Describe Torchlight II in one word:
Dull.
I know it's early; perhaps a little too early to form an opinion on a game like this. I'll be fair in that it took me a while to "get" Diablo after playing the demo a few times on my godmother's computer back in the day before I owned one myself (she enjoyed it too, just not enough to buy the game), but the thing about D2, TL, and even D3 is that they were good enough to grab me in the first ten minutes. D3, for all the faults that have arisen since release, was a tremendous "page-turner" of a game to me; I spent every moment that I wasn't playing D3 wishing that I was playing D3. The only thing TL2 has done is make me wish I'd bought Borderlands 2 instead.
When I picked up TL in a Steam sale years ago, the impression I got of the game was "Diablo 1.5": Diablo 1 structure, Diablo 2 mechanics. It held my attention because it had been a while since I had played either Diablo game at the time, but the repetition quickly set in and... I kinda quit at the point where I thought the game should have ended (And a guesstimate of the remaining storyline achievements suggested that there were a couple dozen more dlvls to go through before the end on top of the twenty or so that I had finished).
It was a good game, but extremely flat: The only two characters I can name in the entire cast are Syl and Brink. The town NPCs were just flat vendors/service bots and there was no story to any of them. Whatever you may think about Blizzard's hit-and-miss characterisation you could at least come to the conclusion that you were playing Diablo and D2 to save the townspeople from something, they had a plight that was at least existent. And God, did it get repetative. What was the most memorable monster type you fought, the critters that rushed into melee or the critters that stood behind them to shoot things at you? But it was at least playable, and fun for as long as the illusion of fun held.
Okay, I'm going to spoil the first half an hour of the game for anyone who hasn't played it. It's a relatively minor spoiler, but nothing you probably haven't heard before in previews or on TVTropes by now. Just glaze over the next paragraph if you're determined to experience Runic's halfassed story exposition for yourself.
The opening cinematic starts (Which is very nicely animated, I'll give them that). Syl and a bunch of redshirts are stood outside the entrance to Torchlight's mine. The entrance explodes. A huge guy in full body armour emerges with the heart of the previous game's bad guy built into his staff. There's a fight. The Destroyer player character from the previous game shows up and joins in on the fight. Armoured Dude kills Syl. Destroyer retreats with what is presumably the player character. Game begins, you talk to the Destroyer who tells you that Armored Dude was actually the Alchemist player character from the previous game even though absolutely nothing about his design or what was previously shown in-game hints at this and orders you to head to an encampment of Estherians, whatever the hell they are. You get to the encampment which is just a small outpost with vendors, stash, and a main quest and sidequest NPCs. Main quest sets you off to a temple to protect a Water Guardian from the Alchemist and the sidequest guy sends you in completely the opposite way to the temple. You get to the temple, fight a big boss, and you meet up with another NPC (presumably the Vanquisher from TL) and the Water Guardian. You get portalled back to the Estherian outpost, told by NPC-Who-Is-Probably-Vanquisher that the Alchemist seeks to destroy all Ember to cure his (again, previously unhinted at) Ember Blight and his efforts are already making magical creatures such as the perfectly healthy Water Guardian and the Estherians ill.
God. Damn. It. I've got a feeling it's only going to get worse from here on in.
So, gameplay. You run along a few steps, kill everything that moves, loot everything that drops and repeat. I'm playing an Embermage, and the first skill you start with (Magma Spear) is pretty damned overpowered: Straight shots that overpenetrate and can mow down entire packs of mobs before they can get to you. The Outlander's Glaive Throw skill seemed to be similar in that you just chuck a few at a pack and kill them all before they can react. There's probably more strategy, but everything I've seen so far hints that you can probably chew through the game by just buffing your starting skill and a few passives. Your pet is actually slightly less useful in combat than it was in TL, since it seems reluctant to actually engage in combat unless you set it to Aggressive (And having played a WoW Hunter for years I can tell how much of a bad idea this would be), it shows more enthusiasm in rushing forward to pick up loot if you command it to.
As a plus, the pet can now buy up to four different types of items (potions, scrolls and the like) whenever you send it to town to sell your vendor trash.
It's strange to think, but there's no heart in the game. No enthusiasm. You just carry on forwards with no real aim or goal. I know this is something that can be levelled at pretty much the entire Diablo-like genre, but while Diablo 3 is Explore! Kill! Loot! Torchlight 2 is Explore. Kill. Loot without any of the enthusiasm. Diablo 3 just does what TL2 is trying to do in a much better way and that's the simple truth of it. That probably won't stop it getting pretty good reviews in the press, but I can honestly say that I've never had buyer's remorse about a game as quickly as I have done here.
I dunno, maybe I'm being a little too harsh on a game I haven't sunk much time in, but I really can't see TL2 holding my attention for very long. Guild Wars 2 is out, and I'm beginning to reconsider my decision to wait for Borderlands 2 GOTY.
I may be remembering things incorrectly, but when TL was released there was a lot of crying about the lack of multiplayer. I seem to remember that Runic had promised that MP would be patched in at a later date, but that never happened and seemed unlikely to happen when TL2 was announced. TL2 is that patch. And you have to pay for it.
Sorry for all the negativity, but this game has got me pretty bummed.
Dull.
