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Game Review: Torchlight 2

CowboyNeal writes: "Last week was a big week for gamers, with the release of both Borderlands 2 as well as Torchlight 2. I already shared my thoughts on the former last week, so I got to playing the latter over the weekend. Torchlight 2 is the follow-up to Torchlight, the 2009 point-and-click ARPG created by Runic Games. What's new that the first game didn't have? And, the big question, how does it stack up against Diablo 3? Click the link below to learn my impressions of the game."

A Testimonial, and a Confession

First, I have to admit some bias here. When Diablo 2 came out over a decade ago, it was my favorite game for quite some time. Its expansion pack only cemented its position as the best game of all time, for me. It's key to note here, that Diablo 2 was only the best game ever in my opinion, and eventually it aged and got to the point where it was nigh unplayable on modern computers. I even tried going back several times in the past few years, and just found it too archaic to function properly on modern hardware. It desperately needed either some patches or a successor to bring it up to date.

When Blizzard Entertainment announced Diablo 3, I couldn't have been happier. At last, an updated version of the best game ever would be available. However, something felt odd about Diablo 3 even before I ever played it. Blizzard kept reviews at bay until after release via a restrictive NDA. That's fairly common, and not enough to raise suspicion alone, but still odd that there weren't more early peeks allotted to the usual media channels. Even after its release, the demo was only available by invite. I couldn't even download the demo for Diablo 3 unless someone who had already bought the game gave me a code. Now something smelled fishy. So I held onto my sixty dollars, which while would be a small price to pay for the best game ever, it seemed like Diablo 3 wouldn't be that game. Eventually I was able to wrangle a demo code from someone who had bought the game and wanted to lure me into playing it. I didn't get very far into the demo before I got a quest just to use a waypoint. Perhaps they didn't realize that I have killed Diablo and his brothers dozens if not hundreds of times already. I know how to work a waypoint. I need monsters to kill. Out of respect for the franchise, I kept on. I even finished the demo, but by the time I did so, it was clear to me, that Diablo 3 was going to be a giant let-down for me. Whatever fun I had with Diablo 2 was done and gone, and would stay in the past.

I had had the good fortune of playing Torchlight, and like just about everyone else, my biggest complaint was that the game had no multiplayer. Other than the lack of multiplayer, I thought it was just about perfect. Given my previous love for Diablo 2, this shouldn't be any sort of surprise. So now at long last, Runic has released the multiplayer-enabled Torchlight 2. Similar to the old "Open Battle.Net" games of Diablo 2, you can play the same character in single player, LAN, and internet games. This proved to be key, as on release day, Runic's servers melted from the onslaught of players. Internet games were finally enabled a couple days later, but in the meantime, plenty of single player and LAN games were had. Through the creative usage of some VPNs, I was even able to play LAN games over the internet.

Once More Into the Fray

The game starts off in the ruins of the town of Torchlight. Wait a second, didn't I save the town from Ordrak at the bottom of the mines and whatever else was down there? Well, it turns out that I did, so long as I wasn't playing an alchemist. The alchemist, on the other hand, was corrupted by the heart of Ordrak and immediately knew that he had to burn down the town, and leave a path of death and destruction across the land as he began his new plot to destroy the world. Okay, so the plot isn't Hugo Award caliber stuff here, but neither was "Diablo lived somehow, and you have to go kill him again," nor was "Hey, why don't you just run on into this dungeon and fetch me the Amulet of Yendor." Really the plot is just a means to goad me into venturing into areas that I haven't already taken it upon myself to go explore and kill everything in.

That brings us down to what the real fun in any point-and-click ARPG is. Taking on and killing hordes of enemies at once, securing an area, and then reaping the immediate rewards in the form of experience and loot. The Torchlight series has traded in the grimdark setting of Diablo for an art style that's a bit more cartoon-like, but the core gameplay survives. This is a feature that Torchlight 2 recreates flawlessly. Combat is fast, frenetic, and visceral. Enemies have a chance to explode into a pile of gibs, leaving bloodstains on the ground. Frozen enemies can be shattered into chunks of ice. Often the action happens so fast, that creatures can be slain before I'm even aware they exist. It's exactly the opposite of the first act of Diablo 3, which comparatively felt like drudgery.

Building the Perfect Warrior

There's four classes to choose from in Torchlight 2, and while they follow some archetypes, they're also rather configurable in how they're played via skills and weapon choices. The embermage is a classic spellcaster who uses staves and wands, and can learn many different spells to put down his enemies. The outlander is a ranged class that excels at nearly every sort of ranged weapon. The berserker is a melee damage class that can gain bonuses from using two weapons of the same type. And last but not least, is the engineer, a versatile class that can use shields, two-handed weapons, and even cannons, or some combination of those, depending on skill set. It's important to note here, that every class can wield every weapon, there's just not always a bonus for doing so. You're free to make a berserker who uses shotguns, for example, there's just not many skills for the class to support it.

Skills aren't tied to any sort of tree structure like they were before. You only need to be of a skill's required level to unlock it. Active skills such as spells, will also confer a bonus after investing five, ten, or fifteen points into them. Leveling up a character also isn't the only way to gain skill points. As you gain in fame from killing bosses and random named mobs, you acquire a skill point for every level of fame you've achieved as well.

Keep Going Back For More

It took me a little over 20 hours to save the world, on my first trip through on normal difficulty. Normal difficulty was still rather easy, and I think my next trip through the world will be at the veteran level. There are however, still a number of activities for my first character to do. Completing the game unlocks the Mapworks, a robot-run area where you can load custom maps to complete. It's also possible to create a new world that begins at your current level, so I could start a new game with that character where the first monsters would be around level 50. Because the dungeons and open areas outside towns are randomly generated, a second playthrough manages to still feel somewhat fresh. Combine that with a character class that you haven't played before, or a new set of skills for one that you have, and there's lots of reasons to keep replaying.

