Torchlight - afterwork monster slaughtering - Diablo style
If you are not using your computer entirely for work then you surely have a favorite genre of computer games to spend your spare time. I sometimes play ego shooters (Sauberbraten is great open-source fun) or ego sneakers like Thief, Splinter Cell or Hitman. But counting the hours then most of my life was spent with action RPGs (role playing games) like Diablo I, Diablo II, Titan Quest or Sacred.
The action part consists of clicking your mouse on helpless ugly monsters until shiny things like gold, gems, magic items, armor or weapons drop on the muddy floor. Your goal is to gain experience points from killing foes and improving your equipment. While most of the time you just find regular gear there are also rings, amulets and all kinds of magical items. With better gear you can battle the harder kind of monsters. While this circle of killing, looting and shopping may sound boring it is in fact a fun concept. So much for the genre. So if you are an action RPG fan like me then you will surely still believe that Blizzard ever releases Diablo 3 and keep the 50€ in your pocket to be ready to leap to your local game store. Your morning routine consists of watching the Diablo 3 trailer on YouTube. But we all know Blizzard and while they make great games they hardly ever meet a deadline. Do they even have a deadline? So what do we do in the meantime?
Torchlight - the tiny Diablo remake
A while ago I came across a game that sounded too good to be true: Torchlight. From the makers of Diablo. I didn't know what to make of it. So I checked out their website and downloaded the demo which is actually a 2 hour time-limited full version that can be unlocked by paying ~14€ via PayPal. Easy and fair enough. I mean how many games have I bought at full-price at the store and was disappointed. After downloading the 400MB package I booted up Windows (what else is it good for except for playing games), ran through the few-minutes installation and everything was ready to go. No crappy copy protection that forces me to get a crack to run the copy I just paid for. No several hour installation frenzy that breaks after two hours because it needed 2 GB of free space on my main partition although I asked it to install on another partition. (Yes, I mean you, Sacred 2.) Even the simple one-page settings screen had everything right so I could delve right into the game.
Look and feel
If you have played Diablo then you will right at home. You can choose from three character classes - destroyer (melee), vanquisher (archer) or alchemist (mage). You have mana and health, you can assign points to dexterity, life, strength and magic. And there is a skill tree of three categories per character. The shortcuts are Diablo-like and controling the character is done in third-person using the mouse. You can assign items to the number keys (e.g. health or mana potions) and skills to the function keys (F1-F12). Sounds familiar, right?
The graphics are very smooth and colorful. You are playing in a non-rotatable 3D world so you don't need to worry about the camera angle (I felt I need a camera man in Sacred). The characters and building in the starting village actually looked a bit comic-like. But that gives the game it a funny new touch. Getting into the game is nearly trivial for someone who is used to Diablo-style games. The shortkeys are the same - for example "i" for the inventory or "c" for the character screen. Even common annoyances from Diablo have been remedied like you can drink potions assigned to number keys as long as you have any in your inventory. In Diablo you had to put them into your belt time and again. Other concepts like town portal scrolls to get back into the village to buy and sell items or to finish quests have been kept. Many NPC (non-player characters) are living in the village who allow you to transmute items (e.g. two similar small gems get transformed into a better one) or recover gems and items from your weapons. And there are additional dungeons that you can travel to aside from the main story line.
The areas have each a different look. You start in a mine and later get into very colorful and beautiful other regions that are worth exploring. The graphical effects are all very nicely done. You will find a lot of different armor items, weapons and improvements when killing monsters or finding and opening chests. What I found especially cute is that a pet is helping you do your work. I chose a feline companion. It extends your storage by carrying items for you. And if it can't carry any more you can send it back to the village to sell your stuff ("Your pet has departed."). After a whlie it comes back ("Your pet has returned") with a pile of gold. But it also helps you fight. Every now and then you will find small ponds where you can practice your fishing skills. There are different kinds of fish you can catch. If fed to your pet they transform the pet and gives it special fighting abilities for a certain period of time. But your pet can also learn spells that help you. My cat for example learned healing spells. My pet currently doesn't really help me kill monsters but healing me and carrying my crap is still worth it.
So all in all it's the good old Diablo-feeling all along - spiced up with a few new extras and minus some annoyances.
Where's the catch?
There is no real catch. Torchlight is not as complex as Diablo 2 but it's definitely worth the money. The main drawback is the lacking multiplayer mode. Apparently its creators are working on a multiplayer mode but it is not supposed to be available soon - but it seems they are heading in a World-of-Warcraft direction just without asking for a paid subscription. My personal recommendation: If you liked Diablo then download the software and after two hours you will surely know if it's worth the 14€. I don't need a fancy CD case to put on my shelf after the installation or a useless printed handbook. And I can even live without a cinematic trailer because that's not the reason I buy a game. So this is all I wished for. And I hope that the game keeps getting developed.
What does it look like?
I currently don't have any self-made screenshots. Take a look at the upstream site.
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