Waiting for Diablo III, dungeon crawler's lovers got a surprise X-Mas gift
Torchlight is a fitting example of the second event.
Until I found a review on a magazine I not even imagine the existence of this Diablo clone; loving the genre and intrigued by the enthusiastic reviewer I gave the game a try discovering maybe the best Diablo clone ever released, and all in less than 500 megs and 20 euros!
With the words: "Diablo Clone" I'm already putting attention on most of the merits of the game.
Torchlight is am action RPG/Dungeon Crawler solid and almost perfectly balanced with tons of object to find and equip, some really good ideas and full of fun.
If you have ever played similar games you likely know what expect.
three different classes of characters: a powerful warrior, an alchemist/magician and a sexy sniper woman, each with specific features and talents to develop together with their equipment in order to make them unstoppable fighting machines.
From the beginning astonish the consistency of the gameplay and the great atmosphere of the dungeons thanks even to the great music and to a design cartoon style clever and stylish.
The game introduces some little news to the genre, like an intelligent pet management (cat or dog, choose at the beginning of every new game). Soon your pet will become an irreplaceable buddy during fights, especially if you are playing as a sniper or as an alchemist. Pets have a personal inventory of the same size of the player, and whenever you want is possible send out of the dungeon to sell his belongings. Pets can also equip two rings and a necklace, and learn two spells, resulting very useful during the fights.
The city offers all the service we are already used, like some vendors, a transmutator that have the same functions of the Horadrim cube in Diablo II, a gambler where buy items blindly hoping for a great bargain and an enchanter able to give objects new properties. Thanks to him you could empower your equipment adding new magic feature, but the use is limited by the high cost of the process and the rising probability to disenchant completely the item making it a piece of junk. If you like risks and have some luck you could obtain powerful objects with outstanding properties.
As Torchlight has all the merits of the genre, it inherits even the lacks, like the repetitive style of play; however I can assure that this game don't come soon to be boring. The real big flaw of the game is the total lack of a multiplayer mode, even in normal lan; a real waste considering how those kind of games yield played with friends. The first releases showed some minor bugs, but the recent patches solved almost all though persist some interface flaws.
Final Line
If you like the genre I can't find a reason to not recommend this game, beside the lack of the online mode. Torchlight is a real jewel: a low cost game able to surpass badly all the competitors and one of the best dungeon crawler of ever. Will keep you busy at least until the release of Diablo III.
Final Score: 8