But is this the new best game ever?

In short, yes. I've spent time reading people's meager, whiny complaints about this gift of the gods that has been put on sale for a mere twenty dollars. Sure, you can only reallocate the last three skill points you've spent, and you can't redo all your stats and skills once you're leveled up. That's so that you learn from your mistakes and go back and play the game again. There's no one to hold your hand to find the area where the quest is at. There's a marker on your map for you to aim for, and that's more than any player deserves. The quests are still rather simplistic, and of the form to go kill someone or a group of someones, or to collect a thing, or a group of things. Again, the quests are merely a vehicle to get you into new areas. If you happen to kill the guy that advances the plot, that's a bonus. If you stop to talk to an NPC, the world does not stop for you. Enemies will continue to attack you as you choose your quest reward, because you were too stupid to clear out the area of any possible threats before sitting down to talk. I think I've now sufficiently debunked any negative points I've read in other reviews. If you don't like point-and-click ARPG games, you're not going to like this one. No one is going to change the entire genre to enable someone's crazy ideas. Well, unless it's Diablo 3, and look how that turned out. Sure it sold well, but I would now have to waterboard my friends into admitting that they fell for purchasing it.

My biggest complaint about this most perfect game, is that there's no Mac or Linux versions, yet. I say yet, because three years after the first game was released, we even have a Linux version now. You can pick it up, DRM-free, right now for a limited time, for the price of whatever-you-want, as part of the Humble Indie Bundle 6. You can donate some or all of the price to the EFF as well. Shameless plugs aside, it may take a few years but eventually Torchlight 2 should make the rounds as well. Runic Games has a lot in store for the game yet, such as console versions, as well as Steam Workshop integration, which will enable easy mod installation. Mod support will presumably let players redo their skills and stats, and cheat if they want to.

52 of 221 comments (clear)

  1. Good by i+kan+reed · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Since Diablo 3 is a DRM'd monstrosity, I'll give this a try, just to help show blizzard why they aren't getting money.

    1. Re:Good by Quirkz · · Score: 2

      I pre-ordered Torchlight 2 when Diablo 3 came out and I concluded I wouldn't buy it because of the always-online requirement. However, I never got any notices that Torchlight 2 had become available, so until just a few minutes ago I didn't realize it was out. Apparently Steam doesn't bother sending notices when pre-orders are released, unless a spam filter ate it or something.

      I'm looking forward to giving the game a shot, though after about 1.5 playthroughs of the original Torchlight I started to find that game a little hollow, as it seemed to mostly boil down to a lot of dice rolls while attempting to enchant equipment, and mostly failing. I still figure I can get my money's worth out of the game before the fun fades.

    2. Re:Good by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      If you or anybody else wants to buy Torchlight because of their issues with D3, send a message to Activision/Blizzard by emailing or sending them your receipt for your purchase of Torchlight (or whatever else you spent your money on).

      Not buying their product is one thing (they might just attribute it as a loss to piracy). Showing them that you had the money *and* inclination to buy something but instead bought a competitors product is a whole other thing.

    3. Re:Good by Chris+Burke · · Score: 2

      I think it's more like complaining that the alarm clock in the room didn't go off after you unplugged the phone, and them explaining how even though one might think an alarm clock doesn't need a phone connection, automatically updating the time on the clock does require the phone connection, and while sure one could theoretically have designed the alarm to function normally in the absence of a phone connection only minus the features the connection enables rather than disable it completely, but they didn't do it that way and so here we are.

      I don't really mind the online requirement of D3 -- mostly because I'm not trying to play it so much that it matters if I can't those times I'm not connected. I have other games.

      But the complaint is still valid because one does not normally associate single-player non-AH activities with requiring an internet connection, it is perfectly possible to design a game such that this is the case, and so the decision to do it differently can be questioned.

      --

      The enemies of Democracy are
    4. Re:Good by hairyfeet · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Dude I gotta say...TORCHLIGHT 2 ROCKS!!! I pre-ordered for me and my boys, they had a cool deal where you could pay $60 (the same as a single copy of D3) and get 4 copies of Torchlight 1 AND get 4 of Torchlight II on release, what a steal! BTW you can still get 4 copies for $60 but I don't think you get TL 1 for free like if you pre-ordered.

      Torchlight 1 is still a blast but to me its not the MP that was missing, it was the challenge. You could save up gems and build a "weapon of ultimate ass kickery" and just slaughter the entire game. Now not only did they fix this but LOOOT BABY LOOOT! The loot is cool but you gotta seriously hunt and fight and you WILL die even on normal level, these bad guys don't play around! There is this Manticore boss out in the desert and when we hit that place it was like walking into hell, just fire and explosions and lightning, and when you are playing MP with friends or family here is some KILLER things about MP..1.-Everyone gets their own loot, no loot snatching, 2.-Trading is simple and easy, if you get something your buddy can use or he gets a cool weapon you need for the set you're building? Swap in seconds. 3.-Bad guys ramp up a LOT when you add players, no going in with your buds and just laying waste, you better bring your A game because they sure do!

      I know everyone is gonna compare to Diablo 3, but I don't think that is fair or right. They built D3 to be an online only MMO style real money market thing, while Torchlight 2 takes all we loved about D1 and D2 and dungeon crawlers and just ramps it to 11, making everything better! It really makes it a community, even going so far as to say "Modders are welcome here, come on in!" so we'll be seeing cool stuff added to Torchlight for years, which is something I LOVE LOVE LOVE to see games do, it adds so much to an already great game!