I know it's early; perhaps a little too early to form an opinion on a game like this. I'll be fair in that it took me a while to "get" Diablo after playing the demo a few times on my godmother's computer back in the day before I owned one myself (she enjoyed it too, just not enough to buy the game), but the thing about D2, TL, and even D3 is that they were good enough to grab me in the first ten minutes. D3, for all the faults that have arisen since release, was a tremendous "page-turner" of a game to me; I spent every moment that I wasn't playing D3 wishing that I was playing D3. The only thing TL2 has done is make me wish I'd bought Borderlands 2 instead.
When I picked up TL in a Steam sale years ago, the impression I got of the game was "Diablo 1.5": Diablo 1 structure, Diablo 2 mechanics. It held my attention because it had been a while since I had played either Diablo game at the time, but the repetition quickly set in and... I kinda quit at the point where I thought the game should have ended (And a guesstimate of the remaining storyline achievements suggested that there were a couple dozen more dlvls to go through before the end on top of the twenty or so that I had finished).
It was a good game, but extremely flat: The only two characters I can name in the entire cast are Syl and Brink. The town NPCs were just flat vendors/service bots and there was no story to any of them. Whatever you may think about Blizzard's hit-and-miss characterisation you could at least come to the conclusion that you were playing Diablo and D2 to save the townspeople from something, they had a plight that was at least existent. And God, did it get repetative. What was the most memorable monster type you fought, the critters that rushed into melee or the critters that stood behind them to shoot things at you? But it was at least playable, and fun for as long as the illusion of fun held.
Okay, I'm going to spoil the first half an hour of the game for anyone who hasn't played it. It's a relatively minor spoiler, but nothing you probably haven't heard before in previews or on TVTropes by now. Just glaze over the next paragraph if you're determined to experience Runic's halfassed story exposition for yourself.
The opening cinematic starts (Which is very nicely animated, I'll give them that). Syl and a bunch of redshirts are stood outside the entrance to Torchlight's mine. The entrance explodes. A huge guy in full body armour emerges with the heart of the previous game's bad guy built into his staff. There's a fight. The Destroyer player character from the previous game shows up and joins in on the fight. Armoured Dude kills Syl. Destroyer retreats with what is presumably the player character. Game begins, you talk to the Destroyer who tells you that Armored Dude was actually the Alchemist player character from the previous game even though absolutely nothing about his design or what was previously shown in-game hints at this and orders you to head to an encampment of Estherians, whatever the hell they are. You get to the encampment which is just a small outpost with vendors, stash, and a main quest and sidequest NPCs. Main quest sets you off to a temple to protect a Water Guardian from the Alchemist and the sidequest guy sends you in completely the opposite way to the temple. You get to the temple, fight a big boss, and you meet up with another NPC (presumably the Vanquisher from TL) and the Water Guardian. You get portalled back to the Estherian outpost, told by NPC-Who-Is-Probably-Vanquisher that the Alchemist seeks to destroy all Ember to cure his (again, previously unhinted at) Ember Blight and his efforts are already making magical creatures such as the perfectly healthy Water Guardian and the Estherians ill.
God. Damn. It. I've got a feeling it's only going to get worse from here on in.
So, gameplay. You run along a few steps, kill everything that moves, loot everything that drops and repeat. I'm playing an Embermage, and the first skill you start with (Magma Spear) is pretty damned overpowered: Straight shots that overpenetrate and can mow down entire packs of mobs before they can get to you. The Outlander's Glaive Throw skill seemed to be similar in that you just chuck a few at a pack and kill them all before they can react. There's probably more strategy, but everything I've seen so far hints that you can probably chew through the game by just buffing your starting skill and a few passives. Your pet is actually slightly less useful in combat than it was in TL, since it seems reluctant to actually engage in combat unless you set it to Aggressive (And having played a WoW Hunter for years I can tell how much of a bad idea this would be), it shows more enthusiasm in rushing forward to pick up loot if you command it to.
As a plus, the pet can now buy up to four different types of items (potions, scrolls and the like) whenever you send it to town to sell your vendor trash.
It's strange to think, but there's no heart in the game. No enthusiasm. You just carry on forwards with no real aim or goal. I know this is something that can be levelled at pretty much the entire Diablo-like genre, but while Diablo 3 is Explore! Kill! Loot! Torchlight 2 is Explore. Kill. Loot without any of the enthusiasm. Diablo 3 just does what TL2 is trying to do in a much better way and that's the simple truth of it. That probably won't stop it getting pretty good reviews in the press, but I can honestly say that I've never had buyer's remorse about a game as quickly as I have done here.
I dunno, maybe I'm being a little too harsh on a game I haven't sunk much time in, but I really can't see TL2 holding my attention for very long. Guild Wars 2 is out, and I'm beginning to reconsider my decision to wait for Borderlands 2 GOTY.
I may be remembering things incorrectly, but when TL was released there was a lot of crying about the lack of multiplayer. I seem to remember that Runic had promised that MP would be patched in at a later date, but that never happened and seemed unlikely to happen when TL2 was announced. TL2 is that patch. And you have to pay for it.
Sorry for all the negativity, but this game has got me pretty bummed.
When in mortal danger,
When beset by doubt,
Run in little circles,
Wave your arms and shout.
BattleTag: Schrau#2386
When beset by doubt,
Run in little circles,
Wave your arms and shout.
BattleTag: Schrau#2386