Diablo III got the hype, but Torchlight 2 got all the substance!
The story is... Well, that's pretty cookie cutter honestly. The story just plains sucks. The characters are pretty forgettable too. That is all easily swept aside for fast paced game play, and unique class builds, along with lots of items... I mean A LOT!
As of right now I have an Outlander (ranged class) around level 35. I am turning her into a dual pistol wielding machine, cause I can do that. I can concentrate on a certain area for my character, unlike Diablo III. I can distribute skill points and stat points, the way a game of this type should be. Each class has 3 different skill trees. Each skill can get a max of 15 skill points, and each tree has somewhere between 9 and 11 skills.
The animation and settings and graphics are crisp and lively, enemy AI seems to be somewhat smart, and the difficulty doesn't seem too bad right now. With a price of 20$ you can't go wrong with this game.
So far my favorite part of the game are the items. Rares and unique items and sets drop very regularly so it makes the game feel way more rewarding then stingy Diablo 3. Sad that I have 2 Level 60 characters in D3 and I have yet to find one unique or set item.
Grant it, most of the special items you come across are pretty crappy, it is still rewarding finding an orange colored item, and you will find pretty good ones. Rare items are everywhere, and by level 10-15 your character should be decked out in full rare gear. Sets offer great bonuses early on that makes things easier for some tougher areas of the game.
Pets are like mercenaries but they are always around from the start. They can learn magic and have 3 pieces of gear equip to them. They may seem useless but they do come in handy.
Boss fights are plentiful and fun. Big angry monsters unleashing their fury upon you, they can be found at the end of almost every dungeon. Some can be as simple as standing in one place as you spam potions (7 second cool downs) and just drain the boss, others can be more difficult as almost every boss spawns smaller enemies to keep things interesting. Getting cornered will almost certainly spell death for you.
Lots of fun achievements also await you in the Torchlight 2 world. The game at ts core is simple, basic, and a great throwback to Diablo, Diablo 2, and Titans Quest. It doesn't break the mold, or venture into strange uncharted territory. It set out to be a great new game for dungeon crawler fans. What it did, it did right. The things it did wrong... Well I'll get to those when I find a few.
For 20$ you are getting a massively fun game, with endless replay value.