      So if you like RPGs? If you like dungeon crawlers? If you liked Diablo 1 and 2? if you don't like always on DRM and real money markets? then BUY TORCHLIGHT 2 NOW! The first time we played the boys kept popping up in game "You only paid $20 a copy for this? Seriously? this rocks!" and I have to agree, its the most fun I've had in an RPG dungeon crawler in years, great loot, great sets, great drops, hard bad guys and bosses,lots of secrets and easter eggs (be sure to look for a basket near where you find the lotion for a cute "Silence of the Lambs" riff) its just a fricking blast!

      --
      ACs don't waste your time replying, your posts are never seen by me.
    5. Re:Good by CodeHxr · · Score: 5, Informative

      If you or anybody else wants to buy Torchlight because of their issues with D3, send a message to Activision/Blizzard by emailing or sending them your receipt for your purchase of Torchlight (or whatever else you spent your money on).

      Not buying their product is one thing (they might just attribute it as a loss to piracy). Showing them that you had the money *and* inclination to buy something but instead bought a competitors product is a whole other thing.

      Too bad you posted that anonymously... I will do this when I get home tonight because it will also indicate that not only did I have the money for their game, I got *four* copies of their competitor's game for the same price as their own. Bonus points for "their competitor" being developers that were originally a part of Blizzard.

  2. No Crafting by oGMo · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I think my biggest complaint is the same as Borderlands 2 .. no crafting to break up the slay-collect-sell rinse-repeat. I guess if you like slay-collect-sell that much, this game is perfect for you. If you want to set your own goals for finding rare components and crafting powerful gear, you're SOL, but that's not everyone's cup of tea.

    On the other hand, TorchED is promised, and moddable games are good, which is what sold me. Hopefully someone can add to the gameplay!

    --

    Don't think of it as a flame---it's more like an argument that does 3d6 fire damage

    1. Re:No Crafting by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Right because that's totally relevant since every game has to be an exact feature-scrape of another. You must work for Zynga.

    2. Re:No Crafting by omglolbah · · Score: 4, Interesting

      You can at least merge set items and various types of equipment into new random pieces in Torchlight 2.
      Not nearly as much of a crafting system as I would like to see, but better than the usual "this item is not for my class, vendor trash..."

    3. Re:No Crafting by shutdown+-p+now · · Score: 3

      Just because the game has an easy exploit in its stat system doesn't mean that you have to actually exploit it, you know. No-one is forcing you to craft those Potions of Fortify Smithing/Echanting 1000000%, and doing so requires deliberate work, so just don't do it?

      Granted, regular crafting in Skyrim is still somewhat overpowered. But then you still have to waste skill points to unlock enough of the tree to let you craft the really powerful stuff (glass/ebony/daedric/dragon) - which, if you dungeon crawl, you might as well invest into some combat or magic skills instead.

      Besides, Elder Scrolls games were always hilariously unbalanced, crafting or not. For example, if you knew where to go and had just the right character build, you could get a full set of daedric armor before hitting level 3 in Morrowind - though it required quite a bit more of an effort compared to stacking potions in Skyrim. Still, the choice always was and remains to simply not do it.

  3. A video flick with included masturbation button. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Torchlight 2 still didn't manage to give me anything that Dungeon Siege 2 did...

    The WoW-esque graphics are such an extreme turn-off, and the fact that anyone from Blizzard had so major an influence on the game is just as much a boner-kill. Torchlight 2 had promise, but didn't deliver any more than Diablo 3 did. Mashing a single button and watching random numbers float by isn't fun, and is definitely not all that an ARPG can accomplish, but Torchlight 2 has literally nothing else. There's no choices or complexity, it's strictly mindless in all the bad ways. So much so that it ceases to even be mindless fun.

    I require engagement from my games. That is to say, I require them to be games -- you know, interactive and thoughtful?

  4. Linux support by drinkypoo · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I had hoped that the Linux release of the original meant that the sequel would have it from the beginning. Unfortunately, this is not the case, which means I won't be purchasing this game now, I don't want more Windows software. Hopefully they'll do a Linux port of this game before it becomes irrelevant. Too bad they don't have one now, or they could have my twenty bucks, too.

    --
    "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
    1. Re:Linux support by drinkypoo · · Score: 3, Insightful

      It probably would have cost more than twenty bucks to make a Linux port.

      I know you think you're funny, but most people spend more than I do on the humble bundles (well, most linux users) so clearly there's a paying linux games market out there, and given that most people are willing to spend more than I am, if I'm willing to buy this game, there's probably a bunch of other people willing to do the same. The engine probably didn't have to change dramatically between games (though what do I know?) and if it didn't then there's no excuse for there not being a Linux version right now.

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
    2. Re:Linux support by amicusNYCL · · Score: 4, Insightful

      then there's no excuse for there not being a Linux version right now.

      That statement is a little naive. They will release the Linux version when it is ready. They aren't going to sit on the Windows version once it's done just so that they can also finish the Linux version before starting to sell either one. And there's no reason to split the team into 2 versions doing simultaneous development when they should focus the entire team on making the game great and polished, on whatever platform they want first (turns out they picked the one with the biggest market share), and then refocus the entire team into porting to other platforms. They can be making money on sales while they're working on the platforms with smaller market shares. It makes perfect sense to do that if they happen to be one of those companies that is working with finite resources.

      --
      "Our two-party system is like a bowl of shit looking at itself in a mirror." - Lewis Black
  5. My sentiments exactly... by Freddybear · · Score: 2

    I think I had exactly the same experience with this game. I like the cartoony art style and the fast chaotic battles. "Normal" difficulty seemed like Easy Mode, and I ran through it with an Embermage in about 23 hours of play. "Veteran" difficulty, on the other hand, requires some attention to get the build right and constantly keeping up with weapon and armor upgrades. But there is plenty of all that to choose from, and each of the character types can win with one of several different build styles. I might even stick my toe into the Elite waters.

