Buy Torchlight

Highly addictive, straightforward game (just like Diablo).
Cannot write a long review...
Have to go kill some more monsters...
Just a dozen more...
I promise...

The steampunk-esque theme looks great, the game plays well, and having a pet means less returning to the surface. Can't beat that music, from the composer of Diablo. A wonderful RPG that feels like FATE but is way more polished.

If I were to summarize this game in one sentence it'd be "Child's first Hack n' Slash lootfest for those who weren't around for Diablo 2". And that's perfectly okay. Namely because that's me.

Torchlight is an isometric action RPG where you bind active skills to the mouse and number keys and make your way down 30 floors to kill the big bad, only for you to turn into the big bad yourself in the sequel (Sound familiar?). Along the way you will level up and find incrimental upgrades in the form of magically enchanted gear to buff a list of stats and attributes to make your time much easier.

After that, you're pretty much done, you can then enter an endless dungeon full of ever-increasing baddies onwards to level your character to level 100 and then retire, but you will usually be absolutely done into your early 60s and will want to move on.

If none of that sounds fun, Hack N' Slash games are not your thing. Sorry.
If it does sound fun, congrats; buy this game and get started immediately so you can catch up on all the Hack N' Slashes you missed over the years.
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While many might think that the level to 60 and quit is a dumb thing. I honestly think that might be the entire point. At least for me, this is a game you blaze through during a nostalgia trip and then move on. Your accumulated knowledge from various other loot fests will be put to use here to absolutely destroy the balancing in the game compared to your downward trudge the first time because you thought you could handle Hard (More on that later). I very much look forward to my next playthrough in 2-3 years.

However, that doesn't mean the game is without a large share of flaws due to its age. I will go over the Pros and Cons
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• This game was $20 during its release back in 2009. It has since been given out in bundles, as well as a free gift to people at one point. It's currently $15 as of this review and usually gets 75% off during sale times.
  
• The art style used here is timeless. Even after 7 years, it looks as good as it did day 1
  
• VERY easy to run on a modern-day windows system (At least compared to Diablo 1/2)
  
• It is an excelent gateway to other Lootfests
  
• 4 basic character atrributes are simple to understand. Life, Melee damage, Ranged Damage, and Elemental Damage.
  
• You have access to a pet that can sell your garbage for extra coin without you needing to leave
  
• A lot of numbers do not have a soft cap to them. So if you exploit the start of the game, you can get enough gems to get something dumb like 16 +4% crit chance gems which totals to roughly an 80% crit chance after maxing the skill on the tree
  
• Simple and robust modding system, drag mod files into mod directory and you're set.
  
• You can somehow remember every single line in the game despite only playing it about 5 times through total

• The Pet is 95% useless in any combat situation, the best thing they can do is maybe draw some mobs away from you before he dies again..
  
• And again....
  
• And again......
  
• As this game is over 7 years old, you can believe you can have a difficult time trying to find mods, let alone developers who still support them.
  
• Movement speed is one of the worst things. If you pick the melee or mage, you move like a snail. Picking the ranger will have you move like a turtle. Get movement speed enchants and Haste ASAP
  
• Difficulty scaling is by far one of the worst I have ever seen in a game. More on that later
  
• This game was released during an awkward point where you combined basic attacks as well as active skills; meaning you run out of mana constantly
  
• Store weapons and armor are at least twice as good as loot you find in the dungeon; so you will be mostly buying new gear instead of finding a really nice equip.
  
• No easy way to identify multiple items at once without binding the scrolls to a hotkey
  
• An overwhealming majority of your early-game skills are outclassed by the ones around level 25. Resulting in quit a handful of wasted skill points.
  
• No non-cheat/mod way to respec your character. Once you pick a skill and confirm, it's there forever.
  
• Unique/legendary gear is largly just a rare item with a unique model, hardly an guarenteed stat rolls, and the ones that are guarenteed are largly useless in my experiance.
  
• As with all Diablo-typed ARPGs, it is almost impossible to list a name for this genre.

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Now then, on to my biggest complaint throught the review; the higher difficulties are 100% trash. Do not even bother picking them unless you want to hate yourself. I have did a little research on Floor 1 and concluded that the HP and damage scaling is like this: Easy = 50%. Normal = 100%. Hard is 200% and Very Hard is about 300%. Besides that, nothing else changes; no extra loot drops, no mob changes, just extremely high numbers for your level. As such, the only way you can get through most of the floors is to overlevel like crap before then, which is just padding to make the game longer.
Tacked onto this, the final boss is one of the worst designed bosses in history, in my opinion. At level 28, with a 79% crit chance after 15 +4% crit chance gems it took me 25 minutes of nonstop running and potion chugging to defeat him on Hard, As Seen Here. (Sorry about the waternark, issues with shadowplay) I will admit, I was 2 levels behind him, but this is with 0 going back to grind in a 5 hour speedrun.
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HOWEVER. Despite all my gripes with my most recent playthrough, I will still wholeheartedly recommend this to anyone on the fence about playing a Hack N Slash Loot Fest ARPG Diablo Clones, and a fun little romp for veteran players to break the game the way they want it to, especially for only $15.
Just, you know, not on Hard or Very Hard

I Love this game!! I'm 51 yrs old and playing games on computer for the first time. This game is very intuitive. It is not only fun to play but gives me a chuckle every minute or so to boot! Military Retirement is starting not to look so bad after all!!

there is a horse joke that i appreciated

That kind of game that keeps you from pretty much having a life. "One more floor and I'll go make dinner"- you think.. 5 hours later: "Ok, that's IT! This is the last floor and then I'm hitting the bed!" Spoiler: It will never happen, you will never stop, Runic Games knows how to get ahold of your soul.. Nobody should be keener for fast runs with this one!

