Second, it's the first game in actual years I bought before release - I think Diablo 2's expansion might be the last one. This isn't really to do with overwhelming excitement - four pack for $15 a head enticed one of my friends. He bought it, and according to his steam profile, played it all of five hours.
Torchlight 2 is an ARPG built by the same guys who built the original Diablo 2, and maybe the original Diablo though I don't want to get quoted on that one. Diablo 2 sets the standard for ARPGs; there is no better game, to this day, in the category assuming you can handle the dated but thankfully sprite graphics. Early 3D graphics would have made the game agony to look at. I've played a fair bit of older games recently, and Diablo 2 is one of those truly classic games that somehow manages to "get it". It's possibly a product of its times - D2 came out before many of the razzle dazzle elements of the computer gaming had really come to the forefront.
This is a long review since this is a long game and I was a huge fan of Diablo 2.
Originally for October I had hoped to play through and review a pair of scary games! Unfortunately, TL2 came out and I'm not paid or anything to write this stuff, so I just sort of do what I want. End result is I ended up playing nothing but TL2 and then more TL2. That isn't necessarily shining praise: I got through the first hour of Fear 2 and found it not all that exciting. I found my heart not yet interested in playing another Dead Space game. Maybe next year!In basic summary TL2 is Diablo 2, with the addition of vastly improved visuals and the subtraction of what amounts to fundamentally no online play. Though there is such a thing as online games, the inability to join "protected" games ruins it entirely. So basically, it's a single player game still. Yes, you can play with another person but the flow of the game means they are playing the single player game with you.
The game also improves over Diablo 2 in the categories relating to sense of motion and overarching flow. The game on the most part feels more fast and loose, at times to its detriment, but on the most part improving ones' enjoyment of combat. I haven't played through the entire game on all the classes as of yet, but on the most part the action is that more intense. That being said, the skill system suffers many of the same issues the original Diablo 2 did before revamping, leading to a weird sensation of either not taking early talents at all or just keeping them forever if a later talent does much the same thing. There was an attempt to drive more variety into them by having talents gain tiered bonuses.
I'm not really sure this does what they were hoping. Personally, I'd have used those tiered bonuses to drive up later skills - ie the early skill can raise your later skill's tiers, and vice versa. They don't, so this just seems to push you to squirrel away points or only level passives, which sort of worses the experience. The game does allow some limited respeccing, but it's very expensive which is sort of irritating.
Thankfully the classes do feel pretty different. I don't really see myself replaying the game multiple times on a given class, as I had in Diablo 2, but at the same time even two melee classes have the same pleasing gulf in play style. I'm not even too sure about the numbers, and the game is surprisingly inventive in some ways to improve itemization. The dual wielding class, for example, has a deeper usage of the mage stat which pushes it between mage and fighter archetypes. Neat!
Itemization is sort of a loose tooth for the game; in many ways I largely am not too sure which class is supposed to use what, and feedback, which was subpar in the beta remains subpar. It is often hard to tell what you did wrong when you die, beyond simply not having "enough loot". The game seems to expect you've already played through it once when you go to play on veteran, or at the very least expects you to go re-grind previously cleared areas. I started on veteran, found it very frustrating, then realized I probably wasn't supposed to be playing it either how I was or just at all.
As such the core gameplay, at least insofar as being a single player game, is about the same as Diablo 2 and anyone who played it should probably consider giving the game a shot. On the other hand I'm sorry to say that the lack of a closed realm experience will push people who wanted a multiplayer game away from playing this one. The lack of a ladder, of safe trading or ability to meet new players kinda offsets the value of the game. Of course, it's $20 base, which is pretty fair either way. I'm sure most of the people who played through Diablo 2 probably enjoyed the game at least a couple hours of single player. I know I leveled a couple guys before diving into the larger realms play.
