Torchlight FTW!

I have a confession to make. As a much younger man, I spent hours fighting monstors in the dungeons of Diablo and Diablo II. I’m on pins and needles waiting for the release of Diablo III, and I’ve been following the progress of what’s sure to be an epic game with great interest.

I’m not sure what appeals to me about Diablo. There are certainly parts of the game that are tedious and almost mindless. These are the parts commonly referred to as “grinding”–taking on monsters because you need gold or EP to level up before you move on with the central story. Whether I can explain the appeal or not, Diablo was one of my first gaming loves.

As we all eagerly await the release of Diablo III, a digression has appeared on the horizon. Part of the original Diablo team, combined with folks from Fate and Mythos, have created Torchlight. Torchlight resembles Diablo in many ways, but in many other ways it’s a very different game. For one, it’s more “cartoony” in style, which some folks don’t like but I love. The art is very well done–dark, yet colorful. The music comes from the creator of the original Diablo soundtrack and is wonderful. The gameplay is almost pure Diablo with a few “fixes” that I really like. In short, Torchlight has all of the things I love about Diablo and a few new things that make it even more attractive.

You start off the game by choosing a character from one of three classes: Destroyer, Vanquisher and Alchemist. You choose a pet–either a cat or a dog. Your pet is part of you and follows you everywhere. It carries a pack and you can move items between your pet’s inventory and your own. You can even send your pet to town to sell items! Once you’ve gotten your character and pet generated, you materialize in the town of Torchlight.

Torchlight is a mining town built atop a vein of Ember. Ember is the source of magic in the Torchlight world, and there’s a war going on in the mines for control of the Ember there. The battle is, of course, between good and evil, and you’re recruited to the forces of good.

So far (and I’ve played to Level 20), there’s very little grinding involved. Characters advance at a good, steady pace. Dungeon exploration is fun and there are a myriad of side quests that allow you to explore through a variety of tilesets and dungeon styles. Monsters grow in strength the deeper you go and the closer you get to the main Ember veins. The story line is interesting, and the main characters are well voiced. Everything about the game play draws you in to the superbly crafted game mechanics.

The system requirements for Torchlight are suprisingly mild. There’s even a “Netbook” mode! I’ve not yet tried it and my main gaming machine is gross overkill. Still, I can play at 1600×1050 and the graphics are stunning. The animation is smooth and there’s hardly any jerkiness (there have been moments where things start to stutter, but those typically involve large numbers of enemies being destroyed by multiple, chained lightning bolts).

If you, like me, were a huge fan of Diablo, I urge you to try Torchlight. It’s $20 well spent. Runic, the creators, are working on an MMO based in the Torchlight world, and I can hardly wait. I’m hoping they go the Dungeons & Dragons Online route and use in-game purchases to generate income, rather than a subscription model. If they do that, I’ll be all over it.