Torchlight 2
The Veteran’s Perspective, by Ian Cheong
Torchlight 2 has been a couple of years in the making, seeing a few delays over the past few months before its eventual release date announcement at PAX late last month. And if you’re wondering whether or not to keep on reading, I’ll preface the rest of this piece by saying that the game has been well worth the wait.
Facing steep competition from the likes of Diablo 3, which had its expectations built over a period of ten years, Torchlight 2 has had its work cut out for it. The developers at Runic Games could’ve been content to play second string to Blizzard’s juggernaut, or compose their own symphony. They chose to do the latter.
A sequel to the first Torchlight, the game is an evolution of all its features, expanding them well beyond the scope and capabilities of the first game. It’s bigger, better, and more enjoyable (this is the important part) in every way.
Having enjoyed the first Torchlight, the biggest issue I had with the game was its lack of content, relative to other action RPGs. There was a single dungeon, and you delved deeper into it. Like the original Diablo, the dungeon was littered with a variety of different environments—but all the same, it was just a single dungeon that you moved deeper into, like some kind of Borgesian labyrinth.
By the time you reached the Dwarven mines, you could feel the crushing existential weight of all fifteen of the levels above you.
Torchlight 2 is wildly different from its predecessor, shying away from a single, vast dungeon for an open world setting in which a variety of dungeons and open environments are available for you to explore, loot, and plunder. The game makes you feel like you’re actually on a grand adventure, and you go wherever your quest takes you.
And speaking of the quest, it’s not exactly ennobling as it’s made up of a series of “go here and kill this” tasks, but it does a serviceable job at keeping you tied to an overarching narrative, which you’re rewarded for with new awesome looking gear which follow a variety of themes based on the locations you visit. You can expect to find gear that allows you to blend in with your surroundings. It makes sense, thematically, that you wouldn’t want to wear a set of heavy furs in the desert.
With regards to the game’s locations, the places you visit will be anything but bland recreations of popular tropes and settings. More than just a plain old desert filled with Egyptian-themed architecture, you’ll find yourself in battle against steam-powered spider bots inside of a clockwork pyramid. It’d be honest to say that Runic Games put great efforts in designing unique locations and enemies for Torchlight 2 instead of falling back on Tolkienesque fantasy.
The game’s setting is unique in its identity, and the same philosophy of design extends to its core mechanics. Everything from leveling up to earning skill points sets Torchlight 2 apart from its competitors. As Christopher mentions in his review above, you’ll earn skill points by leveling up and also by earning “fame” levels, which you attain from completing quests and killing boss monsters. Although the game allows for very limited respecs, the abundance of skill points gives you an opportunity to build your character as you want without relying wholly upon grinding for levels. You’re put yourself in too much at a disadvantage if you aren’t entirely precise in which skills you opt for, either.
There is a benefit to investing many points in a single skill, as each active skill comes in three tiers that provide enormous boosts with the completion of the tier. Choosing a relatively low level skill to invest in can yield an enormous payoff later in the game—and many of the skills improve with your character’s level instead of providing fixed benefits.
Leveling mechanics aside, the game is a joy to play. It starts off slow, like any other action RPG, but increases in pace as you become more familiar with the skills you have. The action is rhythmic, and clearing an entire dungeon of monsters feels like conducting an orchestra made up of swords, spells, and exploding bodies. Once you’re in that mode, Torchlight 2 becomes impossible to put down—at least until you’re done with the dungeon.
Addictive though the experience might be, the game is thankfully structured in such a way that it’s possible to enjoy it in short bursts or for many hours at a time, depending on your preference. Each romp through a dungeon will take you no longer than a few minutes and depending on the amount of time you have to spare.
Torchlight 2 demonstrates that by building upon all the elements that made the first Torchlight a fantastic game and by refusing to cater to tired trends, it’s possible to produce something completely unique and arguably more awesome (an argument I would make) than almost every other action RPG that’s out right now.
The Verdict