The art style is a step up from the World of Warcraft artstyle, which is to say polygon art rendered in a cartoonish style to improve system requirements. The game is pretty and detailed, but often flattened or cartoonish in just a little. It makes the production both slick to watch and easy on the eyes, which Diablo 2 and even more so its expansion didn't really pull off too well. I would sort of call TL2's art style "timeless", but it could use a little work in some areas - the lightning effects in particular hover between great and awful, with some scenes looking incredible and other just blurry messy. It reminds me a great deal of Bastion, which had much the same impact, especially in terms of blurry-messy.
The music is excellent. The score is really, really good and comfortable. It doesn't take away from the game at all, it doesn't over do it, but it's a delightful presence that turns the knobs just the right way. I especially enjoy the "desert" tracks that play as you thump your way up and over the dunes, coupled with the way the game properly models traveling over the dunes. I mean seriously though, Matt Uelman whose name I hope I spelled correctly just did marvelous work.
The game's plot and basic layout is essentially a re-tread of Diablo 2, with slightly more subdued subtext. Instead of being a blood fountain of demonic torture and conquest, the game is more towards a world gone mad in the wake of a powerful nemesis. I think as a kid I found D2's storyline really exciting; TL2 tweaks me in much the same way, but I have slightly tougher tastes when it comes to story writing that are probably a bit over the top in terms of what people generally accept. TL2's story, however, is probably better insofar as being a RPG's story. It is more background, more passage through a ruined land, or ruins wrought by acts in the past. The game often feels like you are simply chasing someone through a war-torn land and not following in the destructive wake of the least stealthy demon ever. One thing that does feel a little improved is the personality of the areas you visit.
The game is definitely stronger in terms of both enemy variety and area variety. The desert level, for example, encompasses both a sandy dune trek, a wasteland, a trip through a "dark mirror" of a ruined desert city, sandy grottos, mana wastes, clockwork laboratories, a sewer system filled with bugs and some weird area with like bats that pour out of their giant nests to bite you. There's probably some other stuff I forgot, too. The game can get a little repetitive in terms of gameplay within a given area, but they're unusual and different enough that you imagine the developers gave it their best. The game also breaks acts up into what I mentally note as "different directions". You reach a hub in each one, and then go say south in the first part of the act, then north later on. Each new direction tends to vastly change the feel of the zone; in act 1 the south is more of a temperate, taiga forest sort of area. The north is spider infested mountain tops followed by tundra.
Boss fights in the game are common, with a fair amount of variety. There is a fair amount of back flow from mmorpg design in them. Lots of adds, lots of area of effect stuff, some fights even have phases and wacky transitions. Enemy design tends to be very irritating when you feel undergeared - If you're struggling with the usual enemies, boss fights won't flatten you outright but they're too long and a little on the boring side. It makes it into something of a mixed bag, but it's hard to imagine how they can design them otherwise.All in all the game is a successful and enjoyable update on an older model that I enjoyed a decade ago. The two biggest issues I have with the game are lack of combat feedback, and the multiplayer still essentially being missing. Combat feedback is, essentially, the game really doesn't give you much to work with when shit goes sour. It's often hard to discern which elemental resist isn't up to snuff, or what element enemies are even hitting you with. Good example: Some shadow enemies are poison, others deal out lightning damage. And then you really can't tell if it's a particular damage that you're getting overwhelmed by, since the game's text doesn't really discern it for you. Damage is just one color and that's what it is! It would be nice if it differentiated them, or told you total damage before reduction so you can sort of math out if reduction isn't quite cutting it.
The multiplayer thing is a bit weirder to discuss; the multiplayer is "there" but it's very "as such" and not really the sort of closed system you would hope for. I understand that runic is a small studio, but I feel like Dungeon Defenders - which I hated - has a closed realm as well? It seems like something of a cop out, but you can still roll a guy with a friend and play through the game, so that's fine if that's all you were looking for.
In conclusion, I'm not even done with the game yet, likely to play at least another thirty hours through it! That's pretty satisfying for $15 and certainly looks like a pretty good deal. The game isn't flawless and does have some evident problems, but all in all I think it's a good solid ARPG that scratches the itch better than most ever did.
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