The sights of ember surrounds me…
Graphics: 7 (colourful but nothing ground breaking)
Sounds: 8 (Lani Minell and Matt Uelmen - need I say more?)
Value: 10 (inexpensive to buy, random dungeons and mods galore)
Tilt: 8
Ember, the source of true power is the essence of magic that can be used for the good or the bad depending upon to whom found it first. The town of Torchlight is one such place where ember flows like water. Miners from all parts of the continent flock to Torchlight to get a piece of this treasure no matter what the consequences are. Sadly though the embers located are fused with great evil from a distant past for which needs to be destroyed. Yet three heroes arrive in Torchlight, each has its own agenda to confront this evil that corrupted the magical ember and finally to bring it to good use.
That said, you have a choice between three heroes being the Destroyer (in-your-face melee person), the Vanquisher (range / traps expert yet can also use melee weapons) and the Alchemist (mage class). Considering that these are the stock standard classes, each will process a unique style of game play to suit any playing styles. Once created, naturally you can further enhance your character by the three different skill trees that each class processes therefore tailoring your game play style further. How this is done is by gaining experience points by completing quests and killing monsters. Once obtaining the necessary experience points enables you to increase your attributes (whether it's strength, dexterity and so forth) and skills.
Yet Torchlight has some great features that make this game a class on its own. One of them is the introduction of another attribute called 'Fame' where it entitles you to gain a further attribute point per level and giving you a great title as well. Also romping around the dungeons can accumulate loot pretty easily and selling them can be a royal pain as it slows down the action. Therefore the developers introduce a pet companion that will travel with you. This companion can be a dog or a cat and yes your companion can level up, attack, cast spells and believe it or not sells loot for you! And with the added fishing feature, you can fish for your pet, feed it and watch it transform according to the captured fish.
The game play is pretty easy to master. Left click to attack and right for alternate attack. Both can be customised yet on the bottom of the screen your 'tool belt' can only support ten hotkeys that can be activated by a corresponding number. Yet during your adventures you can zoom in / out however the camera doesn't have an x or y axis – other words the camera is fixed. This can be a royal pain however a shadow image of yourself will appear if you happen to be 'behind a wall'. Lastly you can only equip with four spells and your pet companion two. This can be a limitation as there are quite a number of cool spells to use and remember that your tool bar can only support ten hotkeys.
With vibrant colours to boot, Torchlight is pleasant to see. To those who played 'World of Worldcraft' the graphics here are quite similar. All the textures are cartoon-like yet detailed enough to place a smile so it's no surprise the engine is powered by the Ogre Open Source. Your character is also detailed and considering the many loot you'll find, the looks of your character will change. I guess you can 'pimp' out your character to your liking (for example the rare gunslinger outfit for the vanquisher is pretty damn cool with a brim hat and a massive overcoat or the destroyer's warrior outfitted with spikes).
To those who played the Diablo series will recognise the musical scores. It's none other than Matt Uelmen, the genius behind the music. Apparently he used over 200 live takes to record the music and have over 40 minutes of listening pleasure. Also veteran voice actress Lani Minella does some of the voiceovers as well. Other sounds are quite distinctive and at times in-your-face like explosions, slashing and so forth. For a small budget the sound quality is none other than dazzling.
Considering the small development time, there's no multiplayer option to speak off yet originally Torchlight was meant to be a MMO. This does not say there's no replayability as the dungeons are all randomly created. Also once you finish the main quest there's another dungeon that opens up. This dungeon boasts unlimited levels and of course eventually will murder your character as s/he maximum level is 99. I managed to reach to level 54 before I 'retired' my destroyer. What this means is that retiring your character you can no longer play him / her however passes down a cool weapon for your next character to use. And if you are still bored after all that the modding community is very strong so you can install extra features like a pet gorilla for example. Actually I used this and yep this fella is very cool!
Torchlight can easily be considered an action role playing game (RPG). It follows the same successful formulas of previous action RPGs like Titan's Quest, Dungeon Siege or even Diablo where you choose a hero to your liking, equip them and start mouse clicking until your heart's content. Yet to those who are new in this field will welcome Torchlight with open arms as it's a very simple yet addictive game to play. Veterans won't be disappointed either due to the many difficulty levels (including the hardcore mode where once your character dies it's game over literally). Yes it's not a terribly 'detailed' game however developers Runic Games intension was originally a MMO. They also stated that Torchlight is a preview of things to come. And with a price tag of just $20 you really cannot go wrong.