First, let me open this post by saying that I’m a long-time Action RPG fan, especially those games that fit the hack-and-slash build that began with the Diablo series; heck, most of my childhood and teenage years were spent playing Diablo and its successor, Diablo II, and I’ve jumped at every chance I’ve had to play other games like them (names like Fate, Titan’s Quest, and the original Torchlight come to mind). Like many other Diablo fans, I’m a bit heartbroken with Diablo III (the game’s great, but there are some major flaws in item design, in my opinion, which broke the high-level game for me), and having enjoyed the first Torchlight game, I’ve been looking forward to taking a look at its second instalment; I’ve finally had the chance to pour a couple of hours into the game, and am here to share my thoughts and opinions.
Being a hardened fan of hack-and-slash RPGs, I promptly hit the “Elite” difficulty while creating my Embermage – the game’s version of the traditional “glass cannon” wizardry character -, the hardest difficulty available, hoping to find some challenge in the game. The opening cinematic was enjoyable to see, and I liked the art style; a good start. The game opened into quality graphics that are not amazing, but not too shabby either, and which didn’t manage to cause a great impression – I’m not a player who cares too much for graphics, though, so I don’t count Tochlight II’s graphics as either a positive or negative aspect; they simply get the job done, I think.
The first few levels were incredibly easy despite my choosing of “Elite” difficulty, but that was to be expected as a new player adjusts to the new systems and explores the game and their character. As I entered the 10’s range of levels, things started to become a little bit more fun; encounters with normal monsters are still a breeze (I’m at level 14 currently), but a few types are dangerous if you become distracted, especially ranged monsters, and those elite mobs with unique names always require a bit more of caution and strategy. Boss fights so far have been incredibly fun and challenging, with the boss themselves being hard-hitting and hard to kill, and spawning tons of dangerous, usually ranged mobs. With all of this, though, I’m finding the difficulty still a bit too easy; I’ve only died once so far, and that because I got distracted with something from outside the game. This was actually something I had disliked about the first game as well, it being too easy, but at least “Elite” is giving a nice enough challenge in Torchlight II, while on the original’s hardest difficulty the game was still boringly easy.
The Embermage is a lot of fun to play, especially while dual-wielding Wands. I’ve pumped all of my attributes so far into Focus, guaranteeing some great Magic Damage and reaching almost 25% chance of “Executing”, causing the character to attack with both Wands at the same time, for combined damage, which is awesome to see on top of the mechanical bonuses. The Embermage’s skills are awesome, providing plenty of different usages and cool effects (of special note is the passive skill Wand Chaos, which creates random effects on attacks made by wands, which are cool on top of being powerful). The items so far have been diverse and interesting, with the magic jewels adding a nice touch to it all; my only problem with it so far is that I’ve encountered plenty of unique and set items… but none for my class! This isn’t a design flaw, though, just a personal problem with the random number generator. ;)
Lastly, the story of the game isn’t that great, but it is very hard to have a compelling story in a hack-and-slash RPG anyway. When you look at Diablo III’s story, for example, which could have been much better from what it was, Torchlight II isn’t that far behind.
All in all, Torchlight II has been a fun experience, and while I’m still very much at the beginning of the game, I’ve been enjoying it. Once I’ve completed it (or quit it, though I don’t think that will happen), I’ll come back to post additional, more informed, thoughts.
-JNicolini
Dragon's Temple 