    1. Re:My sentiments exactly... by Qzukk · · Score: 2

      "Normal" difficulty seemed like Easy Mode

      Yeah, that seems to be about right. I can't even imagine what Casual mode must be like. I started my first character on Normal, got through a few dungeons, hit level 12 and realized I had never invested a single skill point. I was still playing an outlander with the original one point in that throwing skill, doing just fine. On top of that, everything short of boss battles couldn't even injure my pet. I'd watch my ferret run around, on fire, taking hits from all sorts of skeletons or whatever, and not even see a pixel of black in his bar.

      I'm thinking of just writing off the 2-3 hours I put in and starting over on Veteran, because honestly on Normal you really can just stand there and mash one button through all of the normal battles, or just not mash any buttons and let the pet take care of it (though it would take a while, pet damage output seems really low compared to defense, and both the pet and the enemy AI has ADD when it comes to attacking each other).

      --
      If I have been able to see further than others, it is because I bought a pair of binoculars.
  6. Pedigree by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Interesting

    The review forgot to mention that the creators of Diablo 2 left Blizzard North and Diablo 3 was made by a whole new crew. Granted those guys have some pedigree too, but not in the ARPG genre (Fallout, Total Annihilation, etc.). Several of the Blizzard North guys eventually worked their way around to Runic games, and TL 1 and 2 are both products of the guys who made Diablo 2.

    There's a reason TL 2 plays so well and is so friendly to players the way D2 was. I've often thought but never had proof of it until now: video games are an art and are about vision of the team leads. Programming is important, graphics are important, but those are technical aspects; gameplay is an art form and very dependent upon who is making the game, not what studio, or what graphics or technical aspects it has. No set of games have illustrated this point more clearly than the recent launches of D3 and TL2.

    1. Re:Pedigree by coldandcalculating · · Score: 5, Interesting

      It's worth mentioning that the guy who did the music for D1 and D2 is also at Runic..

      Who can ever forget the reverberating guitar chord that welcomed you first into the world of Diablo?

    2. Re:Pedigree by afidel · · Score: 3, Informative

      You can get the entire TL2 soundtrack for free here. I though that was a nice gift from the guys at Runic (makes me feel a bit better about the lifetime Hellgate subscription).

      --
      There are 4 boxes to use in the defense of liberty: soap, ballot, jury, ammo. Use in that order. Starting now.
  7. Good deal for $20 by DoofusOfDeath · · Score: 2, Informative

    I haven't played D3, but I've played TL1 and D2, and I've now played through TL2.

    Cons: In my opinion, the storytelling of TL2 is somewhat less compelling and expansive than was that of D2. Also, the D2 had good cinematics, and most (all?) of its narration was recorded voices, rather than just text that you have to read.

    Pros: Lots of fun, low hardware requirements, good randomization of maps. Fun approach to playing random maps after you beat the game (I'm not going to spoil it.) No DRM.

    And last but not least, it's a great entertainment value for $20. Money very well in my case. From the reviews, I don't think I would have considered $60 for D3 to be a worthwhile purchase.

  8. Same player in local and multiplayer: cheating? by ant-1 · · Score: 2

    This is not really a comment, more of a question: wasn't the biggest complain about Diablo 2 the fact that it was wide open to cheating/hacking due to the fact that you could bring online the stuff you acquired offline? I'm not really familiar with the genre, I only played like three D2 sessions and no torchlight so don't bash me for my ignorance but isn't it exactly the same here ?

    What is gonna prevent my neighbor's kid from hacking the sandworm-slaying-axe-of-madness and bringing it online to cut me in half? Damn kid, always playing on my lawn instead of grinding his gear like a real man.

    1. Re:Same player in local and multiplayer: cheating? by psycho12345 · · Score: 2

      It is. Basically since it is fully moddable with no server of any kind really (the game runs P2P), there is nothing stopping people from changing their char to anything. Runic did already disable console commands in multiplayer and do have a way to show that you are using a modded char, but since everything is client side, that will almost certainly be bypassed. Basically, TL2 and D3 took the 2 halves of D2 game play and went full bore in opposite directions. TL2 has no secure server of any kind, whereas D3 is only that. Both gain some advantages from that but they also emphasize the disadvantages. TL2 will never have any large scale anything, there is 0 point to PvP or trading with anyone, or with ladder seasons. The game pretty much is for solo play, LAN play and for small groups of trusted people. Otherwise it is no differnt then D2 Open B.net aka a Hackfest Free for All. D3 will obviously not have offline play and LAN, but for the most part, people can reasonably (not perfect of course) trade and (when they get it patched in) PvP.

    2. Re:Same player in local and multiplayer: cheating? by Yosho · · Score: 2

      This is not really a comment, more of a question: wasn't the biggest complain about Diablo 2 the fact that it was wide open to cheating/hacking due to the fact that you could bring online the stuff you acquired offline?

      That is a complaint, but not really a big one. There's a vocal minority that complains about it, but most people don't really care what other people do as long as it's not affecting their own game.

      What is gonna prevent my neighbor's kid from hacking the sandworm-slaying-axe-of-madness and bringing it online to cut me in half?

      For one, PVP is not only entirely consensual, you also have to enable the console and know the right command to enable it. It's impossible for somebody to attack you unless you both know how and consent to it.

      But that aside, if somebody jumps into your game with a level 100 character and starts one-shotting everything and you don't want them to, the solution is pretty easy: kick them out of your game and ban them. Problem solved.

      --
      Karma: Terrifying (mostly affected by atrocities you've committed)
  9. Re:Can you change the keybindings? by bedonnant · · Score: 5, Informative

    yes, you can.

    --
    ~~~ Paf. Le chien.
  10. Diablo 3 is fine. by Petersko · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I got my $60 out of it, and so did almost everybody who's bitching about it. I don't know where anybody got this idea that their one-time payment (that has become progressively cheaper as it failed to increase with inflation) should give them hundreds of hours of entertainment.

