I love Torchlight the original. I’ve written before that it was the first ‘hardcore’ game I played in my current iteration, and I adored it. Torchlight III was released in Early Access about a month ago. I bought it because I wanted to relive my TL experience, which was not to be. I wrote about my first impressions in this post, and then I let the game sit for a month because the technical glitches were annoying. I wasn’t mad at the game, but it wasn’t fun to play.
I went back to the game a few days ago after the latest update and a hard wipe. There were several changes, some for the better and some not so great. One, they changed the way relics worked. Back when I first played, you found them? Or something? And then you could change them and decide which you wanted to use at any given moment (and upgrade whichever, if I remember correctly). Now, you have to pick the relic in character creation, which means you can’t change them.
I wasn’t happy about it because I liked being able to change the relic. I couldn’t quite understand why they made the change, but I just shrugged and moved on. I made a Dusk Mage, of course, and I chose Blood Relic because health drain all the day long. Plus, my first skill was a spinning blood sawblade that caused bleed, and it looks so fucking badass. But, I am a fire person, through and through, and that was one of the relics as well. So was ice. Those are the three that I really wanted. Poison is boring as fuck, and electricity is fine. Just fine.
Some positive changes: connectivity with no problems. No being kicked out of the game and no not being able to warp. One weird thing, though, was trying to set a town portal and not being able to do it. I was three or four areas ahead of where I was supposed to be, and when I went back to where I was supposed to be, I was allowed to open the town portal. I didn’t know if that was a glitch or a progression hard stop. I couldn’t set the waypoint, either, for the latter area, so I think it’s a progression stop thing and not a bug.
The game ran smoothly. No lagging, which is important. There was a time when I got caught in a corner by a boss (and then stupidly respawned in the same spot only to be killed again), but that’s more bad level design than a glitch. Hm. Not sure that makes it better.
The faces still aren’t great–or rather, choosing the female option for a canonically male character (such as the Dusk Mage) ain’t great. In addition, you can’t turn the character in creation, so the hairstyles are meaningless. I mean, I can’t tell which hairstyles are long or not! Is it a little thing? Ultimately, yes. Does it bug the hell out of me? Yes. Let me jump forward a bit to when I tried out the other classes. The sharpshooter was the third class I tried (have yet to try forged), and she’s a woman. So the faces and hairstyles looked better on her. I still couldn’t tell which weer long hairstyles, so I picked the one that looked the best from the front. It turned out that she had a long braid that reached past her ass, which made me ridiculously happy. In addition, she looked Asian (and her face didn’t look weird), which made me doubly happy. I forgot to name her, however, so if I were to stick with this class, I would have to start over. No way I’m playing as Aimee. But, she looks great, and I feel an affinity with her that I didn’t with the other characters. Plus, she reminded me of my character from the first game, which made me triply happy. I put the ice relic on her, and, well, let’s just say I was transported back to my time as a Demon Hunter from Diablo III. Well, a combo of Demon Hunter/Wizard, the two classes I finished the game with. Made me a happy gal, indeed.
Back to the Dusk Mage. I want to love her. I really do. Casting is my jam, and I am ride-or-die with the magicks. You can hear the ‘but’ in my voice, can’t you? Or rather, the ‘and yet’. And yet. There is still something lackluster about the Dusk Mage, but I can’t quite pinpoint it. It’s still early days, and I only have a few skills. Maybe it gets better later on. But, I have two blood skills, which means I rely more heavily on those than on the actual magicks. The second one gives me back health while attacking, which, yes please!
Let’s talk about the dungeons/areas. They are procedurally generated, and, well, they’re pretty blah. They’re very cute in appearance, but there’s a sameness to them. Granted, I’ve only seen three or four areas in this second iteration, but still. I can’t be completely mad at it because many hack-n-slash games have similar environments. And the endless enemies is a common trope in these types of games as well. But multiple waves of gobbos and skellies gets boring after awhile. They have cut down on the amount of legendary enemies, though, which is much appreciated. They weren’t difficult, per se, but very tedious. (Ed Note: No they haven’t. They just weren’t in the first area, but they’re plentiful afterwards.)
I tried the railmaster class next. Her gimmick is that she has a train that follows her at all times (laying tracks), and it can do damage by running into enemies or if you stop it, it’s a turret. It’s fucking cool and adorable, but I’m not sure it’s a game changer. Granted, I’ve not played with her much, but it’s not really my jam. She’s a melee only character (thus far), which is not my bag at all. I chose the fire relic, which means a giant magick flaming sword to blam people with. I like that a lot.
I moved to the third class, the sharpshooter. That was what my character in the first game was–wait, let me check. Vanquisher. Ranged and traps. So, similar, though not the same. The sharpshooter does range, obviously, but she also can control animals and other creatures. I chose the ice relic, and the first skill was an ice defense for three seconds that also shoots out icicles. She’s very powerful, and she’s the best-looking by far. Like I said, I’d have to start over if I play as sharpshooter because I have to choose a better name. And, I might try a different relic. Not sure, though.
I’ll give the forged with electricity a try, but I’m just not feeling it. The game is leaps and bounds better than when I first played it, but there’s still something missing. Not sure what it is, but it doesn’t have the charm of the first game. In addition, what was quirky and a breath of fresh air in that game is now kinda stale and old hat in this one. That’s the problem with making sequels. You have to keep the core tenets of the first game that made it a winner, but you have to change enough things in a positive way in order to make it fresh. I don’t think this game has quite done it, but I’m hoping they can find that balance in the future.
Oh, one thing. Lifebound. Hate the system, even though they’ve supposedly changed it somewhat. Lifebound items are really good, but they shatter upon your death. There are scrolls which can make it so this bond is broken, but I didn’t find one in the whole time I played it the first time around. I found one this time, but no lifebound item, ironically. Oh, wait. The change to the Lifebound system means that the scroll is one of binding where you can bind an item to your life rather than the other way around. That’s why I didn’t find any Lifebound items! You have to make them. It gives you 20% more equipment stats.
I didn’t use any of the Lifebound items when I played the first time because I hate losing things upon death in a non-roguelike game. FromSoft games don’t count because you have a chance to recover your shit from your dead body. It’s like saving all the good shit in a game and never using them throughout the game. I understand that it’s better to have loved and lost than to never have loved at all, but I can’t get past the scarcity mentality. I also know that if I never use the items, it’s as if I don’t have them at all.
The game is good, but generic. It doesn’t have the charm that the original game does, which is a shame. It’s still in EA, however, so who knows how much further it might go?