Trredskies

The Basics Torchlight has really pumped some much needed blood into the action RPG genre. It’s not that it’s invented any new formula or feature. It’s that it’s got really well oiled gameplay which seems to understand itself. Runic definitely grasps the essence of the genre and what makes these kinds of games work. As a player, I can feel it in the polish of the flow of gameplay. True to form, character development in TL2 is very familiar: there’s a few dozen levels, troves of gear, and stat allocations. There’s special skills and abilities, special vendors, and inventory management. However, the game takes these things to some pretty interesting heights which, when combined, make the pace of gameplay furiously fast, gratifying, and addicting. The controls remain very simple: mouse button does most things, and the number keys are there for your customization. Stats aren’t auto-allocated: you get to build your character exactly the way you see fit. The stats themselves are relatively straightforward to understand and designed in such a way that no matter what class you pick, all of them will be useful to you. This means that even though there will be popular builds, there simply won’t be a “best” build no matter what fanatics and theory crafters say. How can I be so certain? Because there’s no best way to play this game. Runic has made player choice reign supreme it. Your single player game is yours and while there are multiplayer options, even that is custom for you and your friends. Inventory Sad how many modern games ignore this little, well-worn feature. They slap some bags on you and call it a day. Not in TL2. Just like the original, you have several bags. One’s for all the awesome loot you pick up, another for potions and buff items, and another for spell scrolls. Quest items don’t go in your bags. They just sit on your questlog until you use them. What’s more is they added an auto-sort feature which allows you to quickly rearrange items from top to bottom. Also, spammy potions. However, I like the execution of it here as a mechanic. The game rewards players for using fewer potions by asking you to use them at the right time during combat. This is the difference between a potion spammer and a potion user. Skills & Stats Rather than skill trees, TL2 has skill tables. Basically, the only prerequisites to learning any skill is your current level. That means no more wasting points in abilities just to get the ones it unlocks. Simply stack your points and wait until you hit the appropriate level. Or do what I do: experiment a lot. The variety in the trees seems adequate to me. Of the classes, I’ve so far tried the Engineer and Outlander. The trees for both are varied enough to truly give the player some strong options for alternate builds. Be careful, though. There’s no way to redo your skills once you’ve spent the points; they’re permanent, but you can always undo your last 3 skill allocations for a small fee at one of the special trainers. Arguably the most important part of character development, stats are simple enough to understand and flexible enough to ensure non-trivial benefits no matter your build. I won’t get into the nuts and bolts of stat scaling, but I will say that there’s no “bad” stats. They’re all viable for any class and allow for great build diversity. For the most part, the function of each stat is spelled out right on the character panel to give some transparency about just what’s being bought for a point. These also cannot be undone once the window is closed. Spells What I like most about Spells is how they add an extra dimension to your class. As a spell wielding Outlander, I can tun his combat style to include fireballs, demons, and frost bolts. If I’m an Embermage, I can add skeletal archers or minions to my team. This feature succeeds at increasing class versatility and utility and it’s very fun to boot. Runnin’ and Gunnin’ It doesn’t feel like it’s going as fast as it does. One moment I’m heading out of town to shoot-up some baddies and the next I’m 10 levels ahead and still blasting away. So forget leveling grindiness (until New Game This game does that worst than all the rest and that’s a really awesome thing. Monsters Forget the randomness associated with ALL creatures crawling through an ARPG. Unique monsters and bosses are actually intriguing in what they do. There’s actual challenge and fun involved. Each TL2 boss seems to be hand crafted for a specific experience. There’s some strategy involved and the monsters seem like they’re paying attention to you. This makes the fight feel more dynamic, less like another blip on the map to

Incredibly fun little simple game full of win. Well designed, well executed, well played Rich! I hesitated before buying this title; there

The User Score is just a tad low, but far more accurate than the critic scores. For veterans of the Diablo series, there are clear disappointments with this title. If D3 is your first Diablo title, you'll likely think it's a great game. All told, it's got some excellent stuff and some really bad ideas. The two clash in such a way that it's hard to appreciate the way the game was developed. The action of D3 is unmatched. The smooth controls, fluid ability use, mindless hack and slash of monster explosions is a symphony of awesome. The art is beautiful, the music is fair, and the sheer ease with which you can move through the game is addicting. But the cost has been extremely high and it may show itself to have not been worthwhile in the long run. It would take a lot to redeem this franchise, as D3 obliterates it's past, remakes itself, and sells its soul in the name of accessibility. So what's the soul of Diablo? It used to be character building. Nothing gave the game it's staying power and intrigue like it's character building. This included stat allocations and the infamous gear hunt. This is all gone in D3. While some may argue that the gear hunt is still there, it is without purpose or intrigue. Few can be bothered to hunt down the astronomical hours it would take to find near perfect items as we all once loved to do in D2. This is due to the introduction of the Auction Houses, which have had a detrimental impact on the design of items and ultimately on their drop rate. D3 isn't boring, but it's no sequel. This game could have been labeled with any other name and received high fan acclaim. But as a sequel, it's been largely rejected as reflected in the User Score here. It just doesn't live up to it's predecessors and falls very short of being a strong game on it's own merit.