Backhand of Justice

I’m a sucker for loot. The item hunt in Borderlands was like an addictive drug to me; I tried to inject the guns directly into my veins. I can’t fully discuss the details as my lawsuit with Heckler & Koch is still pending.

It should come as no surprise, then, that Torchlight holds the same appeal. I can say across the board that the things I expected would be fun in Torchlight, are, and it so closely lived up to my expectations that I’m going to approach this review slightly differently.

You know what’s good about Torchlight. It’s an extremely addictive game with a great art style, effective character customization and relentless pacing. Runic Games have taken Diablo 2 and streamlined the gameplay. At $20 it’s the best deal since The Orange Box. To reiterate: Torchlight = incredible.

In this review, however, I’m instead going to discuss what went wrong in Torchlight (hint: not much).

What were they thinking?

What am I doing here: Torchlight is a budget game, and I wouldn’t expect it to come with a full manual and tutorial. That being said, while there are helpful tooltips for how to play, there are many things in game that are not well explained. What exactly does the transmutation vendor in town do? How does each statistic factor into my character’s abilities? While there’s always a helpful online amateur community to lend guidance, saying the transmutation vendor can ‘combine items’ doesn’t help when 90% of the things I try do nothing.

This was possibly most frustrating when I found a ridiculously good weapon and went to the enchanting vendor in town to improve it. I knew from experience that sometimes he failed to enchant and still charged you money: a risk I was willing to take. Unfortunately, I was not aware that there was also a small chance that he would remove all enchants, both those added by me and the ones that were preexisting on the weapon, rendering it useless. Now I’m the proud owner of a ‘sword of much sobbing and shattered dreams.’ How about a heads up, Runic?

Ooh fireworks: The art style in Torchlight skews toward a simplified and colorful look. To add some flair, each spell has striking particle effects which are quite impressive especially given the modest technical requirements of the game. Unfortunately, sometimes so much can be happening onscreen that I lose track of my character (even more remarkable considering he’s always in the exact center of the monitor). While this mostly happened when I was playing as an Alchemist Summoner and therefore had about 10 minions cluttering up the screen, it sometimes relegated me to watching my health bar and hoping nothing was hitting me.

Ok, maybe in this case I can tell where my guy is as he's at the center of the blood explosion. Just wait until later in the game, however ...

Control, you must learn control: Torchlight wants to keep things simple, and for the most part it succeeds. Unfortunately, there are a few hiccups. First is the lack of key binding modifications. While the mouse / 1-5 number keys and tab works fairly well for a couple abilities, once you get into using the 6-9 keys and beyond, things spiral out of control and some worthwhile skills go unused. Even a few control choices such as number pad or the ‘WASD’ keys would have been preferable to a single payer system.

In addition, mouse commands can be fiddly. If attacking from range, clicking and missing an enemy will cause you to run right up into its face which is generally undesired. Holding shift keeps you stationary, but then sometimes you fire your weapons towards an enemy without realizing you’re just out of range and not actually doing any damage. If you’re melee, on the other hand, sometimes it’s tough to click a moving enemy and instead you walk around him in an awkward dance (either of death, or of seduction, depending on your character’s talent specialization). While this had potential for an amusing minigame, it can be frustrating when you’re trying to bludgeon faces.

It’s hard to envision a scenario where you don’t want to attack an enemy, so an expansion of the hit boxes might have solved a few of these issues.

Care to Tango?

Click click click: This game is about loot, and there is a ton of it on the ground. While Runic made an inspired design decision by allowing your pet to return to town to sell off useless items while you continue playing, they didn’t streamline loot collection at all. I end up clicking maniacally at all items on screen and I can’t think of a single time where I chose not to pick something up when I had inventory room. Everything sells for a little bit, so a ‘pick up everything on screen’ button would be more than welcome.

As it currently stands, I fear my relentless clicking has become a break-up-able offense in the eyes of my fiancée. Maybe Runic games can do a deal with Logitech to bundle in a silent mouse.

At least put a shirt on, man. Don't you know there are monsters down here?

Don’t misconstrue my comments: Torchlight is an excellent game. You must experience for yourself how truly different the three characters feel depending on how you allocate your skill points. The three Alchemist trees (summoner, glass cannon and magic melee damage dealer) play like three different classes on their own, without overlapping more than marginally with the play styles of the Vanquisher and Destroyer. The excitement at picking up a unique orange item and identifying it, hoping you have hit the item jackpot is unparalleled. Finally, the game is fast paced and addictive enough that you can jump in and out for short bursts of playtime that suit your schedule.

If none of the things here sound too terrible, and the lack of online functionality isn’t a deal breaker for you, then you need to give Torchlight a shot. Just be careful with that bastard enchanter. Sometimes you need to know when to hold them and when to fold them.