Torchlight clearly wants to appeal to fans of Diablo and similar dungeon crawls. It has all the elements of those games, depicting an adventurer in a swords-and-sorcery world arriving in town to gather some gear before descending into the mines to deal with the monster infestation, emerge to resupply, then go back in and continue the cycle until each floor of the dungeon has been cleared. All the usual enticements are here as well, with multiple character classes, item customization, and random loot keeping players invested in Torchlight. It builds on a successful formula, but most of its innovations are in fairly minor details and convenience.
Considered an ’action RPG’ played from an overhead view, Torchlight requires only basic reflexes. If you point your adventurer in the general direction of nearby enemies, simply pressing the attack button will suffice for fighting them so you really only need to determine when and where to fight the various monsters you encounter. Beyond that, staying alive is a matter of dodging certain slow attacks and having enough health potions on hand to undo the damage taken from the rest, a process that is pretty easy on the Normal difficulty mode (though this is adjustable). Successfully doing so lets you proceed further into the dungeon, rewarded by several things working together. There are ability improvements, letting your character do things like shoot rays of ice to freeze an enemy in place or use certain weapon types better, while gold and items provide ways to upgrade what your character is carrying.
This is all very typical, and the flow of quests and side-quests for extra rewards doesn’t do much to break the mold either. Where Torchlight stands out is various smart improvements to the formula, such as having the player’s character be accompanied by a pet that grows right alongside them. Its most obvious use is as an ally in fighting monsters, but the pet can also carry loot for you and even go back to town to sell it while you continue into the dungeon’s lower levels; it’s a great idea, one saving unnecessary trips if all you want is money for the items and are otherwise well supplied. These sort of minor but smart improvements are the main thing that stands out about Torchlight, as it otherwise plays very faithfully to the formula we already know.
While good at what it does, there are some meaningful issues with Torchlight. Its relatively light plot for an RPG is no big deal; dungeon crawls really don’t need a great story. Its lack of multiplayer is far more significant however, as while the player’s pet is nice to have around it doesn’t compensate for having a friend to play with. Neither local nor online play are supported, which seems like a baffling omission. Combat also begins to feel repetitive after a while, though gaining new skills every few experience levels does help with this to some extent.
Overall, Torchlight is a competent dungeon crawl. It offers a reasonable amount of length and content for its 1200 Microsoft Point/$15 USD price, and should entertain those that enjoyed Diablo or perhaps even various roguelikes (though it is generally easier than titles in that genre, unless you opt to crank up the difficulty and turn on permanent-death mode). So long as you understand that you are going in for a fairly ’by the numbers’ take on this kind of game, and that it lacks multiplayer modes, you should find plenty to like here.
