AltruismIsDead
03-14-2011, 10:42 PM
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y274/altruismisdead/Torchlight%20Review/ATR-Logo.jpg
Quick introduction: and disclaimer.
This is my first publicly posted review, so please be kind ;) Please feel free to comment, make constructive criticism. Also important to note that first and foremost I am not affiliated with the official X360A review team, and all opinions are mine. This review is intended for those people who might not have played it, and are interested about it. Without any further ado my review...
Game Info:
http://tiles.xbox.com/consoleAssets/58410A7E/en-US/smallboxart.jpg
Torchlight: XBLA
1200 MS Points
Size: 196.64 MB
1 - Player
Action RPG
Developer: Runic Game
Download Link (http://marketplace.xbox.com/en-US/Product/Torchlight/66acd000-77fe-1000-9115-d80258410a7e)
Quick start summary:
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y274/altruismisdead/Torchlight%20Review/TL-Char.jpg
From the start you have the option to choose from 3 different character classes; Destroyer - a warrior type class; Alchemist - the mage class; and lastly the Vanquisher - the rogue. After selecting a class, you have the option of choosing between 1 of 3 different pets which come in very helpful throughout the game. They resemble a wolf, a cat, and a lizard. Other than the aesthetics they offer no real differences until you upgrade them by feeding your pets fish, to transform them into other animals with unique abilities and strengths.
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y274/altruismisdead/Torchlight%20Review/TLLogoTrans2.png
Story:
One of the downfalls in this game is the lackluster story, and near non-exsistant cinematic in game cutscenes. Each character ends up in Torchlight hearing about the evils that had befallen upon the town. While most of the story segments are watched by voice over narrations through the journal of one of the main enemies Alric. Even if you are interested in the story-line, the delivery of the voice acting performances may just put you to sleep if you aren't fast enough to skip over these scenes.
Not only is the story telling just as bland, but for such a great setting and atmosphere, the back story to this town, and inhabitants are completely unspoken of, which doesn't help get a sense of immersion or any type of connection to any of the characters you come across.
In essence it's your basic standard Diablo story telling. Speaking of which...
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y274/altruismisdead/Torchlight%20Review/TLLogoTrans2.png
Gameplay
One thing you might have heard often about this game in one way, shape or form either by comparison, or gameplay is "Diablo" the classic dungeon crawler that basically invented the series back in 1996, with it's randomly generated dungeons, and loot questing that offered tons of replay value.
With that in mind, fans of the series should feel right at home with Torchlight, developed by 2 of the co-designers of Diablo 1 & 2. With plenty of exploration, looting, leveling up and randomly generated dungeons, it rides on the coat-tails of the Diablo franchise by improving on this with updated graphics, along with interesting, atmospheric locations ranging from mines, to temples, orc-ish villages and other exotic locales. Each featuring a deep contrast between levels the further you tunnel down into the earth.
Among other improvements, the added benefit of your side-kick pet companion helps to be quite useful in battle. Allowing you to equip him with 2 different types of magic to cast, 3 different tactical battle styles (Aggressive, Defensive, and Passive) and lastly the most import aspect of having a side-kick, using him as your peon-gofer. While delving deeper into the underground while loading up on your bountiful loot, you will eventually max out your allotted inventory space. No need to fear. Your pet companion can hold up to 50 unique items, and if you wish, with a few simple commands you can have him scamper off back to town to sell your loot and promptly return for battle once again without missing a beat.
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y274/altruismisdead/Torchlight%20Review/TLLogoTrans2.png
Graphics:
Graphics are on par with most of whats out there in terms of XBLA games. To sum it up I would say it would be the equivalent of Fable if it was made into an XBLA title. The different variety and detail of all the denizens and creatures you come across in the world of Torchlight fit in perfectly. The settings from the beautiful underground temples to the towns flowing with rivers of water to the flickering of special effect flames coming from your sword, and the glow of portals all flow seamlessly in the world of Touchlight, without any of it looking out of place.
While it isn't a graphical powerhouse like Call of Duty, Gears of War, or any game running off the Unreal Engine, it is absolutely astonishing how much detail graphically and gameplay-wise they fit in a game under 200MB (196.64 MB to be exact)
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y274/altruismisdead/Torchlight%20Review/TLLogoTrans2.png
The good, the bad, the ugly, and all the rest:
Good:
Controls
Navigating through Torchlight, is a blast and a joy. The controls handle tight and responsive, the controller setup and mapping spells is quick and easy while targeting the enemy you want to attack works nearly most *1 of the time.
