Torchlight II
It’s been a century since the events of Torchlight II, and the Ember Empire is in decline. In Torchlight III, Novastraia is again under threat of invasion and it’s up to you to defend against the Netherim and its allies. Gather your wits and brave the frontier to find fame, glory, and new adventures! Brave the vast wilderness of Novastraia and all of its dangers either alone or with a group of friends! Whether it’s armor, weapons, or even new pets…there’s always more to find as you battle through dungeons and take on dangerous foes. With four unique classes to choose from and five available Relic subclasses, there are many different ways to build your hero and maximize your damage. You’ll also gather epic gear along your journey that you can customize to work with your hero’s unique make-up. It’s time to rebuild – and that includes you! Enjoy your very own fort, where you can upgrade gear and renovate your fort to show off to your friends and the world. Fight your way to fame and glory with your loyal companion! Add skills and equip them with gear to make them stronger. Each species comes in a myriad of colors and styles, so make sure to collect them all!
Steam User 159
Long story short: Torchlight 3 is an absolutely fine sequel to... Torchlight 1.
I can recommend it to anyone who's really into diablo-like games and especially to someone who loved TL1 back in the days but was somewhat confused by how TL2 apparently went into different direction.
Now here's a longer version of that.
It all started from the first Torchlight that came out in late 2009 and everyone who played it back then was pleasantly surprised by it. The smooth gameplay dynamic and lively animations, fun and cool looking dungeons to explore, beautiful evocative music from Matt Uelmen, very chill and cozy atmosphere, neat fishing mini-game.
It didn't felt like a straight up dumb Diablo clone, it was a bit more than just that. It felt like an adventure in a coat of a diablo-like game. You're supposed to slowly but steadily discover this dark but soothing world, floor by floor, delving deeper under the ground, while soaking up the atmosphere. That's what made it different. It also was one of the first 3D diablo games before Diablo 3 came out in 2012.
Not long after its release, me as many other fans jumped onto official forums to eagerly tell developers how awesome their creation is. Since it was quite successfull for the studio behind it, everyone started to wait for inevitable Torchlight 2 - with a main premise that now it will support a multiplayer play.
Fast forward: 3 long years of waiting, participating in beta phase and countless interactions on Torchlight community forums.
Right after the beta I was in the minority among TL fans who playtested it and really thought that something went missing there. It was kinda hard to pin-point back then what exactly changed so much but to me it somehow stopped to resemble a Torchlight game and started to shaping up into something inherently different.
Well, first of all, the running speed. It was too damn high!
TL2 didn't even have any items with a speed modifiers on them, meaning that your character was always running at its full max speed all the time! It was just too damn fast for me.
After the full release it became apparent that the world that developers built for the sequel, all of the assets they crafted and put into the game, the whole art direction to be honest was all over the place. They clearly didn't have a strong vision as to what should be in the game and how to make it all look like a single cohesive world. The 3 episodes all look and feel so different to each other that could all well be in 3 different games.
And mostly importantly to me, that 'adventury' part of the TL1 was completely and deliberately dropped. TL no longer was a special gem, it was just a Diablo 2 clone with a different art style.
The thing that probably hurts the most is that they tried to chase and conquer that top summit that Diablo 2 have been occuping, but didn't really succeed in that. TL2 never reaches those heights by any stretch of imagination.
Lots of background stories here, but I think it's necessary to understand where TL3 stands among all of this.
Now TL3 is a continuation of what made TL1 so special. It's not like a complete return to form, but it's a confident and intentional step towards that goal. It's a step sideways and one step forward.
It finally has a cohesively created world containing 3 thematic episodes - forests, marsh and mountains. All of it look disctinct enough to provide variety and different feel, but none of it look out of place.
Developers from Echtra even had a 4th episode with a beach/pirate theme planned but sadly it never went beyond the drawing board stage.
The story is nothing to write about, but the hand drawn scenes between episodes telling about your traversal across this world are easily one of the best ideas for a TL game if you're familiar with DnD role-playing. They're like story templates for sparking your imagination before you go into the new zone.
They finally got those dwarven citadels back into the game! What else to wish for if you're a TL fan? Your life's already fulfilled :D
Overall the art style and all the dungeons and overworld maps are so much closer to TL1 thematically. If you're TL1 fan it ought to make you happy or you're just a dead person and that's it. No salvation.
