Fans of Diablo, an action packed loot grinding dungeon crawler RPG for the PC released ages ago, now have the chance to play the 2009 PC sleeper hit, “Torchlight” on their Xbox 360’s. Torchlight, developed by Runic Games (employs some ex-Blizzard staff and other veteran PC developers) and published by Microsoft Game Studios, brings a PC native game of deep menus and constant mouse-clicking simplified to the console controller. Does it fair well enough to not hinder the greatness or fun that they created just two years ago?
In Torchlight the game, you play as a elegant hero looking for recognition and fame by clearing the mines in the town of Torchlight. Torchlight was constructed above a mine that is crammed to the brim with skeletons, beasts and don’t forget the ghouls! The town of Torchlight holds the business aspect of the game. Torchlight houses shopkeepers where you buy or sell loot and the obligatory quest givers. The other part of the game, where you grind and slaughter mercifully, all occurs underground, deep into the mines of Torchlight.
If you’ve played Diablo in the past, you will definitely understand and appreciate the style of game that Torchlight is. There are three well defined classes taken directly from Diablo to choose from: the Destroyer, Alchemist and Vanquisher. Destroyers are the melee heavy brutes, Alchemists are more magical strategists, and Vanquishers are swift and agile marksmen who specialize in ranged combat. The gameplay and point of the game is simple; to go deep into the mines, Kill thousands of enemies that are in your way, find the best loot and then sell it, use it yourself or complete a quest. In destroying anything that gets in your way, you will gain experience (XP) that you can then use to rank up your strength, magic, defense and dexterity. Exterminating baddies will also net you skill points that can be used to unlock or upgrade special attacks. After completing quests or slaying the level’s bosses you also gain fame. This really doesn’t serve a purpose besides unlocking achievements.
Porting to the console, you would think they would cut a lot of stuff out, but they didn’t. The controller layout for Torchlight works perfectly. The only problem with this game is the horrible slowdown that you will experience because of the mass amount of enemies that are all trying to kill you all at once. On harder difficulty this can be a very big problem as you cannot time your attacks very well but on the easier difficulties, the game is a little too easy where you can basically run through the whole thing.
Torchlight’s visual style is quite remarkable. The cartoon look does even make the most dark places colorful. Character models are detailed and well animated. The only thing is the environments don’t really have a wide spectrum because the mines and crypts end up looking almost identical regardless of what floor the player is on. There also isn’t any range in terms of the soundtrack. Also the voice over’s only limited to key NPC’s which usually sums up to only a sentence. The soundtrack definitely could have been revised to make it more memorable.
Torchlight does offer a decent experience that will be enjoyed by Diablo fans but some people may find the game repetitive gameplay and environment wise. Torchlight doesn’t feature any multi-play or co-op, which kind of kills the replay value but it’s supposed to be in Torchlight 2. Torchlight does have plenty to offer in terms of enjoyment and game time and the good does outweigh the bad allowing Torchlight to be as enjoyable on Xbox Live as it was on the PC. Torchlight is now available on Xbox 360 via the Game Marketplace for 1200 Microsoft points.
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