Torchlight (PC)

Ah the joy of reviewing games....an excuse to play video games, sit on my ass and waste many hours of my very unimportant time.

Granted, I’ve already reviewed Diablo and Torchlight is actually a very similar game.....which probably explains why I like it. Torchlight is your basic hack and slash adventure game. You choose your character from a choice of 3, the standard warrior, mage and rogue classes being the norm. The warrior, as per usual, specialises in melee weapons, primarily swords and axes. The mage specialises in magic attacks of various kinds, using wands as weapons. The rogue specialises in distance attacks, the bow being the usual weapon of choice but in Torchlight you get to use....wait for it....guns. Yes, you get to use guns. I know, my mind was blown as well!! Still, I personally prefer using the warrior, as I do when playing Diablo and Baldur’s Gate (review coming soon).

However, back to the game. As you can probably guess, the main point of the game is that you choose your character than spend the next several hours wandering around “dungeons” of various degrees of difficulty collecting weapons and armour and completing various quests set by members of the village. After completing each quest, you return to the village to be given experience points, gold and another quest. As well as the main quest from the standard “dungeons”, there is also a guy that gives you quests to kill monsters so he can write a song about your victory(!) and a guy that asks you to go through a portal and collect an artefact that I assume he wants to see on the black-market.

As with most games these days, the weapons you get can be upgraded in various forms, but Torchlight only gives you the chance to upgrade through inserting gems into certain weapons, which changes the attributes of it (the weapon), pending on the gem in question. Unlike other games I’ve played with this system, the gem can actually be removed from the weapon in future, for a cost. Again, another random yet welcome addition is the removal of gems through the destruction of the weapon, rather than the gem. Useful, if you don’t want the weapon again but want the gem. Obviously, the other way of doing it is just to have the gem destroyed but keep the weapon. Works for me!!

A few more welcome features now: the first one being the addition of a pet, either a cat or a dog. This pet not only acts as a means of carrying extra weapons, potions and armour but also acts as a form of attack, the pet helping to defend you against some of the many hordes the game throws at you. On top of this, the pet can be sent off to town to sell some of the weapons and armour, which is useful seeing as almost every monster drops something. Various fish can also be caught and fed to your pet, which changes it into different monsters that can help, or can change the form of your pet. Useful, but also pointless as I never use any of them. I just leave it as a means of carrying stuff and getting rid of it. Another very welcome, if unexpected, feature is the ability to carry to sets of weaponry. As the warrior, I have one set of weapons that does around 1000hp damage and the other does about 900, and having the choice to switch between the 2 is useful.

There is one thing that bugs me veeeeeery slightly though and that’s the fact that this is one of those games that can only be seen on the PC. I’m a massive fan of games across various consoles, which makes sense considering how many consoles I own. Diablo is available across PC and PlayStation, Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater can be seen across numerous consoles, most new games can be seen at least PS3 and X360 and sometimes the Wii. But Torchlight is only going to be seen on the PC. The sheer number of buttons needed just to control the various bits boggles the mind, meaning you need to remember all of them or have to wait for a cut-scene just so you can remember what each one does.

I have to say, I did (and still do) enjoy playing Torchlight. It’s very much like Diablo II, which was a great improvement on the first one, but with a few additions. It’s very much a cartoon version of Diablo in my world, and that’s fine with me. Bottom line, if you like Diablo or Baldur’s Gate, you’ll like Torchlight. Go buy it. Go now. Leave me alone. Go. Buy. Leave. NOW!!!