Torchlight

[parm]

So, here's a thing. If you're waiting for Diablo 3, you should probably get Torchlight, being as it's basically Diablo 2.5 (pretty much the same game rules as Diablo, by a load of ex-Blizzard staff, spanglier graphics, same just-one-more-level addictiveness), and it's only £15 or about $20 and has ridiculously modest system requirements and all that. I've wasted a good couple of evenings on it so far and it's really rather good.

[McTaggart]

Yeah I downloaded the demo today and now it's 4am. I like to think it's a little more than Diablo 2.5, the pet mechanic is interesting, the level of crossover between the characters is relatively huge and the setting and style are vastly different. It's also really polished, the flow and pacing seem solid and it panders to the loot fetishists like it's life depended on it. One thing I'd like is more complex relationships between character stats and performance, but hopefully the gear will sortof take over from that towards the higher levels. I'm definitely going to pick this up when my tax return comes in.

Oh and it's got hardcore mode right out of the box and in the graphics settings there's a checkbox for 'Netbook mode'.

[Chesire Cat]

The demo seems really fun, but hmmm it would be nice to know more about the classes/builds

[Orbert]

Composer Matt Uelmen has joined Runic Games.  He's the guy who did all the music for Diablo and Diablo II (but not D3).  Runic is looking more and more like a big Blizzard North reunion, and that's a good thing.

[Alex C]

I was going to buy Borderlands but yeah, I think I'm going to get Torchlight for now instead. It's cheaper, which is a factor, but more than anything, it's exactly what I've wanted for a while now. It's cheap, it's about loot whoring, and I can play it on my decrepit laptop while waiting around for something to do.

[est]

Hell yeah, Torchlight.  I bought it the other night when I pre-ordered Borderlands.  Good thing, because Borderlands kept crashing, so I played Torchlight instead.  Really fun and really addictive.  I love the art style, love the interface, love the setting.  I've mucked around with all three classes and they all seem really cool.  I like the idea of having a separate set of special shared spells/skills to learn, it allows for a bit of wiggle-room in each class.

[Alex C]

It's a shame that it doesn't have multiplayer, but for $20 I'm happy with what I've gotten out of it. I'll just consider it an investment towards future multiplayer goodness when these guys get going on their next project.

[est]

Yeah, multiplayer would be great.  As soon as I started to play it I thought that this would be a great game for Han and I to play co-op, because it would play great on my laptop.  They are releasing a free-to-play MMO based on the Torchlight setting at some point in the future, hopefully it will retain a lot of what makes the current single-player game great.

[McTaggart]

Hopefully it won't retain the enchanting mechanics as-is. There's no limit to the number of times you can enchant things except that there's the gold cost and there's a 1% chance of it stripping your item of every mod. Basically this means that any old green or blue can with a spot of money become obscenely powerful and better than any uniques or sets you might find (uniques are prohibitively expensive to enchant).

It's a pretty easy game if you're paying attention and are smart about things. The only reason I keep dying in VH/HC is because I get a little bit too cocky sometimes. No deaths that weren't from taking obviously silly risks or negligence (top tip: pause before you alt-tab).

[Alex C]

Yeah, I also almost immediately jumped to VH-HC after some initial dinking around with each class, particularly the Alchemist. The biggest hurdle so far has been the tedium of fighting Brink with an outdated wand, which took quite a while since practically every hit was glancing, but after that I looted a wand that was literally 4 times as powerful as the one I had been using. It really imparted the importance of hitting the shopkeepers or enchanting new loot until you have something you can live with, at least as a low level alchemist, since their starting offensive spell doesn't appear to be anywhere near a worthy investment compared to Ember Lance or Ember Lightning; Ember Bolt is simply nowhere near as good as say, the Destroyer's Slash Attack. Plus, weapon scaling does affect spells to an extent as well, so it's something I've definitely done a better job of staying on top of now.

[Chesire Cat]

Big think I noticed in the trailer was the Destroyer was throwing out *much* bigger numbers than the other two classes. Though it could always just be the char levels when they were recorded.

[Alex C]

Plus, the Destroyer tends to deal his damage with a relatively small number of hits, and a lot of that damage is overkill. For example, if you've goofed around with the demo, you may notice that weapons are listed as having both a DPS rating and a damage range listed. Many Destroyer skills (like the aforementioned Slash Attack) determine damage by using a percentage of your DPS total for all equipped weapons, and then the attack is treated as essentially one hit. So even my lowbie Destroyer who uses two weapons rated with "fastest attack speed" and low damage ranges can do some ridiculous crits when I use my abilities, since both weapons are up-to-date rares with great DPS ratings.

Meanwhile, my Alchemist is more like a machine gun so far. I underestimated Ember Bolt and how common Fast Cast is; it becomes eminently spammable and a few ranks into it actually turned it around quite nicely, since it becomes a multi-hit spell with multiple bolts rather than just two. It's deceptively strong since if the first bolt kills the others will keep going and readjust in flight to hit another target if need be. It's the same song with a slightly different arrangement with Ember Lance; it's a channeled spell that hits an area once every second, so again, lots of "small" hits really, really fast. Particularly delicious if you combine it with a lot of +knockback items and can sweep the Lance through a cluster of enemies. Same deal again if you go with a mob of pets as a summoner; quantity of hits over quality.


