Torchlight

I'm not sure how I stumbled across Torchlight. Maybe it was another Wild Games advertisement popping up on some Web site, maybe it was a review, or maybe it was because of all the buzz this little dungeon crawler is getting. However I found it, I want to find the publisher and demand my last week and a half back. The game is absolutely addicting to put it mildly. I almost justified missing a final to play it.

For the few people that have played Fate, or the sequel Fate: Undiscovered Realms, the look and feel of the game will be eerily familiar. You will also see influences from Diablo and Warcraft. Why is that? Maybe it has something to do with the developers of the game. Blizzard North's creators Max and Erich Shaefer were on the team. The creator of Fate, Travis Baldtree, was also on the team. Needless to say, they came up with a heck of a game you can get for a measly twenty bucks. Direct2Drive is where I got my copy.

The game starts out in the mining town of Torchlight, which is your base to depart from. You travel deep down into the mines, where they extract Ember, a magical element that is corrupting everything. Go figure. The story really isn't that strong in the game, and that is one of the very few bad parts of the game. When I got to the end, which really isn't the end, I felt cheated and bored. Of course, I still started another game, because it's the game play that is really the strong point.

The game play is pretty simple. You click on monsters to attack them, they drop treasure when they die, you pick up the treasure and buy better weapons, spells and armor. You accept and complete 'quests', which usually have some sort of reward at the end. Essentially, this game is a shameless Diablo clone, but somehow it establishes and keeps it's own identity.

You can pick between 3 major classes, Destroyer, Alchemist, and Vanquisher. These can be developed into several subclasses, which you decide by selecting skills when you advance a level. You also get to pick to have a pet, a dog or a cat. Your pet is usually the only other member of your party and can be set to do things for you, like cast spells and sell your loot. The customization in this game is wide open, letting you decide what kind of character you want to play.

An interesting part about this game is the level randomization. Even though the main quest is the same every time you play, all the levels are randomized, so that you won't ever play the same game twice. This gives Torchlight an immense amount of replay value. You can also take up side quests that contain levels custom made for that specific quest.

The best part about this game is it can run on almost any computer. It even has a netbook option, which makes it run on most netbooks. Even on my old 2007 laptop, this game was running like a top, and it rarely slowed down.

Overall the game is a winner. It's got great game play, decent graphics, great audio, and it's only twenty bucks. Just go buy it, unless you have a final.