Still loving the game,despite my lack of sleep. The classes aren't many but the characters adapt as you level up and allocate points.You get your very cute little pet,too. Despite starting with Torchlight II and only now buying Torchlight I, I'd say it's as addictive and awesome.

TL,DR -> Go grab this awesome game!

9/10

You like Diablo II? This is the game for you. It lacks Diablo charm and aesthetic, but the mechanics are pratically the same.
Even if multiplayer is absent, the game is really good, and every Diablo fan should have it.

Also see my:
Torchlight II Review

Torchlight is a Top-Down Action RPG Dungeon Crawler developed by Runic Games in 2009. The game invokes a Diablo-esque / Fate-esque gameplay mechanic mostly because the developers were former members of the teams that made said Diablo and Fate games.

The game is set on the town of Torchlight, a small mining community who stumbled across a strange new mineral called 'Ember' which produces an unfortunate side effect to anyone who comes into contact with a corrupt piece. The player takes on the roles of the Alchemist, the Vanquisher or the Destroyer who makes their way through the deep mines and caves of Torchlight to stop a great evil from rising and destroying the world.

+ Classical Formula: -(Also a CON, see below) Although the game is dangerously familiar to Diablo, Torchlight executes this formula almost to perfection. The loot system, monsters, player classes and gameplay mechanic were applied and utilized very well in a way that gives a renewed interest on the genre.

+ Artistic: -Graphically, its not the most pleasing game, but its true artistic quality is with the style. It deviates from the regular dark, gothic themes of most games in the genre and instead, replaces it with a cartoon look in a steam punk setting.

+ Map Variety: -Story wise, you're only headed down, but each map you enter has completely different themes. You can be exploring a dark dank cave one moment, and the next, find yourself in a long forgotten stone crypt or an ancient temple.

+ Sound and Music: -The composer is Matt Uelman, Composer for works such as Diablo, World of Warcraft and Star Craft, and with a track like that, you can only expect greatness in the music quality.

- No Multiplayer: - The game is a single player experience. No multiplayer mode whatsoever which disappointed many fans.

- Story: - Rather weak and forgettable story with too few side missions.

- Classical Formula: -(Also a PRO, see above), Strip it down to its bare minimum and you have a generic Diablo Clone right down to the Story. PERSONALLY, I think its GOOD since the newer generation of gamers who never got to experience the glory of the original Diablo can now experience it through Torchlight.

GREAT GAME FOR GREAT VALUE. Although some may argue that Torchlight (1) is obsolete because of the release of Torchlight II, the first title still provides a lot of entertaining hours with its Diablo (1) type of gamestyle.

Sale or full price, this game deserves your attention however, you may also want to check out Torchlight 2 since it expands the world and introduces multiple new classes.

You would think that its just your average Dungeon Crawler RPG and you would be right since all the elements of Torchlight are the basic elements to an Action RPG, HOWEVER, it's how Torchlight merges those elements that make it stand out from the rest. From start to finish, this game uses and applies the tried and tested classical formula to create a wonderful and memorable experience.

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Miyumi's Review Corner (MIRECO)

Fun and solid dungeon romp reminiscent of the Diablo series. (Yep, it's going to get compared/referred to Diablo whether we like it or not)

Randomly generated dungeons with tons of randomly generated loot. Cliche story with a tiny twist (didn't see that coming a mile away. Nope, nadda, nah). Solid gameplay, great graphics and music.

Would have played this game much longer if Torchlight II wasn't already here (well, actually I did, since I already first played it off Steam). 10/10

This game is a great action rpg. It's not a refined as TL2, however there is more than enough game here to stand own it's own. The story isn't bad, the graphics hold up well. The end boss is actually an epic battle.

A few downsides: drops do not highlight unless you hit 'alt'. I found my thumb perminately locked on the 'alt' key. There is not shopping list for your pets. If you do the Bard's quests you will have to town port after almost every level. Pets pathing and selecting drops is sometimes stressful.

The goods: Lots of levels. It took me about 22 hours of play time to get to the final boss that was on dungeon level 32. There are 100 more dungeon levels past that. Character development is very open. Just because your a warrior doesn't mean you can't wear a robe and wield a wand. Potions drop from about 60% of the mob kills: This seems like a con in the beginning, but once you hit the lower levels you'll be thankful.

If you have this and haven't played it, why not? If you can pick this up on a sale then I would definately recommend it.