Torchlight

There is something very addicting on going through piles of loot while looking for the next best item. This was of course properly introduced to us all with the fabulous Diablo games. Runic Games have taken the same formula and perfected it even further. And added virtual pet!

Torchlight was first released as a downloadable game first which made me miss the game completely. Year later thanks to various recommendations from the nice GB people and community it finally found its way here.

Occurrences around the game happen in town of Torchlight which happens to be locted on top of a massive dungeon complex. Story takes in place of a hero and its pet. The hero can be chosen from 3 fixed classes. Magic user, melee tank and one more rogue/ranged type. This is not all traditional fantasy stuff either. A aspect of steampunk has been added in form of various guns and mechanical enemies. The actual plot revolves around Ember which is mystical ore that has serious (negative) impacts. The main antagonist alchemist Master Alric being one such. Players task is to bring Alric to justice. This is done within the 35 first levels of the game. Good share of side quests can be done in between. Once the game is "beaten" player can continue the journey in the infinite dungeon.

Graphically Torchlight is rather modest looking. Hero and the town is down in the cute anime style. Not too different from that World of Warcraft. Meaning it might not be the shiniest and most realistic looking RPG around. This is by no means a bad thing since it fits the gamestyle perfectly. Good thing here is that game doesn't have the most demanding hardware requirements. Works perfectly with a laptop or even with a netbook.

The main gist of the game, namely the loot. This is collected from the enemies and come in different classes. From plain grey items to "epic" yellow/purple items that give the item a clear boost. Items can be also enchanted further as well as socketed and transmuted. No doubt for fans of loot collecting this the main hook in Torchlight.

There is not really much fault here. Still, the gameplay with 30+ levels will no doubt get slightly repetitive. Not to mention if going to a journey on a infinite dungeon. One aspect that slightly was bothersome was around the load times. This is double-edged sword since there are no loading times when in one particular level/floor. The load times in between floors and travel to town tend to take a tiny bit longer. Might have been fault of the Netbook as well.