Competent action/RPG with some minor hiccups is a still enjoyable, if not pricey good time.
Introduction: A type of game that surprisingly hasn't gotten much love this generation is the Action/RPG, or affectionately known as dungeon crawler. Regulated primarily to PC or to MMORPG's, one of the more popular games in the past few years to come out was developed for Xbox Live: Torchlight. And while PC ports tend to be deluted when they reach consoles, Runic manages to create the game to fit consoles rather well...with some hitches of course.
Achievements: Torchlight's achievements can basically all be attained through 1 playthrough of the game, which can be a disappointment for those who want extra motivation to go through the game again. You get an achievement for killing each of the main bosses in the game, plus doing auxiliary things in the game, such as enchanting a single weapon 5 or 10 times and sending your pet to sell your loot. Overall, it's fairly easy to get all of the achievements, especially since there isn't a requirement in difficulty to attain any achievements.
Classes: There are three classes in Torchlight: Destroyer (warrior), Vanquisher (ranger/thief) and Alchemist (mage). Each class has a speciality in either Melee, Ranged Attack or Magic. That being said, each of these classes can be cross-bred with different abilities. For example, the Destroyer can not only have skills that up his damage, but also have skills that give him pets, which is usually a speciality of the Alchemist.
Each character gives you a different way of playing the game. If you just want to straight up hack and slash through the game Dynasty Warriors style, Destroyer is your class. You like setting traps and attack from a distance? Vanquisher is your best class. Like to run with a posse of elementals while performing all sorts of buffs and spells? Then you go Alchemist.
The three classes are distinct enough to be different, but aren't exactly deep enough to keep you playing for hours even after you beat the game. Spells and abilities do look impressive, but largely do become repetitive. There is a slight feeling that, no matter how you play any of the characters, you can pretty much make it how you want to make it despite it's preset abilities, which can be disappointing in a sense.
In the end, the characters you have are dictated by the loot you claim, which brings us to our next discussion...
Loot and Leveling Frequency and Valuability: With gameplay that can border on repetitive, it's important that a game feels like your constantly improving and getting better to progress through the game. In Torchlight, it feels like every floor you pass through you not only get better, you also get better stuff. Leveling up in the game seems to progress at a steady, almost perfect clip. This keeps the game addictive and from feeling stale or that you're on a constant treadmill.
Every 5 levels, you get access to a new group of spells or buffs, which makes your character a little more impressive and fun to use. Every time you go down the tech tree, you gain even better and more impressive abilities and spells.
After nearly an hour of play, it's easy to earn about 3 - 5 levels, depending on your difficulty level and what level you are at the moment.
Abilities can only get you so far, as loot is the main thing that keeps most gamers through the dungeons. Loot comes in different types of uniqueness and abilities, as well as different types of enchantments and sockets that can be placed on the items itself. Any type of weapon, armor or accessory can be socketed or enchanted, which gives you a great deal of customization to come up with the perfect looking armor that gives you the strengths you need.
And as you go through the game, you get better and better armor and weapons that keep you coming back to go through the dungeons.
This part of Torchlight is excellent and keeps dungeon hackers coming back until they complete the game. The constant stream of rewards you get from playing the game feels rewarding with every minute you play the game.
Game Mechanics: Now, something that can make or break a hack and slash action-RPG is the controls. On PC, it's easy to control: Just point and click-click-click. On consoles, however, it becomes more of a challenge. Should we give the player full control or should we make it more grid based, like a Mystery Dungeon game? Do we just mash one button constantly or create arbitrary combos?
Depending on how you play, there are differences in the mechanics in the game. This reviewer played as the Alchemist throughout his playthrough and had no problems with the controls and gameflow whatsoever. Spells are mapped easily on the LT, RT, B and Y buttons with standard attacks on the X button. While using wands, which is a standard weapon for the alchemist, it was fairly easy to use, thanks to its auto-aim and auto tracking of the enemy.
