Torchlight 2

And so, the much anticipated sequel to Torchlight is finally here. The biggest features of Torchlight 2 are probably its multiplayer and the more expansive story and how it's spread across four Acts, each with their own environments, very much in style of Diablo 2. There are numerous other new things and improvements as well, but the same rewarding and meaty combat is still there.

I decided to play right away on the hardest difficulty, Elite. Which, in retrospect, was definitely a mistake. Or at least when combined with a 2H melee Engineer build without any twink gear. The first third of the game wasn't too hard but halfway through the second Act the difficulty started rising. And continued doing so till the end of the game.

The second phase of the final boss was plain silly, and I just gave up trying to stay alive -- mostly because I ran out of gold and potions. So I simply resurrected at the entrace, ran to the boss, hit him with couple Flame Hammers, died, and then repeated the process until I had won.

Melee characters certainly face more challenges than ranged ones; a number of champions and bosses push you out of melee range all the time, some multi-projectile attacks hit you fully due to being at the monster's face, and engaging packs is difficult without getting killed the moment you close in. I ended up mostly putting points in Vitality to prevent me getting one-shot by things, which of course cost me in killing power. I'm not sure if my overall build was optimized either and my latest weapon probably wasn't too good at boss slaying.

To summarize, my playthrough was a difficult one, though there certainly were some boss fights that felt really great to beat. My favorites were the Illuminated Arena and the Arena of Slaughter, both which, atypically to the game, reset if you decide to resurrect in town. The rest of the boss fights were generally quite fun as well. Although, I'm not sure if it's really necessary for every boss to have adds. The portals Phase Beasts open upon death are now more than just extra mini-dungeons, too; Phase Beast Challenges, as the game calls them.

The areas of Torchlight 2 have much variation and the color palette continues looking very pleasant everywhere. Dungeons stay fresh as they have only one or two levels before their boss. However, in Act 3 there's one five-level tower dungeon that feels dragged out. And the entirety of the mini-Act 4 is just descending the same ~10 level dungeon that has only two themes.

I wonder if they have the art guy from Blizzard who did stuff in The Burning Crusade; the first town, Estherian Enclave, really resembles Shattrath City. And of course the soundtrack is provided by Matt Uelmen, bringing you those Diablo vibes once again. The story is still the weakest link. The setting just isn't very strong and having characters such as "The Alchemist" doesn't really help.

Too bad no high resolution texture mods are available yet. Though the low fidelity of textures lowers the system requirements, and you don't really notice them when the going gets tough. Runic Games didn't exactly hold back with spell effects, however, and in big fights even people with high end machines have reported frame dropping. Apparently Runic is working to improve the performance this very moment. I had no noticeable problems with it myself.

The game plays mostly the same as Torchlight. Couple new minor features are scaling hit boxes and queueing of abilities. Both which seemed to cause more trouble than they're worth. I found myself too often heading towards an enemy instead of running away, and I'd prefer my Storm Burst happen when I press the button and not after the queued Flame Hammer has gone off.

The four attributes are each useful for all of the four classes this time, though if you specialize in some, you get to wear some items earlier since gear pieces require either character level or high enough stats. A rather cool idea, if you ask me. Pets are tougher, and instead of wearing left-over amulets and rings, they have their own collars and tags. Enchanting has been nerfed; you can have only a maximum of four enchantments on one item and their effects are weaker. There is no chance to destroy your item anymore, though.

Also, enchanting no longer creates sockets. Instead you use a transmutation recipe. It requires two of same or higher item level gems, however, which is often... problematic. They also removed -- or rather -- changed the gem upgrading system. Probably for the best; saves precious stash space and makes you actually use the gems. You can still transmutate three gems to a new random rare one, though.

The skill system is the same traditional one, but no class shares passives like in the first game. They also added a three-tier mechanic to give you an extra effect every five points to encourage investing in a skill. I guess it works to some degree, though there are still many abilities that feel like one-point wonders. Also, there is now a charge bar that brings some extra boost to your skills.

The passive skills get no tier treatment, and thus remain pretty bland. While the proc effects are cool, spending a skill point to buff the chance from 2 to 3% doesn't seem very cost effective nor fun. Eventually you have to do it somewhere, though; you can't just spread your points all over the place.

Torchlight 2 is without a doubt one of the best action RPGs I've played. The most important features for the genre, the combat and the loot, are awesome. The game's bit flat on its lore but the overall atmosphere is amazing. Runic will likely add some content to the game in the future, like new Phase Beast challenges. And when the modding tools are released, anyone is able to create more content and add stuff to the game.

I think I will try an Embermage next.