Torchlight II

[Tanukitsune]

Well, I beat the game...

I unlocked something called Mapworks, I guess it's work user made worlds or DLC? But if I choose new game + can I still access this?

[Murdoc]

Well, I couldn't activate the game without a connection, so I'm just playing the demo.

I liked T1 but it didn't capture me like Diablo did. The art style was well executed but never I'd it for me and while I loved the music, it felt too soft for the tone of the gameplay.

So, Torchlight 2, the art style remains tue same but I think the execution and articulation (higher res textures) really wins me over. The music, as I've been listening to it all week, is awesome, so I'm in love.

I've just been playing the engineer and all ready the new class feels fresh and interesting to me more so than what T1 offered.

I can't wait to continue playing, it's great.

One minor request would be to get foot step sounds... I don't think T1 had them and that's the choice of the dev, but,boy, if I could her the potter patter of my character that's be perfect.

[Brannigan]

completed first playthrough in a bit over a day. Enjoyed it better than diablo, the difficulty curve is much better. Still wasn't that hard to beat but I did at least die a handful of times!

[Murdoc]

*I turned off the music and turns out there are footstep sounds! So, no complaints so far other than I want to play more

[Squid Division]

not a big fan of the outdoor environments for some reason. I really like(d) the indoor dungeon ones, especially the jungle sets from the original. So far in act 1 it's just kind of been generic dungeon.

[colinp]

Torchlight II is among my top three of the year. Runic hooked me up with Steam codes to give away, and I think everyone should play it. If for whatever reason you can't afford it (please be honest), let me know. I'll give two out to people who actually need it.

Well, I live in Japan and try not to use my US CC's so I was just going to wait until I go home for Christmas to pick it up. No sure whether that fits the bill or not, but 100% honest!

[Gormongous]

not a big fan of the outdoor environments for some reason. I really like(d) the indoor dungeon ones, especially the jungle sets from the original. So far in act 1 it's just kind of been generic dungeon.

The act two desert and act three forest are both really well designed. Act three would be my favorite, except it's going on just a touch too long, although that may just be dissatisfaction with my character build talking.

[Korax]

One of the little things that I really like is how loading screens have call-outs if you have unspent character or skill points. When playing these kinds of games, It's quite common for me to forget that I leveled because it happened in the middle of a fight and I was too busy focusing on the battle to think about it. It still happens, but now I'm reminded about it a lot sooner than I would have been if I try to keep track of it myself.

[SecretAsianMan]

One of the little things that I really like is how loading screens have call-outs if you have unspent character or skill points. When playing these kinds of games, It's quite common for me to forget that I leveled because it happened in the middle of a fight and I was too busy focusing on the battle to think about it. It still happens, but now I'm reminded about it a lot sooner than I would have been if I try to keep track of it myself.

I love that. I'd probably be several skill levels lower without those reminders.

[Gormongous]

Beat it about an hour ago, just in time for my week to start. I had nonstop fun right up until the end, when I died making a stupid mistake during the final boss and respawned in town, only to discover that the game had rerolled the entire final dungeon without logging the halfway portal I'd found. I just don't like the Nephilim enough to make a second run of them entirely worth it. Also, my gear was starting to feel a little underpowered, but maybe that's just because I chased complete sets obsessively.

Totally worth it, though:

Makes me wish I'd taken a screenie of my act two Arab kit. Ah well... On to the Embermage!

[Henroid]

Holy shit that looks cool.

This game is the devil. My right hand is still in a cast so I have to play left-handed, and whenever I used the computer for too long my left arm starts to hurt. But this game? I feel compelled to ignore it, and I do. THE DEVIL.

I haven't beaten it yet, I'm still trying to figure out as many skills as I can to see what's useful and not. The Fire Pillars skill on the embermage is frustrating because it starts out with the four pillars going out in an x-shape. But every tier you get one more pillar added so I have a feeling it's one of those great maxed out skills, but having only four pillars makes it a bitch to use.

