Torchlight 2 is a hack-and-slash action RPG from Runic Games, a sequel to their impressive 2009 effort, Torchlight. What did we think of it?
Whenever I’ve told friends I was playing Torchlight 2 I usually got the response “what’s that?” and I always replied with “it’s like Diablo but cheaper and better.” Admittedly, my knowledge of Diablo is largely second-hand, but as far as I can make out, Diablo III has no offline option, has a real money auction house and doesn’t have pets. Torchlight 2 in comparison has an offline single player option, no way to pay for power, and about a dozen different pets to choose from. On top of that, there is some appearance-based character customisation, full modding support (via Steam workshop) and I picked it up for less than £15/$20 on Steam, with the original Torchlight thrown in for free. By contrast, if I bought Diablo 3 off Amazon now, four months after its release, I’d be looking at paying over £30 /$55.
Let’s move on from the inevitable Diablo comparisons. What works in Torchlight 2? What doesn’t? And, most importantly, is it fun?
The four classes are the Outlander, the Embermage, the Berserker and the Engineer. Each has their own skill tree with three different types of abilities to put points into. For the Embermage, the categories were Inferno, Frost and Storm magic. Inferno was mostly about straight-up fire damage, frost more about control, and storm about applying random conditions whilst throwing lightning around. There’s no real need to only invest in one of the three categories, but each one seems to lend itself to different playstyles. I enjoyed the chaotic nature of storm magic, so spent all of my points on it, just to see if it was a viable way of playing. Skills came in two types, active and passive. Active skills included lightning storms, short range lightning bolts that could stun, and an area-of-effect spell that caused enemies to release healing bolts for me and my allies when they were killed. The Embermage’s three passive skills are: additional damage when enemies become shocked, the chance for enemies to be teleported away when attacking at close range, and the ability to apply random bizarre effects to enemies when using a wand.
Every class can wield every weapon, but each classes’ passives tend to only apply when using certain weapon types.
Each time a new level is reached, points can be used to improve and unlock skills and be put in a mostly standard RPG attribute system of strength, dexterity, focus and vitality – nothing new here.
Another important Torchlight 2 mechanic is the charge bar, a bar that gradually fills during combat and grants bonuses as and when it fills. This can easily turn the tide of a battle – for example, Embermages get fifteen seconds of ‘concentration’ when the charge bar is full, enabling them to cast spells without using up mana, whilst giving an extra damage boost.
Returning from Torchlight 1 is the spell system. Spells drop randomly from mobs and from within chests, and can be learnt by any class. They range from fireballs to armor boosts to heals. Four can be equipped at any one time.
The final and arguably most important gameplay mechanic is your character’s trusty pet. Pets generally have more health than you, so they can soak up damage while you’re busy dishing out spells. They can also learn spells themselves – I found it useful to teach my pet any active spells I found, so I could concentrate on casting my class abilities. Feeding pets fish temporarily transforms them into different creatures, giving them access to new skills and stats. Finally, pets act as a second inventory, like in Torchlight 1. You can send them back to town to sell your stuff, but this time around, you can also give them a shopping list of potions and scrolls to buy too.
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-