Torchlight

[Student of Trinity]

Steam has recently come to Mac, so I've been playing Torchlight for the past week or so. It's a very different kind of game from Jeff's. I gather it's much like Diablo I and II, but I only ever played the Diablo demo.

 

The entire story of Torchlight can be summarized in three sentences, so it's not a game of plot. It's not really a game of tactics, either, because although there is a bewildering array of abilities that you could in principle use in battle, in practice each class seems to have a couple of go-to powers that you simply max out and spam like mad. Maybe Jeff's games aren't so different in this respect, but I think there's possibly a bit more to his games' tactics.

 

The most startling thing in Torchlight is the loot. I guess drops are a staple in games like this, but I was shocked at how over the top it is in this game. Evidently back in the monster barracks, at the start of each night's work, the monster sergeants check over the troops before sending them out into the mines. "Attention! Shock Blob 40187! Tonight you will be carrying this scroll, this large mana potion, and this here enchanted frost spetum. Yes, it's the size of a tree; suck it up. If the hero can swing it around in one hand, you can squeeze it in somehow so it doesn't show from outside. And if you get squished by that so-and-so hero, you'll use your last dying spasm to spit that frost spetum out nicely, just to let them know that the monsters of Orden Mines aren't one of those fly-by-day, shoestring operations that can barely afford crude daggers!"

 

Whatever. There's a steady, heady stream of drops. Maybe one in a hundred is something you'd want to use. Unlike most games like this, you can actually do a lot better buying from the merchants, who mostly also have junk, but do occasionally have awesome items for sale. So you spend most of the game picking up dozens of glittery bits with names ranging from "Powerful Nudging Reliquary of the Legion" to "Epic Rickety Pistol", and selling them for a few dozen coins each, so you can save up the four thousand you'll need for the one time the blacksmith offers a lumpy stone axe that somehow does three times more damage per second than anything else you'll see for the next ten levels. There is so much variety of items, that there might as well be no variety at all, because nothing of it matters very much.

 

But it's still a very fun game, because it looks and sounds cool. It's got very low graphics requirements, so it's not cinematic or anything, but the artwork is good. And it's got a clever kind of random level design, in which a finite number of coherent elements are randomly jumbled, yet somehow jumbled in such a way that each level as a whole has a discernible flow, almost a logic, and you don't spend much time at all getting lost. Eventually you do get to know all the elements, and levels begin to seem predictable, but you can do quite a lot of playing before this happens.

 

Is there any aspect of what makes Torchlight work that Jeff could conceivably do, too? Ehh, I doubt it. But it's a kind of competition he could comfortably live with, I think, because it's so different from what he does.

[Cthulhu]

You forgot one of the most important aspects of Torchlight: Mods.

[Enraged Slith]

The game is too offense oriented and drop based for me. The quantity of instant death attacks in the lower levels make this game nightmarish for VH hardcore players.

[RCCCL]

Torchlight was made by some people who made Diablo, some of them also had a hand in making Fate, which to me, Torchlight resembles Fate more than Diablo(of course Fate is somewhat like Diablo too....).

 

Originally Posted By: Enraged Slith

The game is too offense oriented and drop based for me. The quantity of instant death attacks in the lower levels make this game nightmarish for VH hardcore players.

 

Yes, but if you can do it, there's nothing like the feeling of accomplishment you get when you can manage it.

[The Ratt]

From your description it sounds like the game Fate, which RCCL mentioned. I kinda like Fate, but it is repetitive enough that I can't stay occupied with it for too long.

[The Ninjas Doom]

Quote:

From your description it sounds like the game Fate, which RCCL mentioned. I kinda like Fate, but it is repetitive enough that I can't stay occupied with it for too long.

fate has the worst plot i've saw (go here and kill that is all there is to do plot wise) but other than that it has a decent good amount of getting there. then theres killing it which, uhh, isn't vary easy (unless, you cheat. ALOT) and most of the elements of the game are the same except there are guns in torchlight and there are bows in Fate(dont me on that last part im a little rusty on the details)

[RCCCL]

There are indeed guns in Torchlight, there happens to be bows and crossbows in both Torchlight and Fate.

[Lilith]

Originally Posted By: The Ninjas Doom

please get rid of your terrible, terrible sig

[Student of Trinity]

The Torchlight guns are fantasy steampunk blunderbuss things, with short range, semiautomatic fire, and infinite ammo. So, magic wands with different sound effects. You're not toting Uzis and Kalashnikovs. Still, they're somehow cool enough.

[*Logan*]

This game is one of many many games I would like to play before I die.

There is not enough time on this earth for an RPG gamer.

[K_I_L_E_R]

Jeff's games are strategy based, character positioning is vital. Torchlight is for casual gamers, whilst Jeff's games are for hardcore gamers, and this is very apparent when developing characters and playing the game. I can never play a Spiderweb game for only 30 minutes. When I sit down and play Jeff's games it takes anywhere from two to four hours per sitting. Torchlight I can play from thirty minutes to an hour at a time in order to get anywhere.

 

They are very different games, but I prefer the way Jeff creates loot, powerful loot is held in difficult to get places. I would like Jeff's games to have some random loot generation with limited powerful weapons dropping very rarely, as this could make certain encounters easier for those who do not mind the grind.

[*Logan*]

I also enjoy the depth and time these games need. It takes a long time to thoughly explore a new area, and I agree, play sessions can be quite long compared to other games.

 

Based on what I've heard and seen, Torchlight seems to be more of an arcade style RPG.

 

Maybe even comparable to Gauntlet?