Unlike its predecessor, Torchlight 2 has several very large maps that are interlinked by outposts. Within the randomised maps are randomised multi-level dungeons, where the majority of your questing takes place. Each map and dungeon has a specific theme, from snowy to desert to pirate to steampunk. The critters you fight are equally varied. Torchlight veterans will note the return of the Tu’tara, plus the usual skeletons, zombies, spiders and specters that you’d come to expect in a dungeon-based action RPG. The boss fights are quite frequent and mostly standard – find out how to tell when it’s using its abilities, position your character accordingly, get your hits in when you can. At the end of each stage of the primary quest is a mega-boss, which drops ridiculous amounts of loot as a reward for a challenging and often lengthy encounter. We played through on Veteran difficulty, and the challenge was just about right. When your character died, it was usually because you weren’t paying attention, rather than the boss being overpowered.
About one phase portal spawns in each map. These teleport you to small challenge dungeons, time attacks or boss fights, or areas that steadily increase in difficulty and reward. You only get one shot at these challenges – leave the area and you can’t get back in. Phase dungeons provide a secondary layer of gameplay to the usually (by definition) one-dimensional nature of hack-and-slash. On rare occasions, you’ll even be rewarded for thinking.
At the Veteran level of difficulty, the balance between effort and reward was perfect. The loot dropped is obviously not always better than what you already have equipped, but the presence of a transmutation system later in the game rewards you for stashing spare items of certain types. Further, unique items drop rarely enough for it to remain exciting when you find them.
Socketable ember passes over from Torchlight 1. Provided you have empty sockets in your armor, you can place any of these gems into it to bring buffs ranging from extra poison armor to damage reflection to additional fire damage. Socketed gems can be destroyed, allowing you to replace them with higher level ember when you come across it. Similarly, armor and weapons with socketed ember within them can be destroyed to recover the gems.
The inventory system is improved from Torchlight 1, with quest items, scrolls and potions stored in other inventory panes, freeing up space for ember and other loot. The “sort inventory” button is another nice little touch that makes organising your items quick and painless.
Torchlight 2 removes most of the time sinks that had previously been prevalent in the genre: namely returning to town to sell useless stuff and trawling through inventories. But it does not dispense with many people’s main bugbears with the genre, the constant clicking, the mindless, endless mob-stomping; the lack of meaningful story and the simple fact that the game is a glorified spreadsheet that spits out higher numbers occasionally. Does that mean I dislike the game? No, the opposite in fact. Torchlight 2 may be a spreadsheet like all the Diablo games before it, but it sure is a fun, satisfying and addictive spreadsheet to play with your friends.
It’s one of the problems with discussing and reviewing any TV show, film or video game: should we compare it with others of its genre, or should we judge it against the medium as a whole? Torchlight 2 succeeds in that it is a brilliant example of a hack-and-slash action RPG, but does little to advance the genre. Torchlight 2 is cheerful, streamlined and addictive, but it hasn’t attempted to break any boundaries. Should we mark Torchlight 2 down for failing to take the opportunity for advancement left by the relative failure of Diablo 3? Torchlight 2 is not going to appeal to people who disliked the older Diablo games, or the original Torchlight itself. However, by restricting its ambitions to pleasing fans of the genre, Torchlight 2 made sure of its success, albeit on a smaller scale than it might have enjoyed by innovating.
Grade: A-
We want to hear your thoughts on this topic!
Write a comment below or submit an article to Hypable.