless. I'd always find myself going back to hack and slash some more monsters.

The combat felt really good when using the right weapons and skills. I personally enjoyed the Vanquisher; cannons were a blast, and the Vanquisher's offensive skills felt really nice. Especially when you'd throw a fire arrow/ball at a large group of enemies.

Items were varied enough. Out of curiosity, I always tried to get better items. Armors looked really great on the character, which was a plus: thus, I always wanted to get a more awesome armor to put on my vanquisher. Which resulted in me playing more and more, in order to get better drops.

The graphics were great. Amazing, really. I have nothing to complain about here.

The music was nice too, though a bit unnoticeable.

The story was never a strong point for hack and slash games, and Torchlight's story makes no exception. I liked it, but that's because I expected less. It's still just an average storyline though. After all, you're here to kill monsters, right?

The Bad
The targeting system was a bit... no, it was horrible. I made a lot of mistakes because targeting was just too inaccurate. E.g. I had to try very hard to keep on targeting a fast moving enemy. That's just not right in this kind of games.

The game was surprisingly easy on the hardest difficulty setting up until the last 3 or 4 levels. Then it became hard like hell. Thus, the difficulty is quite unbalanced, and hardcore characters will most likely have serious trouble near the end. Mainly because the players might feel like rushing head on thinking the game is still as easy as it was one level before.

Fishing takes a lot of time in this game, and in the end you're left wondering if it's really worth it. At a certain point I continued to fish just to get the achievements done. Fishing takes just too much time, while the pet in its normal form is sufficiently strong to just not feed it any fish at all.

The lack of co-op mode is a real bummer. I would've enjoyed some hacking and slashing with my friends.

The game feels just like a generic hack and slash. It has a story, it has characters, it has its own world, but it has no depth. Whenever I try to remember about Torchlight, the pet comes to mind. Then the items, then the combat, then the graphics. Never a certain quest, nor the characters. A pity, really. I still remember killing the butcher in Diablo 1, and the awesomeness of Harrogath in Diablo 2.

The Bottom Line
A great title to spend your time with if you like hack and slash games. It's definitely not a Diablo killer, it's definitely not an excellent game, but it's worth your time and money if you ask me. If however you're not looking for a recent and good looking game, you might want to try Darkstone. It's a lot more fun, with a slightly better average kind of story, and with more memorable quests. It's also cheaper.

Windows · by Hypercake (1310) · 2012

Cute and cuddly Diablo clone. More like Fate II.

The Good
What is presented here is presented well.

The Bad
I couldn't get into Fate or Torchlight due to their lack of plot and I prefer a more mature visual style. It is a very simple formula...go into the mines, kill all the enemies, gather all the loot, and return to the surface...rinse and repeat.

The Bottom Line
If you prefer a colorful, cute, cartoonish art style and just want to kill enemies and gather loot then you will probably like this game (and its twin, Fate).

The elements missing from Torchlight which made Diablo II one of the best games ever made, are:

  1. Cinematic cut-scenes: In Diablo II these were the best! They were artistic, meaningful introductions to the next section of the plot. There are none in Torchlight.

  2. Atmosphere: The atmosphere fit the genre. Sound effects, colors, musical score all combined to create a mood. These aspects are too cute in Torchlight. It is pretty and well made, I just do not like the artistic style..

  3. Plot: Torchlight's plot is barely there. It took two elements from Diablo, the endless fighting and the plethora of loot with special item upgrades. Diablo II actually had a plot with elements of horror, mystery, and even some humor. In Torchlight, it is just go, kill, gather, sell.

Windows · by Rod Mayton (13) · 2011

Diablight!

The Good
Very little thought is required to play this game, and there's not a thing wrong with that. Torchlight follows the conventions of the genre set forth by its illustrious predecessors with basically no deviation. Red and blue potions for health and mana, copious amounts of loot with an almost neverending variety of enchantment combinations, constant action and movement, and a completely irrelevant plot.

For some strange reason I enjoy tracking statistics. Torchlight is kind enough to include a journal that tracks a variety of things including number of steps taken, total quantity of gold collected, potions used, spells/skills used, monsters beaten, etc. etc. While this doesn't contribute in any meaningful way to the game, it is mildly interesting to see.

Upon completing the main quest a new area of exploration, The Shadow Vault, is opened. This is from all reports an infinitely deep dungeon. So if you are so inclined you can continue to play and explore this endless and completely randomized dungeon. (The main dungeon is randomized too.)

While I haven't actually done this, you can "gift" selected items to your characters' heirs (new characters). I think this does lend a little towards the replay value, though not much.

This game ran quite well on a two year old system (Core 2 Duo E6850 with a pair of 8800GTS cards). Sound quality was adequate as far as I could tell (I am unfortunately playing with a very substandard set of speakers at present).

The Bad
I did experience a couple of random crash to desktop events, but even these had no real impact as the game saves in realtime. Which ultimately was my only, albeit minor, complaint. There isn't a way to save the game manually. I've long been a firm believer in the theory of "save early, save often" and while I didn't have to worry about it here, I was unable to save, test equipment changes, and reload if I didn't like it. As I said though, that's a minor complaint as there's always better loot and lots of it.

The Bottom Line
Just like the other games I've played in this genre (Titan Quest, Sacred, Dungeon Siege) this game is both narrow and shallow. I played the demo a few weeks ago and it intrigued me enough to be worth dropping a 20$ on it. And I have no real complaints with it. The developers did a good job of creating something new enough to intrigue, but not so new as to require anything even resembling a learning curve to play. I played the heck out of it for about two weeks (as much heck as I can spare anyway, with real-life in the mix) but I don't see much longevity in it. There is an editor included with the game, and I've seen that there are already a few mods either released or in the works. But even still.... this is the gaming equivalent of a summer action flick; great fun while you're playing but who's going to remember it next year?

Windows · by agamer (24) · 2010

[ View all 4 player reviews ]

Discussion

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Free on GOG for 2 days Cavalary (11445) Jun 18, 2013

Trivia

1001 Video Games

Torchlight appears in the book 1001 Video Games You Must Play Before You Die by General Editor Tony Mott.

Awards

  • Game Developers Choice Awards
    • 2010 (10th Annual) - Best Debut Game
  • GameShark
    • 2009 - Best Indie Game
  • Gamespy
    • 2009 - Sleep When You're Dead Award

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Contributors to this Entry

Game added by phanboy_iv.

Linux added by Hamish Wilson. Macintosh added by Hammerlore. Xbox 360 added by WWWWolf.

Additional contributors: Indra was here, Jeanne, Zeppin, Big John WV, Cantillon, Rik Hideto, FatherJack.

Game added November 11, 2009. Last modified March 15, 2024.