Video Killed: Torchlight II

Or as I like to call it "Hi Guys, I'm totally Diablo 2".

So the holidays have come and gone, with all the grace and subtlety of a brick to the face thrown by a football hooligan, and with them, so has the Winter Steam sale finally ended, and our wallets can finally go back to their corners, weeping and shivering, unable to tell anyone where Gabe Newell touched them.

Being as broke as only a Warhammer 40K player can be I only managed to buy 3 games this year, Valkyria Chronicles, Outlast, and of course Torchlight II, which will be the subject of today's post.

Disclaimer: Despite what I say, it's a fun game, pick it up, play it with friends, it's just inordinately derivative.

Disclaimer 2: My Computer is flat-out obsolete, as such my view of the graphics may be a little skewed.

Story: 6/10, Good, if unimaginative

SPOILERS AHEAD

The game begins with the 3 characters from the last game, the Alchemist has gone insane trying to fix his Ember-Blight, and the Vanquisher and Destroyer get wrecked trying to stop him from taking the Artefact of Evil which then corrupts the world around it, bringing in otherworldly monsters and corruption, in other news, the Unknown Warrior from Diablo stabbed himself with Diablo's Soulshard, thinking it would help contain the Lord of Terror, and was possessed and warped by Diablo, now wherever he goes he brings in chaos, and terror, and otherworldly demons and corruption.

From this point onwards it is the PC's mission try and catch-up to the Dark Alchemist as he travels through, in order, Rainy Foothills, Snowy Mountains, a Corrupted Temple, a Ruin Filled Desert, a Lush, Humid Swamp, and finally a Fiery Pit that leads deep into the earth, before they stop the Dark Alchemist, and the otherworldly forces that were corrupting him, and driving him onwards in his mission to tear the barriers of reality asunder. Or as I like to put it, the Rainy Foothills of Diablo II, The Corrupted Temple of Diablo II, The Ruins Filled Desert of Diablo II, the Lush, Humid Swamp of Diablo II, the Fiery Pits of Hell (in Diablo II), and the Snowy Mountains that lead to a corrupted Temple in Diablo II, Lord of Destruction.

Yeah, the story is remarkably derivative of Diablo II, but that's good, Diablo II had one of the most basic stories of these kind of games, and it handled it well, Lone Hero (or Group of Heroes for you Multiplayers out there) goes out into the world to stop an ancient evil, for reasons, and succeeds. Bish, bash, bosh, done, can't fuck that story up, but Torchlight II doesn't manage to approach the scale of Diablo II, what took me about 2 weeks of solid gaming to complete in Diablo II, took me about 3 days with Torchlight, so the game feels smaller, which in turn makes me think that I'm dealing with a smaller threat, and I don't get as invested in the world as I did when this game was Called Diablo II.

Graphics 5/10, not outstanding, but definitely decent

They accomplish what they set out to do, that's all I can really say about the graphics, you want more? Fine.

Everything has a slightly cartoonish style to it, the characters are brightly coloured to help them stand out against the background, and enemies, and the Magical techniques are easily visible and recognisable without cluttering up the screen. Most enemies have their own somewhat distinct silhouette, allowing for quick identification and threat allocation, and no one dungeon style feels too terribly repeated, which was a problem with Diablo II's isometric view and almost Copy-Paste Dungeon graphics, but at the same time, nothing really popped, or had me standing there, wondering at its design, or miniscule detail, unlike the Dungeons in Diablo II, so it just felt blander, and less real than the 14 year old isometric game.

Sounds 5/10, They work

Seriously people, that's all I can say, the sounds work with the game, it's not like I can make a deep analysis on the raindrop noise they play during the rainy section of the map, you don't notice them, whether for Good or for Evil.

Gameplay 7/10, I Love my Ferret

If you've ever played one of these games you've played them all, kill monsters, do side quests, level up, find loot, run back to town 'cause your inventory's full, sell all the stuff you don't want, lather, rinse, repeat. What do you mean I can load up that pet I chose at the beginning of the game with all the loot I don't want, and get him to sell it, without having to leave the action, best Pet ever, I shall name my Ferret Kodo, and love him, and hug him, and keep him forever. Seriously though, the pet mechanic is about the only thing that sets this game apart from other Hack 'n' Slash RPGs, the fact that ferret is a seriously bad-ass damage dealer is just a side bonus (on a side note, why does the Ferret have more HP and Mana than I do).

The classes are fairly average, you've got the Engineer, who tanks Damage, buffs his allies, and Summons Robots to do his bidding; The Embermage who Mages with the 3 traditional element types, Ice, Fire, and Lightning; the Berserker, who berserks (I haven't actually seen this guy in action yet, he could completely rewrite my opinion of this game); and the Outlander, who shoots things,uses debuffing magic, and turns his dead enemies into allies for a short amount of time. So we have the basic RPG classes, the Tank, the Barbarian, the Nuke, and the Nerfer, so nothing new there, though no class has any particularly big disadvantage to solo play, which is nice if you're a recluse like I am.

Overall 23/40, Just Above Average, but Fun

This game will hardly change anyone's opinion about the genre, but if you like these kind of games then it's a fun ride until the end, when you wonder if you should've ridden in the old car from 2000 that has a comfier suspension, softer seats, more gears, and a better Miles per Gallon ratio.