Menu *2
The menu is quick and easy to navigate although quite overpowering the first time you access it. Quickly swapping weapons with your companion and seeing which weapons, armor, and accessories works best for your character is easy to see*3
Sound
Diablo sound engineer Matt Uelmen, joins the Runic Games team and composes the music for Torchlight. Most tunes (the village melody) comes eerily close to the original Diablo village theme and brings back a good sense of nostalgia to original Diablo players. Amongest other eerily haunting tunes adds both to the atmosphere and nostalgia.
The Bad:
Frame Rate Issues
While starting out it is easy to traverse through the mines of Torchlight, but once the further you get down in levels, and the higher spells you learn coupled with the vast amount of enemies, and spawning multiple Summon Zombie and Summon Skeleton skills, the frame rate takes a massive hit. *1 During this time it's incredibly difficult to target any of the enemies you want, and on some occasions I've come across a few cheap deaths by the slow down.
Menu *2
As mentioned above the menu works great for navigating and selecting items. What it does lack are features to quickly organize items, and even with the total combine inventory of your character, your pet, and the 2 chests in the town (for a total of 200 items) you will be spending plenty of time organizing and trying to figure out which items you need to sell to make room for more. The devs should have made it easier to sort items based on a number of different variables, like armor type (hats, gloves, chest plates, boots) name, value, stats etc.
*3 While running the game on 2 different input settings, the first; normal composite A/V cables (the red, white and yellow cords) at 480i on a 57" HDTV in letterbox mode was near completely unreadable. The smaller text for effect attributes and level requirements were completely unreadable. Obviously this was an issue on my end. But an option to increase font size would be nice for people that only have this setup to work with. After switching over to HDMI cabes and 1080p the issue was resolved.
The Ugly:
Multiplayer
Or should I say, lack thereof.
I eagerly jumped in after receiving an in game "Gift" from a friend. And from what I briefly followed of the game I knew it'd be a first day purchase. I jump in and barely played the demo before I unlocked the full game. Like normal I was set to start out on a little "single player campaigning" before joining any "multiplayer" sessions. Well, to my and many other gamers dismay, there simply is no co-op multiplayer included whatsoever.
This of course is the biggest set back, to an otherwise great spiritual successor to the Diablo franchise. From what I had briefly read is that it's a port from the 2009 PC version of Torchlight which was only single player as well.
This is quite sad, seeing how the originally Diablo released almost 15 years ago had this key component over a decade ago!
Short Story Mode
Don't get this confused with replay value. For it packs a mean punch in that department (with after completing the game you can enter a never ending, randomly generated unground labyrinth on top of looting tons of unique items.)
What I mean is the lack luster story on top of the short amount of time needed to complete the entire "story" mode.
Quick introduction: and disclaimer.
This is my first publicly posted review, so please be kind ;) Please feel free to comment, make constructive criticism. Also important to note that first and foremost I am not affiliated with the official X360A review team, and all opinions are mine. This review is intended for those people who might not have played it, and are interested about it. Without any further ado my review...
Game Info:
http://tiles.xbox.com/consoleAssets/58410A7E/en-US/smallboxart.jpg
Torchlight: XBLA
1200 MS Points
Size: 196.64 MB
1 - Player
Action RPG
Developer: Runic Game
Download Link (http://marketplace.xbox.com/en-US/Product/Torchlight/66acd000-77fe-1000-9115-d80258410a7e)
Quick start summary:
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y274/altruismisdead/Torchlight%20Review/TL-Char.jpg
From the start you have the option to choose from 3 different character classes; Destroyer - a warrior type class; Alchemist - the mage class; and lastly the Vanquisher - the rogue. After selecting a class, you have the option of choosing between 1 of 3 different pets which come in very helpful throughout the game. They resemble a wolf, a cat, and a lizard. Other than the aesthetics they offer no real differences until you upgrade them by feeding your pets fish, to transform them into other animals with unique abilities and strengths.
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y274/altruismisdead/Torchlight%20Review/TLLogoTrans2.png
Story:
One of the downfalls in this game is the lackluster story, and near non-exsistant cinematic in game cutscenes. Each character ends up in Torchlight hearing about the evils that had befallen upon the town. While most of the story segments are watched by voice over narrations through the journal of one of the main enemies Alric. Even if you are interested in the story-line, the delivery of the voice acting performances may just put you to sleep if you aren't fast enough to skip over these scenes.
Not only is the story telling just as bland, but for such a great setting and atmosphere, the back story to this town, and inhabitants are completely unspoken of, which doesn't help get a sense of immersion or any type of connection to any of the characters you come across.
In essence it's your basic standard Diablo story telling. Speaking of which...
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y274/altruismisdead/Torchlight%20Review/TLLogoTrans2.png
Gameplay
One thing you might have heard often about this game in one way, shape or form either by comparison, or gameplay is "Diablo" the classic dungeon crawler that basically invented the series back in 1996, with it's randomly generated dungeons, and loot questing that offered tons of replay value.
