Quick game review: Torchlight II

Now that I have a basic gaming machine, I’ve installed Steam and started trying some demos and free games. And I figured while I’m at it I might as well write something about them as I go.

First up was the Torchlight II demo – I’m not sure exactly how the demo is different from the full game, I’m assuming they just limit it to a few levels or quest chains. In any case, caveat that it was a demo.

I’ve heard good things about this game, and was created by some of the same people who did the first two Diablo games (I think). I really liked Diablo and Diablo II back in the day, and have quite fond memories of playing. Though in retrospect that may have been at least in part because there wasn’t a lot of good competition, and I’m sure I didn’t do much replay after the first time through.

I played Torchlight II for 40 minutes according to Steam. It was long enough to get to the first real quests, see several levels, and get a good feel for the appealing art style and smooth game play. I collected lots of loot and ten thousand gold or so, and got my character up to level 5. It’s a nice looking and feeling game.

It was also long enough to come to remember what I didn’t like about the gameplay of the first two Diablo games – click to attack over and over, loot, sell, level up, repeat ad nauseum with very little variation on gameplay and very little to figure out. Even with the addition of skill trees, various tweaks to make it less frustrating, and lots of new bells and whistles, I was entirely bored at under an hour into this game.

So… I won’t be shelling out for the full version of this game, or playing it any farther. If you enjoy Diablo-type games enough to play them through repeatedly your mileage may vary, but it’s not for me – there are just too many other interesting and new games out there to try.