    If you check your played time and it's over 100 hours, maybe you should stop whining about how crappy you think it is, because clearly your bitchy brain and your gaming brain are having an argument.

    Actually, the old man in me wishes the entire gaming community would benefit from a complete media blackout when it comes to video games. Then they can buy a game without expectations, enjoy it without absorbing the negative crap from other gamers, and be satisfied.

    1. Re:Diablo 3 is fine. by Feneban · · Score: 3, Insightful

      I don't think the point was getting your $60 worth. D3 was in "development" for 10 years and it ended up having the main feature ended up being the Real Money Auction House. For the time that Blizzard invested in the game, one would expect more than 4 Act's of similar looking tilesets and models. I've only played through 2.5 Acts of Torchlight 2 and I'm pretty sure I've seen at least twice the models that D3 had. I was able to sell $40 worth of gear on the RMAH to at least get some of my money back on D3.

    2. Re:Diablo 3 is fine. by steelfood · · Score: 5, Insightful

      What? Where did money and hours of gameplay come into this? Sure, you spent $60 (not to mention it used to be $30 for a decent game) and you expect $60 worth of gameplay. But I don't think that was ever the gripe about Diablo 3.

      Diablo 3 cannot be played offline.

      Diablo 3 cannot be played without a Battle.net account.

      Diablo 3 cannot be played without Blizzard's nod each time.

      Diablo 3 will stop working mid-way through playing if your connection to Blizzard's servers fail.

      What does hours of gameplay have to do with anything when the gripe is about purchasing a product and not be able to play with it whenever, wherever, and however.

      As far as we're concerned, that's not what we define as buying a game, at least not to us pre-MMO generation gamers.

      --
      "If a nation expects to be ignorant and free in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be."
    3. Re:Diablo 3 is fine. by marcop · · Score: 2

      I agree with some of what you mention, but my biggest gripe about D3 is that it wasn't fun. It seemed more like a job than a game. The AH is so heavily integrated that I was spending way too much time in the AH trying to get a good item because the drops generally sucked.

      I've only played a couple hours of TL2 so far and I like it for the price. It is fun so far. I like the D2/D3 atmosphere better. D2/D3 had better storytelling and voice acting. It made the game more immersive. TL2 has some of these, but it could have had more.

      There are some elements of TL2 that are really cool. I really liked the gold mine (can't remember the name). Can't wait to see what more this game has to offer.

      IMO, so far, D2 is the best of the three. With more time perhaps TL2 may outshine it.

    4. Re:Diablo 3 is fine. by shaunbr · · Score: 3, Insightful

      There's definitely a lot of unfounded hate for Diablo 3. It's certainly not Diablo 2, but I got my money's worth out of it.

      The main problem with Diablo 3 is the auction house. Not even the RMAH - just the auction house in general. The main draw to an ARPG, and pretty much the entire endgame, is farming for better loot. In Diablo 2, you had to find all the good gear yourself, or make an effort to seek out other people to trade with. There was an entire rune-based economy that facilitated the trades, but you still had to go to the effort to set prices, find willing buyers/sellers, and complete the transaction.

      With the Diablo 3 auction house, any piece of gear that you could possibly think of - and almost certainly better than any piece you'll ever find on your own - is available to buy with your gold. Some of these items cost next to nothing because the market is so flooded with gear. Why bother grinding for loot when you can get stuff that's so much better so easily? The auction house removed the one major motivator to keep playing like we all did in Diablo 2 - the hope for better loot on whatever you happened to kill next. Without that sense of excitement, there's really no point in playing long term.

    5. Re:Diablo 3 is fine. by lgw · · Score: 3, Insightful

      $500? After how many total hours of D3 gaming? Is this more than minimum wage where you live?

      Gaming because it's fun is one thing, but as a way to make money it's not at all impressive, at least in most places.

      --
      Socialism: a lie told by totalitarians and believed by fools.
    6. Re:Diablo 3 is fine. by MrTester · · Score: 2

      Yeah! I agree! 100%.
      I just wish there was some way to not go out and read reviews of games that I want to buy...

    7. Re:Diablo 3 is fine. by twoallbeefpatties · · Score: 2

      I concur. I cannot help but be amazed at the number of people who think that Blizzard killed their puppies or something. I mean, just look at this thing... "Gift of the gods?" "The new best game ever?" I think Borderlands 2 is probably the game of the year, but I don't think anyone's granted it sainthood yet.

      And then there's this: Sure, you can only reallocate the last three skill points you've spent, and you can't redo all your stats and skills once you're leveled up. That's so that you learn from your mistakes and go back and play the game again. Fuck you, fuck you, fuck you. I'm halfway through Borderlands 2. I want to try Guild Wars 2 when I'm done. I have a double-digit list of games from Steam sales that I haven't gotten around to, including wanting to finish SpaceChem. Do not tell me that it's a bonus for me to have to play a game multiple times in order to figure out what works. That is goddamned Stockholm Syndrome, and I have other things I could be doing.

      I played Diablo 3. I beat inferno with my monk before paragon levels were introduced. I had a full set of good gear, but I stuck with tankier stuff and mostly ignored damage so that I wouldn't need millions of gold in order to buy what I needed. This meant that I couldn't cruise through the last area and had to do a ton of kiting and positioning, but it also meant the last playthrough was a genuine challenge, and I enjoyed the trying to keep up valor stacks while trudging my way through heaven.

      D3 was not the game of the year. The online issues were horrible. The crafting system was unnecessary for what it was. The difficulty of inferno was enjoyable for me since I got what I wanted from the AH, but it also required people to stalk the AH since the just-good gear that they got from drops wasn't enough to go on. But it was also a game that uniquely dared to let me mix and match and try out twenty-five different skills to my heart's content, to find things that I liked or to just experiment when I got bored of one path, and you wouldn't have to torture me to say I liked what I played.

