Torchlight

[Alyeska]

Anyone try this game? I got it off Steam during the incredible holiday sales. I'd heard it was comparable to Diablo (never played either of those). Thought I would give it a try. This game is insanely fun. Its sucking my time away like a Blackhole destroying the very fabric of reality. I just wish there was online coop capability. The game screams for it.

[weemadando]

I can definitely see myself getting deeper and deeper into this game. I'm just happy that it has a better instance/save mechanic than Diablo 2 or many others of it's ilk so I don't have to block out 3 hours to play a game.

There is a mod out there that adds co-op as apparently teh code was all in there and just needed to be enabled.

Though I'm hanging out for the Torchlight MMO (which Torchlight SP is funding). The idea of having the map based instances for parties and a lot of the functionality that they've added above the standard clicky-RPG is what could really turn me on to playing an MMO.

[Serafine666]

It's a pretty fun game, no doubt about that. It's a tad more sophisticated than Diablo (you can vary your speed and have two weapon sets) but like Diablo, it has three basic classes (Warrior, Archer, Mage), quests are linear, progression is measured in how far down you've gone, and there are merchants galore. I enjoy playing the archer in either game although the fact that you can tool around with guns makes it all the more cool.

[Stark]

The game is mechanically polished and fun, but it suffers for lack of content. It's pretty short, all things considered. I wish there was a lot more random instance accessability, because that element of the game is far more entertaining than the main plot (as always).

The game would suck complete shit multi; there is no balance at all for it to survive contact with more than one player. Nobody would ever use two of the classes, for a start.

It's a shame they didn't develop it more from Fate; elements of the interface are poor (well, standard for Diablo games) and the pet isn't well developed. Being a minion master with no UI elements to assist you is pretty lame, too. Fishing is even simpler in this game; it's like 'pets' and 'fishing' are just atrophied holdovers that perform no real function (aside from disposing of vendor trash).

[Gramzamber]

It's a fun little dungeon crawler. A little simplistic but hey not every game has to be an epic.
One thing I like is that the characters seem to be stored online, as I have Torchlight on both my PC and laptop and can access the same save files from both.

[Alyeska]

And I've figured out how to abuse the save system. It saves automatically on going between levels. Use the gateway as a save point. Then just enchant stuff. Like what you go, use the gateway. Don't like what happened, Alt-Tab out of game and end task on Torchlight. Reload the game and it loads to the last gateway transfer.

[Stark]

Wow yeah, cheating your ass off will really help the games' longevity.

[Gramzamber]

Wow yeah, cheating your ass off will really help the games' longevity.

Hey it can sometimes, depending on the game. It was the only way I could stand the shameless cheating AI on Civ IV... oh you think you can spawn 15 units in the city I was about to take? Well I'll spawn 15 nukes! MUAHAHAHA!
Okay that's a lame way to play, I admit.

[Stark]

Even on hard, the game is pretty short and easy. I can't imagine cheating regarding items in a game where items are basically the only thing creating challenge in the game.

[Alyeska]

Well I can say their listed odds on the enchantments are off. You are far more likely to lose enchantments then it says.

[Samuel]

Got it and since I never played Diablo, loved it and slightly addictive.

The game would suck complete shit multi; there is no balance at all for it to survive contact with more than one player. Nobody would ever use two of the classes, for a start.

Out of curiosity, how many fantasy stories have magic guns? The game makes them awesome but I can't think of any aside from the Dark Tower.

Even on hard, the game is pretty short and easy. I can't imagine cheating regarding items in a game where items are basically the only thing creating challenge in the game.

Even that isn't a real problem- the main one is getting good items in the first place to enchant. Or getting entire sets because it generally comes in dribs and drabs.

[Alyeska]

Getting entire sets would be most difficult. And by the time you got the last piece, your first piece is woefully under ranked that you would be better off mixing armor.

[Wing Commander MAD]

I'd say its a pretty fun game overall. It's definitely great for killing time. The pet being able to sell stuff in town for you is one of the better additions to the genre (I doubt its truly an innovation, though I've not seen it before), though how exactly its supposed work when you apply suspension of disbelief to that game mechanic I doubt I'll ever be able to rationalize. I will say that in general the scrap all your enchantments thing kinda sucks, I almost wander if adding negative magical effects like in the original Diablo would be prefferable, as then at least the entire item isn't a loss. I will add that I do like the mechanic if delving ever deeper like in Diablo, than the more open expansive areas like in Diablo II and its numerous clones (although that may simply be bad memories of that damn jungle in Diablo II's Act III). Is it odd I like my dungeon crawlers to actually take place primarily in a dungeon or similar enclosed space?