With that in mind, fans of the series should feel right at home with Torchlight, developed by 2 of the co-designers of Diablo 1 & 2. With plenty of exploration, looting, leveling up and randomly generated dungeons, it rides on the coat-tails of the Diablo franchise by improving on this with updated graphics, along with interesting, atmospheric locations ranging from mines, to temples, orc-ish villages and other exotic locales. Each featuring a deep contrast between levels the further you tunnel down into the earth.
Among other improvements, the added benefit of your side-kick pet companion helps to be quite useful in battle. Allowing you to equip him with 2 different types of magic to cast, 3 different tactical battle styles (Aggressive, Defensive, and Passive) and lastly the most import aspect of having a side-kick, using him as your peon-gofer. While delving deeper into the underground while loading up on your bountiful loot, you will eventually max out your allotted inventory space. No need to fear. Your pet companion can hold up to 50 unique items, and if you wish, with a few simple commands you can have him scamper off back to town to sell your loot and promptly return for battle once again without missing a beat.
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y274/altruismisdead/Torchlight%20Review/TLLogoTrans2.png
Graphics:
Graphics are on par with most of whats out there in terms of XBLA games. To sum it up I would say it would be the equivalent of Fable if it was made into an XBLA title. The different variety and detail of all the denizens and creatures you come across in the world of Torchlight fit in perfectly. The settings from the beautiful underground temples to the towns flowing with rivers of water to the flickering of special effect flames coming from your sword, and the glow of portals all flow seamlessly in the world of Touchlight, without any of it looking out of place.
While it isn't a graphical powerhouse like Call of Duty, Gears of War, or any game running off the Unreal Engine, it is absolutely astonishing how much detail graphically and gameplay-wise they fit in a game under 200MB (196.64 MB to be exact)
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y274/altruismisdead/Torchlight%20Review/TLLogoTrans2.png
The good, the bad, the ugly, and all the rest:
Good:
Controls
Navigating through Torchlight, is a blast and a joy. The controls handle tight and responsive, the controller setup and mapping spells is quick and easy while targeting the enemy you want to attack works nearly most *1 of the time.
Menu *2
The menu is quick and easy to navigate although quite overpowering the first time you access it. Quickly swapping weapons with your companion and seeing which weapons, armor, and accessories works best for your character is easy to see*3
Sound
Diablo sound engineer Matt Uelmen, joins the Runic Games team and composes the music for Torchlight. Most tunes (the village melody) comes eerily close to the original Diablo village theme and brings back a good sense of nostalgia to original Diablo players. Amongest other eerily haunting tunes adds both to the atmosphere and nostalgia.
The Bad:
Frame Rate Issues
While starting out it is easy to traverse through the mines of Torchlight, but once the further you get down in levels, and the higher spells you learn coupled with the vast amount of enemies, and spawning multiple Summon Zombie and Summon Skeleton skills, the frame rate takes a massive hit. *1 During this time it's incredibly difficult to target any of the enemies you want, and on some occasions I've come across a few cheap deaths by the slow down.
Menu *2
As mentioned above the menu works great for navigating and selecting items. What it does lack are features to quickly organize items, and even with the total combine inventory of your character, your pet, and the 2 chests in the town (for a total of 200 items) you will be spending plenty of time organizing and trying to figure out which items you need to sell to make room for more. The devs should have made it easier to sort items based on a number of different variables, like armor type (hats, gloves, chest plates, boots) name, value, stats etc.
*3 While running the game on 2 different input settings, the first; normal composite A/V cables (the red, white and yellow cords) at 480i on a 57" HDTV in letterbox mode was near completely unreadable. The smaller text for effect attributes and level requirements were completely unreadable. Obviously this was an issue on my end. But an option to increase font size would be nice for people that only have this setup to work with. After switching over to HDMI cabes and 1080p the issue was resolved.
The Ugly:
Multiplayer
Or should I say, lack thereof.
I eagerly jumped in after receiving an in game "Gift" from a friend. And from what I briefly followed of the game I knew it'd be a first day purchase. I jump in and barely played the demo before I unlocked the full game. Like normal I was set to start out on a little "single player campaigning" before joining any "multiplayer" sessions. Well, to my and many other gamers dismay, there simply is no co-op multiplayer included whatsoever.
This of course is the biggest set back, to an otherwise great spiritual successor to the Diablo franchise. From what I had briefly read is that it's a port from the 2009 PC version of Torchlight which was only single player as well.
This is quite sad, seeing how the originally Diablo released almost 15 years ago had this key component over a decade ago!
Short Story Mode
Don't get this confused with replay value. For it packs a mean punch in that department (with after completing the game you can enter a never ending, randomly generated unground labyrinth on top of looting tons of unique items.)
What I mean is the lack luster story on top of the short amount of time needed to complete the entire "story" mode.