Torchlight 2 will be like a guilty pleasure which will keep you hooked up for hours on your PC!
Genre: RPG-Adventure
Developer: Runic Games
System: PC (Steam)
Total Score: 92/100
Value Score: 9.2/10
• Story: 7/10
o Torchlight 2's storyline picks off where Torchlight 1 ended. The Alchemist which was one of the main characters from the first game ended up becoming corrupt thanks to the effects of the last game's villain's heart. Now you who will play as a new character will have to hunt him down and save the world from whatever he is planning to. You'll be going through several towns, dungeons and all sorts of terrain to find the Alchemist. The storyline overall is a bit generic but the side stories and side quests and their importance plays a interesting role within the overall game.
• Characters: 7/10
o Characters from the first game do appear in this game but barely do you interact with them, other than that all the enemies in the game and the characters you meet afterwards are all new but do not hold much substance like other RPGs however the amount of characters especially when it comes to enemy designs is quite huge. The player themselves can also create their own character, choosing the gender, skin color, hair appearance and color amongst other tidbits though you would not probably notice a difference due to the fact the armor you get in the game would make it to where you probably would not care about how you make your character look.
• GamePlay: 10/10
o Torchlight 2's gameplay is very similar to Torchlight 1's with a few new additions. For one, you have the choice to play as 4 different classes: Berserker which is best for close quarters combat and has insane speed, Mechanic is which best as a support character and as a secondary attacker, Outlander which is best with long range attacks and finally Ember Mage which is the equivalent of a Wizard in TL2 which is pretty much self explanatory. Depending on what you choose for skills and equipment you can build your character up to different builds and uses such as having a offensive ember mage instead of a magic user. The user interface is very similar to TL1 which is heavily inspired by Diablo and World of Warcraft. You have access to different features in towns and throughout different dungeons such as the ability to gamble for items, power up items through enchantments (which do not break or de-enchant anymore), to fuse items. Along with that the usual item shop, weapon/armor shop, and the special item/magic shop as well. There are a lot of side quests along with the story's main quests. One of the biggest additions to the game from its predecessor is Online Multiplayer, many people have anticipated this feature and wanted so much from the first game will now get to enjoy it in this game as up to 6 players can connect to each other on TL2's public servers or make their own private server via LAN. All items are exclusive to each player, no player will see another player's item or treasure (this is to prevent any disputes for loot).
• Graphics: 10/10
o Torchlight 2's graphical interfaces, environment and character sprites designs are similar to the first game but further improved with using current technologies making it one of the best looking 2Dish helicopter view games ever made.
• Sound: 10/10
o Torchlight 2 uses voiceovers throughout the majority of the game's main storyline, there will be instances where you will hear voices from other npcs and from yourself during dungeon raids. Torchlight 2's sound effects are both a combination of new effects to the game and uses some effects from the first game. The voiceovers are pretty well done for the characters and the sound effects go nicely with the environment and during the action sequences of cutscenes and battles.
• Music: 8/10
o Torchlight 2 uses similar style of music that the first game used, calm soothing orchestral type music is used mostly in the game, most of the parts of the game it has that unique Star Wars like epic feeling in the background whenever you travel the terrain or go through a town conversing with the NPCs. The developers were also kind enough to allow players to actually have access to the full OST of the game via the Game's folder on the PC, so enjoy the whole OST of Torchlight 2 on your portable mp3 player.
• Length: 10/10
o Torchlight 2's length is possibly its second greatest aspect if not the gameplay, the game's main storyline by itself should take you no more than 20 hours and additional 5-10 hours' worth of grinding and side questing on the side. If that isnt enough, you may do multiple playthroughs with friends or with other characters to see the world of Torchlight through different experiences which of course adds massive appealing value to this aspect.
• Replay Value: 10/10
o One of the best things about most western games is the replay value and TL2 is no exception. The Online multiplayer experience by itself adds great value to the replay value through different experiences and difficulties available for you to choose from. Once you finish the game, you get access to a endless random dungeon which takes you to random environments so you can explore thoroughly for additional treasures and other items. Along with that to add even more value, they added a New Game+ which allows you to play the game all over again using the same character but with a more difficulty twist to the gameplay.
• Player Value: 10/10
o Overall Torchlight 2 expands over the first one and improves in pretty much in every way, despite some network issues it may have from time to time, players will surely enjoy the multiplayer experiences and if not they can dabble on the single player experience which like the multiplayer can be experienced through different difficulties. You have a pretty decent customization options for your characters and can easily build up any class in any possible way. The graphical details have improved from the game, the sound effects and music are kept the similar to the first game. Pretty much TL2 consists of all the good aspects of TL1 plus more.