Gameplay wise, it's a modernized diablo-like game successfully achieving what made Diablo 3 such a smooth experience. The combat flow is buttery smooth, fast and snappy, you'd never want to go back to older games again after that.
What I really like about the skill tree system in TL3 is that each class goes with 2 skill branches of its own and then you choose a Relic skill tree which is taken from a separate pool of skill trees that you basically attach to any charater class. It makes each class customizable to some extent and adds replayability, since you can play the same class but with a different elemental 'flavor' to it.
What's also cool is that legendary items provide their own abilities as slotable skills, you can set up 3 of those slots depending on what kind of legendaries you've found so far. This let you customize your character even further.
The soundtrack is splendid as it usually happens if you invite Mr.Uelmen to compose it. It has some of the best guitar pieces he ever did and lots of moody sounding stuff all heavilly contributing to world building and atmosphere. I wish they would have released the soundtrack along the game itself.
The one thing I think where developers missed the mark is when they decided not to implement a proper New Game+ mode. Instead you fight your way through Dun'Djin end-game challenges which basically are a set of random dungeons and overworld map pieces with a positive and negative modifiers applied. It sure is fun for a short while but in the long run it gets repetitive and somewhat frustrating (because it gets real hard sooner or later, lol) that you will eventually feel like taking a break from.
Some other thing I wish developers would do before finally drawing a line and abandoning their game is to iron out remaining minor bugs that still present and kinda annoying if you play more than 10-20 hrs.
TL3 was clearly made with love and care. Every handcrafted asset, every detail, all of it speaks quality. Don't believe anyone who says this is lazy work. Some people are just clueless when it comes to judge other peoples work.
I'm rooting for Echtra team, hoping they did their homework, learned the bitter lessons and now making a new game. Hopefully with the same design qualities and approach.
All in all, if you're willing to go past all the hate and negativity that TL2 fans brought here, if you liked TL1 and you can look past some minor bugs you'll probably find a game that was worth waiting for... well, since october 2009... as it was the case for me.
Steam User 50
Hmmm, the game still shows "Mixed Reviews", but to be honest being a fan of the previous two games I actually enjoyed my time with Torchlight III. Ya, it might not be as good as Torchlight II was, but I guess it depends on what you're looking for in a game. As for me I just wanted to run around, fight, farm and loot, so I think the game deserves a bit more respect for what devs tried implementing. I'd still recommend it and give it a 7 or even an 8 out of 10 rating for my solo experience with it. Would I have paid $45 CAD for it if I'd known how my experience panned out in the end? Probably not, but I'd say if you wanted to initially try this game out, but decided against it based on negative reviews alone then just wait until it's on a decent sale and give it a go then. I think it's alright for at least a single playthrough for the record if you are not too demanding.
Steam User 20
The game is not as good as it's predecessor.
TL2 had it going on and still does to this day, while this one was supposed to be some kind of POE until it got scrapped and became what it is and is no longer seeing anymore updates.
At least there is something to do if you want to see what happen in the torchlight universe.
Achievement wise they are doable if you have the patience for grinding, and none of them are completing the game on hardcore more, but does require gibbing a million monsters when there isn't much content when the level cap is 60 instead of 100.
You can play fashionista and make your fort pretty if you plan on grinding the materials required to get to become prettiest of your class.
Will recommend it when it goes on sale and you are have nothing better to do in your game library.
Steam User 21
I didn't buy this game for awhile because some of the negative reviews, but I have no clue what those people are complaining about. This game is exactly what I wanted it to be, a dungeon crawler like the other Torchlights. Well worth the money for the time you'll play it, especially on sale. Go buy it.
Steam User 16
I avoided the game because of the negative consensus. I saw Rhykker's review and that convinced me to give it a try.
This may not be a good sequel, but it's still a good arpg. Combat feels good. Looting is rewarding. Not complex, but not too simple either. Simple and casual arpg. After 8 hours I still feel engaged and plan to play a lot more. I am really enjoying it.
For the sale price of around $10 this is definitely worth it.
Steam User 8
Its different to T2 yes and sadly no mods but its still enjoyable especially on sale.
Of course the old mobile F2P mechanics are still evident but it makes it a more less serious / casual Torchlight.
Pet system is pretty cool and daft, Classes are varied and all have enjoyable elements.
Fort system is odd and just something silly to do.
Its clearly a confused game but not bad overall for sure.
Steam User 6
T2 was better but this is ok