*FYI, there's a mod posted in the torchlight forums by one of the devs that gives access to respec potions at the cost of 3,000 coins each, if you guys are wondering how I've goofed around with builds so much already. I feel kinda lame using a mod, but on the other hand, it's my first run through the game, and I'm on Very Hard-Hardcore, so it evens out in the wash. Besides, I went back to my more tank-oriented defensive build in the end anyway.

[ackblom12]

I just got the game tonight and this is a ton of fun! I think it might cause me physical pain that it doesn't have any kind of multiplayer, but at the same time it's pretty fantastic. I'm also a little weirded out that there are still games of this type that don't have some form of respec option built into the main game.

Has anyone heard anything else about the Torchlight MMO they are planning?

[Alex C]

Nah. Sadly, I'm not too huge on the MMO idea. I really just would kind of prefer something me and my brother could hop into and burn a few hours a week on.

[Storm Rider]

Supposedly the MMO version will be based on the existing game, and will be free-to-play. They said that their ability to develop it will depend entirely on how well this version sells, though.

Don't ask me why I know this, I haven't played Torchlight and probably never will. I guess i just read too many gaming blogs.

[ackblom12]

Eh, I think I'd be happier if someone just managed to mod network play into it. I'm not entirely sure how possible that actually is though.

[Beren]

I bought it for my girlfriend and ended up playing it for an hour or two. Initially in my mind it was just "eh, this is pretty cool, I could play this every now and then", then I found out you can share gear from toon to toon. BEST EVER. Awesome game.

[ackblom12]

I've been looking around without much success, but I was wondering if anyone had found a UI mod that added a portrait and/or counter for summoned creatures. It's a bit difficult trying to keep track of how many imps are still alive.

[Alex C]

Guys, today is a special day.


You see, I always had one minor disappointment with Torchlight: there was only 2 pets to choose from. Now, since I'm conditioned by a society into being a bit of a douchey chauvinist, it seemed fitting to me that my burly Destroyer would have the scrappy looking dog and the Vanquisher would have a kitty, leaving my poor Alchemist to have... a dog again, I guess. This disappointed me, but since I didn't have any better ideas myself, I just kept my mouth shut. But today, I have and know what goes perfectly with my Alchemist: A God Damn Ferret With Flight Goggles.

[KvP]

I want it.

[Alex C]

The ferret was made by Runic; it would be included with the digital versions as an update, but apparently they got a distribution deal with retailers to release a boxed copy, and the retailers are all being douchey about having "an exclusive pet." Runic explained that people would just mod it in anyway, but retailers apparently wouldn't budge because they're dumb. Runic has unofficially stated that they're fine with people modding in the ferret-- they can't stop you anyway and they feel that in an ideal world the game's early adopters should get to have the li'l fella regardless. You can get him here if you already haven't.


Did I mention he makes ferret sounds? He makes ferret sounds. It's pretty awesome.

[snalin]

Does that work with the steam version?


Torchlight is better than all my expectations, though. I have a tendency to buy map scrolls and do the other side cave quests, so I'm always way overleveled, but that's cool, though.

Organ guns is pretty awesome, fastest attack speed looks plain cool.

[Alex C]

It actually works best with the steam version, last I checked. There should be info in the link.

[Miles]

I bought it yesterday.

I just read this thread.

Holy shit, a ferret. This game just got 10x better!

On another note, i've been playing through as a melee alchemist on the hardest difficulty and it's balls-to-the wall hard. Holy shit I love this game.

[est]

Melee alchemist?  Dang.

[Miles]

Melee alchemist?  Dang.

It's a hella fun spec to play but it's nasty hard on the last difficulty level. There's just something alluring about splattering giant rats with an electric gauntlet that I just couldn't resist.

[Alex C]

Melee alchemist isn't actually all that much crazier than going heavy duty melee with the other two classes, actually-- Frailty, Infuse, Ember Shield, Ember Sentry-- the tools are all there, and you'll have more escape tools than most if you pick up Terror and Ember Phase, which might be the best one point wonder skill in the game. Plus, some of the best skills for rolling that way also enhance the damage you can do with ranged weapons greatly, so you can still kite something to death if you really have to, especially with Ember Phase. Still, you wouldn't have any one huge room sweeper ability unless you branched out though, which is a bit rough.

Anyway, I'd say the biggest thing is that the final difficulty has quite a few heart stopping moments in it in general, and melee classes obviously expose themselves to a bit more risk at times. I'm playing a Very Hard-Hardcore marksman Vanquisher that rolls with a pistol, a shield and something like 75% chance to reflect incoming ranged damage (Believe me, I'd have higher if I could) and I've still nearly been one shotted a few times, so that should tell you how nasty the damage potential can get in some areas. It's easy to get careless and get smeared by an elite with a whole boatload of damage increasing traits.