Melee attacks are easy: just hold the X button and the character will automatically attack in the direction you are facing. The controller vibrates with each hit, which helps to dictate feedback for hitting an enemy.
Seldomly, I would pick up a decent gun or bow in the game, which I would have a slight problem with. These weapons are tracked like Melee weapons: just face a direction and attack. That being said, while you hold a direction, your character seems to move slightly after every shot, which can be annoying and frustrating at times when you're trying to support your AI allies or hit a target accurately.
AI companions, including your pet, seem rather intellegent in helping you out throughout your quest. In regards to the pet, this reviewer found him going to his pet very little in regards to giving fish to feed it. However, the usefulness of the pet casting spells in the game really helped make the game a lot better to manage.
Another suspect aspect to the mechanics is inventory. Allowing only 50 pieces of inventory total sounds like a reasonable, if not plentiful amount of room for all of your weapons...until you realize that the 50 pieces also include fish, socketable items and potions. Streamlining an inventory system for consoles is understandable: but a gem doesn't take the same amount of room as a hammer or sword and it shouldn't. Not only that, your pet and your stash chests hold the same restrictions.
Finally, sorting out inventory would have been a great feature to have, especially in regards to gems and potions. Transmuting items, where you combine two items to create one, would have been a lot less time consuming if I was able to sort out all of the items. Instead, moving all over the menus and stashes are the only way to see if you have a certain gem or item.
All in all, when actually playing the game, it's a very competent and sound game to play with only some minor hiccups. That said, half of the fun of this type of game is collecting loot and if the inventory makes you need to sell goods every 5 - 10 minutes, it's pretty hampered. And you could also argue that it's not that bad since you can send your pet to town to sell your stuff...except that you're wrong because you have to make a pivital choice as to sending your only co-op partner out on a grocery run. Oh, which reminds me...
Multiplayer: There is none. Yes, you probably already knew this. And to some, this isn't a big deal. However, multiplayer in a hack/slash RPG with an emphasis on loot gets a lot more legs out of it by playing with friends, trading loot and showing how awesome your character looks. That is pretty much not there and it does severely hamper the replayability.
Final Verdict: Playing through the game is an enjoyable, technically sound romp that will last you roughly 5 - 7 hours...but there really isn't any motivation for me to go back into the mines of Torchlight. Still, there wasn't a moment where I was bored, overwhelmed or not motivated to get the next piece of loot or get to the next level, so for those who just want a solid action RPG, it is recommended. Just not for $15.
Intangibles:
Don't care about multiplayer or trading? - Add 1 point - Despite it being a key, integral part of the Action-RPG mold, there are some who don't care about playing with others. If that is the case, add one point.
Is $15 for this game "not a big deal"? - Add 1 point - To some, $15 for a good time isn't a big deal. If you're totally okay with paying $15 for this game, go ahead and add another point.
Like easy achievements? - Add .5 points - Hey, sometimes you'll play a game for some easy 200 points. Go ahead and buy it and beat it to get all 200, easy.
Prefer to play a Melee only character? - Subtract .5 points - First off, melee characters are dull in itself and unless you spec your character to have powerful pets, all you will be doing is holding X for 5 - 7 hours. Be wary and just take a half a point off the score.
Prefer to play a Ranged (not Magic) only character? - Subtract 1 point - Ranged characters require precision and great placement...which is hard on Torchlight since there is no hold button for movement. If you will play as a Ranged character, subtract 1 point.
Don't care about the game "Torchlight" and it's "cred"? Just want to play a decent hack and slash? - Subtract 2 points - Honestly, Torchlight is like every other Action-RPG of its type...it's just more cartoony looking. Torchlight isn't the second coming (that is Diablo III apparently), so if you aren't easily impressed, you might not be with Torchlight.
Finally, if you have 1200MP and you want to play a game like this, but with multiplayer, Arkadian Warriors is 400MP, will last you just as long as has multiplayer. It is dated looking and not as polished, but still a competent action-RPG.