With this week comes a new RPG. One that is maybe not as hyped or anticipated as Dragon Age or Final Fantasy XIII but one that, with all it’s heart and character, will undoubtedly win you over. I am, of course, speaking of Runic Games’ Torchlight.

Torchlight is an action RPG in the same vein as Diablo and Titan Quest. This means you’ll be running around dungeons, killing swaths of boogies and goblins, and hording as much loot as you (and your pet) can carry. Oh and believe me when I say this: Torchlight has plenty of loot… “phat, phat lewt”.

Anyways the game is being released tomorrow (Oct 27th) and we were lucky enough to get the game a bit early in order to put out a review. So we put the game through it’s paces, ran it around the block a few times and came up with a lofty review. Here it is:

Gameplay

Torchlight provides very solid gameplay as compared to similar games in it’s genre. In fact in controls exactly how’d you’d expect. In this case, Runic Games played the “if it ain’t broke don’t fix it” card and, to be honest, it works just as well today as it did 10 years ago.

In the beginning you’ll be able to choose from three classes. These three classes are exactly what you’d expect out of such a game. There’s the Destroyer (warrior), the Vanquisher (hunter/ranger) and the Alchemist (mage). Overall these three classes work pretty well, although I really only extensively tested the Alchemist. I’m a sucker for magic…

Fishing! Runic Games has decided to include fishing within the game. Many may be quick to paint it as a mini-game but it’s really not that at all. It’s more of a “click at the appropriate time” sort of thing. It’s kind of boring, actually, although you can get some neat stuff from fishing so it’s not all bad.

In Torchlight you’ll be granted a pet from the beginning of the game. You can choose between a dog or a can but other than appearances I couldn’t find anything different about the two. Anyways, your pet provides some unique gameplay characteristics about them.

• They provide extra inventory for when your bag fills up.  As we all know in games like this your bag will fill up fast and often, so it was definitely nice to see Runic giving you some extra space in order to cut down on the travel times back and forth to town. Also when your pet’s bag fills up you can send them back to town to auto sell everything while your still running through the dungeon. This makes it so you never have to go back to town if you don’t want, although I, personally, still did quite often.
• While it’s nice to have a little furry backpack running around, another aspect of them that makes them unique is that they are a fighter. They’ll always be in the midst of battle taking on the worst of the worst… often times coming out for the better too.
• You can feed your pet different fish that you catch. Each fish has a different characteristic that can change certain stats or even change him into a completely different beast (water elemental for example) for a while to help you battle. However, I never really used this and largely found it unnecessary. Neat but not needed, y’know?

As an Alchemist in Torchlight I was able to notice one specific thing that bugged the crap out of me. Seeing as how I was a mage character I was also able to summon various creatures. At any given time I had 6-7 minions including my pet. What annoyed me to no end was the fact that there was little to help you manage them all. You couldn’t see their health or how many of them were summoned (aside from your pet). This means that some would die and I wouldn’t know it until I actually counted them all up again. Definitely seemed like an odd design choice.

Continuing on with the minions/pets I also noticed some bad AI pathing. In Torchlight you are in large, winding dungeons that usually have multiple paths, stairs, nooks, and crannies. My pets always got stuck in these nooks and crannies and would, at times, continually run into a wall in an attempt to get to enemies on the other side. Of course if you ran away far enough they would all just spawn back near you so it wasn’t all bad. Still annoying though.

Style

Torchlight oozes with style. In fact, it’s probably one of the most stylish games of this genre I’ve ever seen. You’ll be treated with areas that are very vibrant and colorful, as well as, attacks and magic that are equally as pleasureful to look at. When it all comes down to it, Torchlight is an absolute delight to look at. It may not have the highest polygon count, but it’s got character and that’s really all that matters.

The voice acting for Torchlight ranges from rough to pretty good. One character in the beginning, for example, has very bland dialog and voice acting. On the flip side, the main quest giver and narrator have fantastic dialog/voice acting. Overall I’d say Runic Games implemented this very well, giving obvious consideration to characters who are more important to the overall story.

Story

Torchlight was masterfully created. The setting, citizens, town, and dungeons are all very original and a joy to be a part of. There was obviously a lot of care taken to esure that Torchlight would stand out as a fantasy RPG and, as such, it does. In fact there’s almost a sort of steam punky-ness about it that gives it a unique take on fantasy.

The primary story behind Torchlight is also very well created. It may be a bit more arch-typical in it’s design than the setting, but it still gives the entire game a nice plot to follow through with. The game clearly lives for the story and not the other way around. In fact,  there wasn’t ever really a time when I thought the story was just being put on to further the game. Needless to say, while Torchlight wasn’t made to be a best selling fantasy novel, it did it’s job well enough to keep me interested throughout.

Everything Else

Torchlight is missing one key component that would have made the game infinitely better, and I’m sure Runic Games is expecting to read this same complaint on every review that comes out. There is no multiplayer. Torchlight is a single player game and, as such, you can’t ever show off your gear, contest in some pvp, or even help your friend with a specific boss. There’s nothing but you, your pet, and about a million monsters. Quite a shame too as Torchlight would have been so much fun with some multiplayer.

And that’s it! Overall, Torchlight was a fantastic RPG and one that, at its $20 price point, is definitely worth every penny.

Many other reviewers will probably be comparing Torchlight to Diablo 2, the de facto king of this genre. However, I’d be quicker to compare it to Diablo (the first game). I know it may seem like semantics, but there are actually large design differences between Diablo 1 and 2. The classes, dungeons, and setting, for example, are all very reminiscent of Diablo.

Likewise Torchlight feels more like Diablo did. It’s great, but you know whatever comes next will absolutely blow everybody away (like Diablo 2 did). Runic Games is supposedly going to be working on an MMO based off of Torchlight and, if they can nix some of these minor problems while they are at it, it could completely revolutionize the genre.

[The developer/publisher gave DIYgamer.com a copy of this game for review purposes.]