I had the pleasure of working with an awesome group of guys and girls on Resumeplay.net and I’m sad to say that it’s not a review/preview website but fortunately will continue on as the podcast website. I’ve been fortunate to be a part of the podcast a couple of times, hopefully more in the future :)

I love reviewing games and plan on continuing so I thought I’d repost one of my very first reviews for resumeplay.net:

If Fate and Diablo II had a baby, what would it come out to be? The developers behind Fate, and the co-creators of Diablo II have created a world that has meshed the two together and called it Torchlight. As the game started up and I first heard the background music, I was reminded of how closely related this game was to Diablo II. It made me more than a bit nostalgic, and was actually a bit refreshing, if not overpowering.

Torchlight starts off with a selection screen where you are allowed to play as a Destroyer, a Vanquisher, or an Alchemist, and even pick a pet to join you on your quests. I can see why these three classes were picked, but I feel like another was needed to complete the set. Maybe a Witch or Sorcerer, I mean since the magic sequences were loaded with nice graphics, might as well get more bang for your buck. Back to the selection screen, you can pick a dog or a cat to be your companion who can fight beside you as well as cast spells, pick up items, hold part of your inventory, and sell items in town while you are in the middle of a dank dungeon. As I entered the town, I am sent on a mission in the mines and caught in a cut scene where Syl and her companion, Brink are attempting to fight off some monsters. Syl caught me up to speed and Brink decided to continue onto the mines for more fighting. From here, I accepted another quest from Syl and aided Brink by fighting beside him throughout the mines. It’s a good against evil story where evil has been hidden away for many years. In this case, a curious Master Alric has only recently rediscovered it and has been transformed by it in a bad way. Basically, you get to fight, win and gain notoriety, which means you level up and gain skill points.

Playing as a vanquisher, I liked being able to mix up magic with my melee and ranged attacks; being able to wipe out a crowd of spiders in one electronic blast was fun. Afterwards, I felt that if I didn’t have magical powers I would be bored and resort to reorganizing my inventory every other hour. I found myself dreading a few of the quests because of their repetitive nature and decided to stray from the main storyline and beat down some monsters and spiders on my own. You can actually buy additional map packs from the merchants in town and play those in case you get tired of the story or if you’re up for a new challenge. Other than the in-game additions, you have the ability to mod it and create new levels so if you like to do some editing and create your own weapons or level sets, this is a mod friendly game. The editor used for the mods is called TorchED and several of the tutorials can be found on the Runic Games official website; at the time of this review, it’s release has been delayed.

The use of a pet in this game and given how they fight is actually conducive to your enjoyment of the game. The pet AI is ridiculously smart, and proves helpful in all instances. I was surprised to see my cat, Rawr (yes, I named him Rawr), cast a fire spell and take out nearly half of the zombies in my area. He quickly took over the fight when I was hurt, which was good for me as it gave me a chance to restore some of my lost health and mana. Other than fighting, the inventory he was able to carry cut down on time spent having to transport the items I collected back to sell them to a vendor. 

I found some other good points that are not pet-related, which are the random rooms and a now cleaner inventory, where each item conveniently fits in one area rather than 3 or 4 like the Battle-axe from Diablo II where it would quickly cause your inventory to be over-cluttered. With the good, you must also take the bad. In this case, the lack of a multiplayer, co-op, and LAN options almost seemed to be a deal breaker but it was due to time constraints and a small team. This is where it differs from Diablo II and has caused my character to feel a bit lonely until the release of the MMO. I guess it gives you time to look around for side missions? I got lost a couple times at first due to the lack of map indicators until I realized that you simply had to keep going straight ahead and down to each level of the mines or dungeon.

Overall, I loved playing this game and I plan to continue to play this game until I possibly break my mouse. This is basically Diablo with new and vibrant graphics but is that really bad? Torchlight is basically an awesome game to play where you can have an adventure in every level you go through. You get to experience the main storyline, side missions and further leveling up with nice graphics. This game has a very high level of replayability, with the random levels and constant leveling up. According to the Runic Games website, there is also an infinite dungeon in the town, and the creators are busy developing a massively multiplayer action-RPG for future release.