      I will probably buy Torchlight 2 on the winter sale, and then I'll wait until there's a respec mod for cheaters before I turn it on. I want to not be angry about this - I honestly have no issue with games existing for people who are not me. You want a game based on oldschool skill trees and locked-in levelling? Hey, go have fun. But I personally can't play another game where I click the same skill a billion times without getting to try out anything else, only to have to quit at level 30 because the choices I made at level 20 made me too weak to progress further, and there's something that gets under my skin about what seems to be a whole political movement that thinks that makes me a socialist.

      --
      Libertarians somehow believe that private businesses should be stronger than governments but weaker than individuals.
    8. Re:Diablo 3 is fine. by vux984 · · Score: 2

      Someone who would rather work (payment amount / earnings per hour) number of hours and have fun blowing stuff up for an hour instead of grinding for greater than random_number*(payment amount / earnings per hour) hours to get to the same place that would allow them to blow up stuff for an hour?

      Diablo style games are a random number generator grind through near infinite swarms of mobs and countless repetitive dungeons. The grind is the game. If you enjoy the endless mindless clickfest with the swathe of corposes and the occasional piece of loot then play on. If not, then play something else.

      But paying $60 for diablo 3 so you can pay someone else to play it for you because you don't actually enjoy playing diablo 3 is pretty much the absolute pinnacle of stupid.

      The game is not going to be any different with purchased loot. There is no "grind to get somewhere good"... you just grind to get to a new place to grind. Its not an MMO where all the interesting content is at "max level". Its randomly generated dungeons all they way up.

  11. Re:Can you change the keybindings? by Halo1 · · Score: 3, Informative

    Torchlight 1 does not allow you to change keybindings.

    Actually, it does. For some reason, there's no UI for doing so though.

    --
    Donate free food here
  12. Re:4-pack on Steam is only $60 by Minwee · · Score: 5, Funny

    If you have 4 friends(I know that's a stretch) you can buy a 4-pack on Steam

    And then pick the one friend you like the least and tell them they can't play with you. That's brilliant!

  13. Re:Next to WoW by kevkingofthesea · · Score: 2

    There's actually a key (bound to tilde ~ by default) that will move you towards where your cursor is regardless of enemies.

  14. Re:Can you change the keybindings? by Dins · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Wait, who's evil? And why?

    Think he meant Activision/Blizzard. And the fact that Diablo 3 requires you to always be connected to Blizzard's servers even while playing single player, while maybe not pure evil, is the reason I will never buy Diablo 3.

  15. Torchlight 2 is the better Diablo. by Jackie_Chan_Fan · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I've been playing Torchlight 2 for a few days now, and right away I knew this was the better game. The art style is not better because its cartoony, its better because its designed by better artists, who really understand appeal, quality of animation, and design. This game not only looks better, its just more fun. Diablo 3 was a huge let down. Diablo 3 had 1 interesting boss battle and it wasnt the final Diablo battle, which was a complete fucking disaster artistically. I mean Blizzard should redo the end of the game so that there actually is a climax and a resolve. Diablo 3 is so uneventful, and so poorly designed artistically. I'll give Blizzard a nod for a good item system, auction house, and decent shading and lighting but overall Torchilight 2 makes blizzard look like amateurs.

    Even the spells, and abilities all look better, more colorful, better particles, better everything. Torchlight 2 just feels right. And hey its 6 player!

    Torchlight 2 is the best $20s you can spend on games right now. Torchlight 2 is so good, you will feel ripped off by Diablo 3.

  16. Re:D3 was rushed, but is aging well. by vux984 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Early criticism of D3 are valid, but those are a thing of the past.

    No they aren't.

    The core game design is fucking retarded. The gear upgrade path is market based. In some sense its much more efficient to gear up in D3 by playing "auction house trader" than "hack and slash dungeon crawler".

    That's fine if you -want- to play a trading game. But if that's what you want, play EVE or something that actually does a good job of it.

    D3 is a lousy ARPG.

    Its a half decent part time job though.

    larger .... trading market than TL2 ever will

    Well yeah, that's true, but you say it like its a good thing. I don't crawl dungeons so that I can sell things over the internet, to fund buying other things over the internet so that I can crawl dungeons more efficiently in order to sell even more things over the internet.

    I'm happy TL2 will never be that.

    Enjoy your part time job.

    And the new changes around the corner in 1.05 are a vast step in the right direction.

    D3 can't be fixed. They need to start over from scratch.

  17. Re:Can you change the keybindings? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

    One note... I got a friend together to play online and as I was arranging stuff, I accidently clicked this little green magnifying glass icon just to the bottom right of the health globe... it turns off your "loot bubbles" and no manner of going into options to figure out why there were turned off will help. All the "show items" are checked. It was frustrating until my Google fu turned up a link (which wasn't the easiest to find yet as it's not popular enough of a request).

    Hopefully that helps others.

    BTW, Torchlight 2 is awesome. But I'm also a huge fan of the original. I'm more than happy to advocate this game. I spent $60 on Diablo 3 and I'm beyond disappointed. Dare I say I wasted my money? I was a big Blizzard fan. I loved the Starcraft 1, Warcraft 1-3 and played WoW for a short time after CATA. Starcraft 2 was fun. I don't feel like I wasted my money there. But seriously, if company's can start pushing $20 games this good, I hope it sends a message to game developers everywhere.

  18. Mac version by jsdcnet · · Score: 2

    I will buy this game the instant there is a native OS X version available. Loved the first one but I don't have any Windows machines any more and I'm not messing around with virtualization or whatever just for a game.

