An amazing game that is well worth the money!
The game focuses on a character named The Alchemist. He has been affected by the heart of Ordrak, causing him to become corrupted. You must track The Alchemist down while traversing through a variety of environments such as forests, and deserts. The game consists of three acts. There you will be required to complete different quests in order to move on. It's a pretty straightforward game.
There are several different classes to choose from. The Engineer, The Outlander, The Berserker, and The Embermage. All of them have there unique abilities. The Engineer is a melee fighter, mainly used as the tank. The Outlander specializes with ranged weapons. The Beserker uses animal type moves and quick attacks. The Embermage specializes in elemental spells. Each character has there own unique weapon and armor sets that gamers can expect to grind for. With any action role-playing game, you will have your skill tree, stats, and in this case charges that enable you with additional buffs.
When creating your character, you are given the choice of a pet. There are a couple to choose from. The Wolf, Cat, Bulldog, Panther, Owl, Papillion, Ferret, Chakawary, Hawk, and Badger. These pets can help take down the plethora of monsters and bosses in the game. Another feature with the pets is that they can be sent back to town to sell items that you have found. It can be pretty useful if you run out of portals or simply just do not feel like going back to town. The pets can be equipped with amulets, charms or collars that enhances there abilities.
A new feature to the Torchlight series is online multil-player. You and three other players can battle through the game completing quests and looting for items or equipment. There is no PvP, but there is a trading system where gamers can trade items or equipment. The one complaint that I have with the online aspect of the game is that there are no friends lists and players tend to do there own thing rather than help one another, although there are people that will assist you, I have discovered that players are in different areas or acts while in the same room. Having a friends list that can track when a user is online and where they are at would be pretty useful.
Game play wise, this game is addicting and fun. There are plenty of quests to complete when you finish the actual plot. There is an option to start new game plus, which is abbreviated at NG+. Then you can go on to NG++, NG+++, etc. The problem is, there are rarely anyone online that have started on NG+ and on. There is also Mapworks which contains additional quests. Modding is enabled in this game which further enhances the re playability of the game. What I love is encountering mobs of enemies, it enables me to use my powerful abilities that I have acquired and to me, it is pretty cool to look at.
I love the artwork design of the game. It is a bit cartoony, but it is unique to the genre in my opinion. I'm not knowledgeable when it comes to the jargon on graphics, but it impressed me nonetheless.
For $20, this game includes a ton of content that will last you hundreds of hours in game play. It seems like these type of games are on the brink of extinction, but it is good to see a good Diablo game that attracts a ton of new interest. It was well worth the money and gamers need to check this game out!