So Runic Games formed after the whole Flagship studios disaster. They were the team working on Mythos. They have created a game called Torchlight. Some of the developers have worked on Fate and Diablo 2 (and Mythos before it was taken away). The cool thing about Torchlight is it's only $20. Their goal was to put something out there quickly to generate some buzz as they worked on their MMO. I had a chance to play Torchlight last night. I was having a blast with it. It plays like Diablo only better. The controls are the click to move, left and right click skills. One thing I thought was awesome was you can set a tab skill. When you hit tab it will swap the current Right Mouse Button (RMB) skill with the tab skill. It's pretty easy to right click a spell then tab right click another. You can also set skills on the number pad. I have some spells set on the number pad as well as potions. I was running a Vanquisher with a bow attack as my right click and a trap (D2 sin style) on my tab. It worked out really well. The pet in Torchlight is interesting. You have either a dog or cat following you around. Those that played Fate will know about this. The pet has an inventory and some equipable spots. You can click a button to send your pet to town and it will sell all the items in it's inventory. It makes it nice if you want to keep adventuring with out going back to town. There are 3 classes to choose from with unique skills. They also have overlapping skills that will affect the spells of the game. You find/buy spell scrolls and you can have 4 active (+ 2 on your pet) spells. It's pretty interesting so far. My vanquisher is running with Town Port, Heal All I, Summon Zombies I, and Summon Zombies II. Pretty much for big groups I summon zombies, drop a trap, and sit back and shoot stuff. It's worked well so far and I am having a blast with it. The game is a little cartoony, but there is still blood. The music is awesome. I guess they have the same guy do music that worked on Diablo. You can tell the town music reminds me of Tristram. One cool idea (they presumably took from Hellgate London) is the enchanter. You can take any item to him, pay money, and he adds random things to it. My gun is pretty sweet. I bought a high damage gun with 2 open sockets and filled it with damage mods and then enchanted it. At my current level I am one hit killing most of the mobs. It's more like a sniper rifle though because its powerful but really slow. So anyway if you have $20 and are in the mood for a Diablo style single player ARPG I'd say check out Torchlight.
General Tips - If you send you pet to town to sell and then use a town portal he will sell everything and give you the money right as you get to town. This is helpful because then you don't have to click to sell each individual item. - Send your pet to town and fish while he is gone - Some spells and skills cast where you mouse is, others cast where you click. For example you can move the mouse to a location and hit a button to throw a trap there. Summon Zombies seems to work on the click spot. To send zombies right into the fray click to start to move and hit the button tied to them. This will stop you movement and put the zombies right were you want them. - If you have a ton of potions like I did, use the transmutation to craft them higher. I had a stack of 20 of the top when I was still finding the 2nd level ones. - Trap damage scales with character level (as well as skill points invested) - Advanced Spell casting rocks. I gain 10 spell points per second at my level. Pretty much can cast whatever I want and not worry about spell points. Some helpful information: Pet Transforms and their Effects: Goblinhound - HP 187%, Armor 80%, Dash Attack Burrower - HP 375%, Charged Bolts Melee Attack Mimic -HP 250%, Damage 125%, resists boost? Troll - HP 312%, Damage 187%, AoE KB, Slower Attack Jelly - HP 250%, Damage 75%, Armor 66%, steals HP on hit?, adds electric damage?, electric shock when attacked Spider - HP 94%, Damage 63%, Armor 70%, Faster Attack, weak KB?, adds poison damage? Varkonyl - HP 156%, Damage 140%, Armor 53%, Leap Attack Thorned Strider - HP 156%, Armor 66%, Very Strong KB, KB Resist, Accelerated Summoning Tattered Lurker - HP 71%, Damage 83%, Armor 66%, Accelerated Summoning Fire/Poison/Electric/Ice Elemental - HP 94%, Damage 117%, Armor 87%, adds elemental damage?, Two Ranged AoE Elemental Attacks: -Poison: Fires 3 seeking poison orbs, poison nova -Fire: Fires 3 fireballs, small AoE DOT field around self -Ice: Fires 3 iceballs, small targeted AoE strike -Electric: Fires single-target bolt, small AoE KB around self All transforms will have the same base run speed as your normal pet, even monsters that are faster or slower in their "natural" forms This is the best link I have found so far. It's the source of the above information. http://forums.runicgames.com/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=3977& I guess the Bat Fish that turns the pet into a Varkolyn gives in decrease in spell cooldowns for the pet. Interesting if you want your pet to actually contribute with his spells. Transmutation: http://forums.runicgames.com/viewtopic.php?p=21720#p21720 Spells (ie the spells from scrolls): http://forums.runicgames.com/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=4259 Char planner
Spent about an hour on both the Destroyer and the Alchemist in the demo. I'll be buying this when I get home tonight.
I've been playing for about two weeks now, probably. It's a lot of fun, and there is a pretty robust mod community going already, including a pretty impressive and largely successful attempt to add multiplayer. I'm working on a class of my own right now, an Assassin. I found the dual wielding/rogue Vanquisher too sucky and tried a Destroyer but found him too slow. It's pretty easy to mod for this game.
Even at "full" price, this game is worth every penny and then some. I paid twenty bucks for it, and I will gladly pay twenty more when it comes out for OS X. It's a ton of fun! I'm really looking forward to their "MMO" version - I wish it weren't so far away.
yeah i am almost done with my first play through. i think it even went onsale as low as 5$. well worth the $ if you loved d1 and d2
Thread necro!!! (but for good reason) I got my current character stuck in a corner. Literally. I'm in a map dungeon (so I can't use a tp) and I'm stuck in a corner behind some environment objects. I don't entirely know how I got there but now I am there and I have to ask a question. Is there a way to kill yourself? Because, if there isn't I'm pretty screwed. EDIT: I got out. Had to use the console to make myself descend a floor.