The underwhelming sets and uniques thing in ARPGs is rather annoying. Nothing like finding what's supposed to be special, or finally completing that set, only to have it be worse than random junk you've found off some random generic enemy. Personally, I think the games should try something different and actually make the items truly unique by having properties that only it has, and thus giving it distinctive tactical advantages compared to other items. Sets should be similar in concept, though I'm not sure if that should be like a bunch of uniques and and even more awesome "effect" when you have the whole set, or have the individual items be more mundane (ie magical and rare in DII parlance) and the truly noteworthy stuff happens when a set is complete. Then again I always kinda thought that unique and set items should actually have a story that goes along with them, seeing as they're usually supposed to be the property of former epic heroes. Sadly rarely if ever is there any reason why these items are considered special. Really I think I'd like it more if magic items were rarer, but in general more impressive, but to offset this that the only way to identify it would be to visit a special NPC in town who told you something about the item if it was special. Thinking back to Diablo and Diablo II, I think it would have been rather neat to have Deckard Cain be able to tell you some legend about the special items.

Does anyone know what their talking about with the invisible pet in the manual, as I've yet to see such an option at character creation?

[Samuel]

I think by "invisible pet" they just mean the animal companion you have. Maybe it was origionally only supposed to carry your loot back, but they forgot to update the terminology?

[darkjedi521]

Does anyone know what their talking about with the invisible pet in the manual, as I've yet to see such an option at character creation?

http://forums.runicgames.com/viewtopic. ... 42&start=0

According to Runic's forums, it was supposed to have been in the game but got cut last moment. There is a mod to reactivate it though.

The mod can be found here: http://www.torchlightinsider.com/forums ... .php?t=272

[Shinova]

Have it, played a good portion of it. It's basically a fundamentally more sophisticated Diablo 2 but vastly shorter in length, content, and replayability. Take it as you will.

[Stark]

Following what was said earlier, I think many q Diabls these days are far to aggressively dependent on item level. Not only is use based on item level (needlessly, since it has stat requirements as well) but you level so fast there is literally no reason to keep an item you can't use right now, because it'll be vendor trash in an hour. Something valuable at level 30 is a rat drop at level 35, and that means players constantly cycle their stuff.

Other games go a different way; for instance, in Borderlands I used the same level 23 rifle for two complete playthroughs, because it meshed with my skills and playstyle (ie huge mag, low recoil, decent accuracy, very high damage) and higher-level stuff I found always lost one of those features despite being better in another. A broader level of bonuses helps make 'good' items of a given level last longer (for instance this rifle had +111% damage, so it did similar damage to a rifle 20 levels higher) and slower levelling overall (or a removal of level restrictions entirely) removes the need to constantly upgrade.

[Alyeska]

The enchanting feature lets you keep existing equipment for a fair while. Some of my gear I've had nearly half the game.

Anyway, it never fails. I go through some expensive enchantments on a shield (not a single reload, I was lucky) only to find the blacksmith has a shield that is almost 20 points higher for sale, and I no longer have the money. Go figure. So I madly sell a few items and nick the new shield and then junk the one I just spent a ton of money enchanting so I can get the Gems out of it.

I would say half my gear is Gold Unique level.

[Stark]

Moneysinks don't fix unnecessary or broken mechanics. Some games do away with vendor trash for a reason.

[Bounty]

I like the fast turn-around for equipment. Combat is clickety-click simple, so it helps to play around with new types of weapons and purple glittery armour.

[Lonestar]

So, I saw that there is a "netbook"(shut it, Stark) setting for the game, and since I travel a lot I figure that this would be a good augmentation to Diablo II on my NC10. Does anyone know how well it performs on netbooks?

[Bounty]

So, I saw that there is a "netbook"(shut it, Stark) setting for the game, and since I travel a lot I figure that this would be a good augmentation to Diablo II on my NC10. Does anyone know how well it performs on netbooks?

You meet minimum specs with a little wiggle room in RAM and CPU. If you're really not sure, download the demo.

[Stark]

The netbook setting appears to just be shorthand for 'turn off all the tricky effects'. It runs fine even on those old crappy nettops.

[Manus Celer Dei]

I found it pretty boring, to be honest. It just feels like a simplified Diablo 2 with a pet and somewhat better graphics. It's alright if you just want to waste some time but I can't really think of any reason to play it over D2 if you have it, even just in single player. Unless you really fucking love WoW-style graphics or something.

The shared character stash is a nice concept though; shame it gets disabled if you use any console commands. Because it's important to inconvenience players for cheating in a solely single-player game for some reason.

[Sarevok]

Speaking of netbooks is it touchpad friendly or has a mechanism to cope with lack of a real mouse ? Diablo 1 and 2 are a bit annoying to play without a mouse. They require a lot of accurate clicks in quick succession.