    --
    no longer working for cnet
  19. Re:Can you change the keybindings? by Lehk228 · · Score: 2

    i don't have a problem with DRM requires internet (well actually i do, but ideological purity takes a back seat to "i know how to get a crack for this shit") I refuse to play a single player game that is only partially on your PC and is dependent upon a remote server to function, for not legitimate reason

    --
    Snowden and Manning are heroes.
  20. Re:D3 was rushed, but is aging well. by PrimalChrome · · Score: 2

    What exactly are you basing this opinion on? Out of about 25 people, with the exception of ONE person, everyone I know that purchased D3 has stopped playing it. Their reasons span the full spectrum of the howling you read online...but all of them stem from "it really isn't that fun." If you listen to any gaming podcasts or keep up with any non-blizzard, non-fanboi forums, you will read the exact same story time and time again.

    D3 probably sold 100x the copies of T2 due to fabricated hype, WoW fanbois, and D2 fans hoping to continue the wonderful replayability that they experienced with the first two games. Now, like so many other big budget games that rely on hype and flash to line the pockets of their parent corporation.....the players have fled in droves. Yes, D3 will probably have an overall larger community. Yes, they will be rabid. Continue to grow....no, the numbers don't lie there. But more involved? Probably not. All it will take are a few decent groups modding T2 and you will see long term and continued enthusiastic support for the game that could eclipse D3.

    T2 is the worthy successor to the D1/D2 legacy.

  21. Re:Can you change the keybindings? by CodeHxr · · Score: 4, Informative

    But seriously, if company's can start pushing $20 games this good, I hope it sends a message to game developers everywhere.

    This, one thousand times.

    I bought a 4-pack of this for $60 from steam and gifted 3 of them to friends of mine. I haven't gotten this amount of enjoyment (including my friends' enjoyment) from $60 in a very long time, if ever.

  22. Re:D3 was rushed, but is aging well. by bfandreas · · Score: 3, Informative

    D3 is not D2 and won't be saved from ruin until the dev team learns a couple of fundamental things they could have learned from D2 which at release was also a completely different game from what it became the following 5 years.

    1) An ARPG lives and dies by its pace and responsiveness. Having to skip cut-scenes, the sheer amount of crowd control the player character is subjected to and the slow movement speed is a complete antithesis of what an ARPG is supposed to be.

    2) Even tho the original D2 devs also hated it the most popular feature of patch 1.10 of D2 was the inclusion of cross-class skills. The player loved it, the devs hated it. The D3 team permanently shut that door by including a non-mana based resource system. They can not pull this off without doing a major revamp of the game.

    3) The sheer amount of handholding that's going on in D3 boggles the mind. D2 and torchlight limit you by level and stat points in what loot you can wear. D3 limits you by class. Want to play a DH with a fat 2hander for whatever inane reason you can come up with? Sorry, you can't. Want to play a completely dex based barbarian with a crossbow? Nope. 'Do as thou wilt' was replaced with 'because we say so'. You want to be a melee WD? Well, only the classic melee characters get a flat 30% melee incoming damage reduction.

    4) Their reliance on a completely gold based economy is stupid. Nobody ever managed to pull off an interesting gold based economy. Either it works somewhat(as D3's does) and is completely boring or it doesn't and becomes a nuisance. This may sound like a weak point but what the gold based, AH centric economy does is it doesn't encourage bartering and trading. This was a major community builder. There were a LOT of successful websites/forums that started out as barter towns, grew into real communities and kept D2 going way beyond its due-date. D3 is an anonymous hodge-podge.

    5) Character progression is non-existant in D3 or beyond frustrating. It is not unreasonable to expect to be able to finish the game on inferno difficulty with only what you picked up yourself within 100 in-game hours. That should be the yard-stick. The goal of the grind-fest should be mindles mass murder of unsuspecting demons to blow off steam or to gather loot to be even more efficient in said mass murder or to gear up twinks with a silly character concept. But at no point should you feel slow and gimped. Inferno mode is completely inaccessible.

    6) At release and at the moment the game screams 'we haven't thought this through'. The 30% flat incoming damage reduction of monks and barbs say 'we haven't tuned the game properly'. The auction house ui with only 3 filters for 6 possible properties on rares made the AH next to unusable. Increased incoming damage in multi player games in an already overtuned game made grouping unattractive. The crafting system made you broke if you weren't very, very clever using it. The very rare legendaries were completely unviable on inferno mode(especially the weapons). The damage scaling in inferno is completely off. They advertised the game for PvP(god knows why) and they still haven't delivered.

    7) Tying real money to gear limits what they can do to improve the game. Once real money has changed hands for loot you can't reasonably nerf or buff stuff that has been sold without getting yourself in real hot water. And I sincerely doubt their RMAH cut is enough to cover the financial, legal and PR headache that follows.

    I'm sorry, but the team that made D3 didn't take a look at what made D2 the game of the decade and only added supreficial improvements. If they don't learn that their approach to D3 was completely off then they will not be able to salvage it whatsoever. The whole game feels like the core mechanics were designed by the Blizzard B-Team. Art and music is wonderful, tho. But at the moment it is a polished turd.

    --
    20 minutes into the future
  23. Re:Can you change the keybindings? by the_Bionic_lemming · · Score: 2

    Can I play the game if the company that is putting up street lights and drills thru my internet connection and takes me off the web for a week when I am at home? If not, then yes, they are evil.

    And yes, three blocks over a company did exactly that. I was off the web unless I went to a cafe or was at work. If a company cannot be bothered to let a person play a single player game without being connected to the web, then they do not deserve my money.

    And I own d1, d2, sc1, and all the warcrafts that didn't require a server.

    --
    _ _ _ Go for the eyes Boo! GO FOR THE EYES!
  24. I recently bought Humble Bundle VI by pecosdave · · Score: 4, Informative

    The first game I've tried was the original Torch Light. I like it so much so far it's the only game I've played out of the bundle, despite some of the others looking quite appealing.

