Torchlight is mindless and addictive, though questionably fun.
Cons: Lame story; Gameplay is fairly shallow; Late game difficulty spike
My history with Diablo-style games is a bit shaky. I tried Diablo 1 and 2, and failed to get hooked on either. I tried Borderlands and despite its FPS mechanics (which I usually enjoy), that one also failed to captivate me. The sequel was no better. Nonetheless, I still find myself trying to enjoy these types of games, for some reason: possibly a desire to see the appeal of such popular games; perhaps stupidity. Probably both.
Thus I was put in a bit of a weird position when Torchlight was included in Humble Indie Bundle 6 (which I bought without hesitation). This was a game that I would have otherwise completely avoided that I now owned. Was I going to let it go to waste? And suddenly there I was, trying out another game in the Diablo vein. Much to my surprise, I actually finished this one. I WANTED to finish this one. And yet there's still one thing that's bugging me. A question that keeps nagging at the back of my mind. Did I have fun?
Now, that seems like an odd question, particularly since I mentioned that I felt a desire to keep playing this game until I finished it (at least one play through), but I really can't figure out if the experience was "fun." Combat in Torchlight is a simple affair: click to attack enemies, and queue up a few spells, potions, and other miscellaneous items to help you manage your fights. Any strategy is derived from either group management or careful application of potions/spells. Combat can usually be boiled down to managing crowds, prioritizing certain enemies first, and then using potions whenever your health or mana runs low. This might be generalizing things a bit, sure, but it rarely gets more complicated than that. I couldn't tell you honestly that I found combat that fun.
And that's all there is to Torchlight: combat. There are no puzzles. Exploration is rudimentary, with a few forks in the dungeon merely leading to a few more enemies and some loot. And the story is laughable, with its clichés and melodrama abundant. The music and graphics are nice (the latter being pleasantly cartoony and colorful-yeah that's right Diablo fans, I like colorful graphics!), but let's be honest, those are never a valid reason to play a game on their own.
Instead, it seems what drew me back to Torchlight was-of all things-its pacing. Where Torchlight excels (and boy does it excel) is in its ability to constantly provide you with new…things. Torchlight provides tons and tons of randomly generated loot, as any Diablo-clone should. You rarely go far without an enemy dropping at least SOMETHING of use to you. Only a few more minutes and you could have a new piece of loot. Oh, but then your inventory gets full. Better send your pet back or create a portal to town so you can sell everything. Well that will only take a second. And you know what? You've done a few floors in this section of the dungeon, surely there must be a boss soon if you just play one more floor... And cripes, suddenly you've spent another three hours on the game.
That is the cycle Torchlight creates: an exquisitely paced loop of small, moment-to-moment actions to keep you focused on the next few minutes for hours on end. If you zoom out for a moment and have the liberty of seeing the experience as a whole over the hours, you realize just how little you ACTUALLY accomplished. I could tell you that Torchlight engaged me, and compelled me to play it through to the end. But I can't tell you if the game is fun or if I actually enjoyed it.