    I've been playing it on my quite powerful desktop - but I noticed it had a "netbook mode" which for some reason was checked by default. I decided to put it on my netbook. For some reason it was NOT checked by default, but after clunking around with the graphics it is actually playable on my dual core Atom using Intel graphics on Kubuntu. I wouldn't exactly call it optimal and smooth, but it's still quite playable.

    I loved the original Diablo back in the day, I even bought the expansion pack for it. Then Diablo II came out and I enjoyed it for a while. Not too long, shortly afterwards Blizzard pissed me off by dragging a personal friend into a lawsuit over BNetD, they started suing a bunch of Unreal modders they had previously helped, and I quite dual-booting Windows as I found it to be a waste of hard drive space.

    In short Torchlight has offered me everything I liked about Diablo, it works on Linux, and I don't have the guilty sick to my stomach feeling that dealing with Blizzard products gives me.

    I can't tell you enough - buy the thing. Go get the bundle, and as soon as a Linux version of Torchlight 2 is released I'll go get it. My only complaint about the original Torchlight - it sometimes crashes when a new area gets loaded up. No big deal, I start the program and I'm standing exactly where I should have been without the crash so - yeah, it's great. Also gem hunting isn't quite as frustrating as it was in Diablo 2.

    --
    The preceding post was not a Slashvertisement.
  25. Re:Can you change the keybindings? by hairyfeet · · Score: 4, Informative

    I have a better question...why? You ALREADY have 10, count 'em, 10 slots you can use for pretty much ANYTHING, potions, fish to feed your pet, whatever, and those are controlled by..get this...the 1-0 keys on the top of the keyboard. How easy is that? Attack is left click, magic right, and you can swap magic in seconds by right clicking on the magic icon, easy peasy.

    So while its fine and dandy you can remap keys, and I'm sure since TL2 allows modding you'll see some nice little community tools like allowing several bindings to switch from, i just don't want anyone to think the default keys are shit. I have played a LOT of games where the default keys are shit and this? Not one of them. Try something like Turning Point: Fall of Liberty for a hair pulling wanna pull an Elvis on the monitor bad control scheme. this? this is a simple layout which for the fun but simple gameplay of "there is bad guy, go and thumpeth him" it works VERY well.

    For something that is a whole $20, allows modding, lets you play for free with your friends, lets you find the good loot instead of buying it from a market, and has countless hours of goodness? People sure do find some little nits to pick.

    --
    ACs don't waste your time replying, your posts are never seen by me.
  26. Re:Fate by geminidomino · · Score: 2

    Not sure if trolling or just uninformed...

    Giving you the benefit of the doubt: The "need" for this game is that it's the game that Fate could have been, had WT not shat all over it.

    You see, "Fate's" designer, Travis Baldree, is one of the three people who formed Runic.

  27. Re:Can you change the keybindings? by hairyfeet · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I refuse to buy Diablo 3 because of the elephant in the room that nobody seems to mention, being constantly connected to their servers for SP means you are gonna deal with la-la-la-lag. I've watched friends with 20MBit cable connections play and they would still get spots where it was obviously jerking and it wasn't their systems, its the thousands of miles between them and Blizzard's servers. Jim Sterling at The Escapist made a nice rant about how we should ALL be pissed at them for the DRM, and a big part was the jerking laggy mess he'd find or not being able to get on after buying on release day.

    Compare this to Torchlight 2. it took me and my boys less than 5 minutes to tie our Steam to Torchlight IIs matchmaking service (which is required because they also sell standalone Windows and soon Linux copies as they do TL I) and 3 minutes after that I was hosting a private server on my own system and the boys were in game and joining me in the fun. ZERO lag,no matter how many "super fireballs" the youngest liked to throw or insane supermoves the oldest pulled off, instant trading between us, it all "just worked" and when I had to sit in the doctor's office to get me some antibiotics for my bi-annual sinus infection i was playing my SP character (we agreed to save separate characters for MP and SP so that we'd be on the same level) on my little E350 netbook with no online and just having a ball.

    --
    ACs don't waste your time replying, your posts are never seen by me.
  28. Re:Can you change the keybindings? by tehcyder · · Score: 2

    I'm not sure people who carry netbooks should be allowed to raise kids.

    How about laptops? Tablets? Smartphones? Liuggable suitcase 286s with 4 inch screens?

    I am keen to know the exact level at which portable computing hardware should lead to sterilisation and/or removal to an internment camp.

    --
    To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
  29. Re:Can you change the keybindings? by hairyfeet · · Score: 2

    Funny as I'm sure this is one of those ePeen douchebags that thinks anything that isn't a 21 inch core i7 monster with a 2Gb Nvidia card should not be allowed to exist. Of course they have to walk around looking for plug ins constantly, whereas I can play a game like TLII for 3 hours or more no problem, i also don't roast my nuts from the insane heat and can actually sit in a seat without having this huge ass desktop with screen attached dragging me down.

    For anyone who is NOT a douchebag I'd highly recommend the Asus EEE AMD netbooks, I can game for 3 hours, watch 720p videos for 5, surf for a little over 6, weighs only 2.5 pounds with a 6 cell and is small enough it never gets in the way and its 1366x768 screen is crisp and clear. the only thing I would suggest is if you get a unit with 1066 memory you swap it for some 1333 as the Radeon APU performance wise runs better with faster memory.

    All in all I'm quite happy I sold my full size for a netbook,WiFi is everywhere here and 12 inches seems to be the perfect size for screen readability and clarity. and unlike the douchebag I won't have sterilized myself by having a gaming rig sitting on my nuts.

    --
    ACs don't waste your time replying, your posts are never seen by me.