Edit - BY THE WAY. Who would win in a fight: Treasure Goblin, or Treasure Crab?

[elmuerte]

The random dungeon creator is much better. So far I've only encountered 1 repeating segment. There rest had enough variation.

[modeps]

Hey guys, those Torchlight II keys are gone now. Good luck slaying the bad guys!

[Henroid]

I need to take a moment to really jot down how much I appreciate this game. The obvious point is how accessible it is for me to play.

But the game is so smart in some many ways. One of my biggest complaints about Torchlight was that dual-wielding didn't really provide any benefit. Performing regular attacks didn't swing the weapons independently of each other; they were on shared time with each other, there was no unison. Plus, skills that derived damage from your weapon damage only derived damage from the main hand. It meant that playing with a single weapon and shield or a two-handed weapon was the only real choice. I "solved" this issue for myself by getting a mod that added a skill for dual-wielding, which increased your damage output and your swing speeds. It was still really a bandaid over everything. But in Torchlight 2, it's all wrapped up in a really satisfactory way - execution strikes. Swinging both weapons at the same time mixed in with your normal swing mashing. And I've seen it add up on the high-end of execution rate, and it's so gratifying. I'm not a big math guy in games; maybe it's still less optimal or maybe it is more. That doesn't matter to me. The point is, it feels like I'm succeeding no matter what choice I make.

The other thing is how well designed passives are, to the point that playing a passive-strong character build is viable. Hell, even the embermage can pull this off (Elemental Affinity + the level 14 passives that grant you bonus damage if enemies are afflicted by particular ailments). It's another piece in the puzzle to dual-wielding being given an excellent shake and a chance to shine.

The active skills having tiers of boosted effects is another thing that makes me grin. Not all of them turn the world upside down and some of them are probably lacking, sure, but it's all generally aimed in the right direction. It kinda reminded me of Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow on the DS. When you gather souls (skills) from enemies, there were plenty of cases where multiple souls would yield stronger effects or changes in graphics to skills, that sorta thing. Only in this game, TL2, during those in-between phases you're still making a skill stronger. Probably the most important thing though is that all skills are generally unique. Like the embermage doesn't just have the fireball, then the iceball, etc. And even the skills available at level 1 are going to benefit you in ways that the final skills won't. More importantly, there's no BS happening where a later skill is a literal more powerful version of a skill you already picked up. Though, that was something Torchlight 1 brought to the table.

I'm not sure if Diablo 3 does this, or any other games, but TL2 granting weapon swings an AoE arc that follows their swing is a bit of a "finally!" for me. Gives two handed weapons one hell of an advantage (since I was kissing the butt of dual-wielding so much there). I know other games have done this, for sure, I'm just not sure if the sort of click-and-slash game has done it yet.

I'm not going to say this game is perfect. Nothing is perfect, as we all know. I'm just saying this game is well made, but more importantly, it addressed a lot of problems I've had with the genre. My biggest complaint after sinking so much time into it is that the soft-targeting seems really, really odd. You can't interact with things if monsters are simply nearby, and I often have problems of my character running around when I'm trying to swing into a group of enemies (holding shift has pretty much made this a non-issue) (I know about holding ctrl by that seems like a bit much in the other direction of the problem I'm having).

I haven't been able to play a lot of games that came out this year, and the year has yet to wrap up, but I'm just so confident in this game being a GOTY, even looking back at things I wanted to play.

Edit - Goodness, I forgot to mention stats gaining benefits regardless of what kind of character you want to play. I wrote too much already though, people know what I mean with that.

[Gormongous]

That was a great summation, Henroid. I've felt stupid at times recommending this game to friends, mostly because my recommendation usually centers around what a perfect refinement of the subgenre this is. I've had several people demur, saying that Diablo III left them cold, and it was hard not to shout, "Then this game is specifically for you!"

I'm not sure if Diablo 3 does this, or any other games, but TL2 granting weapon swings an AoE arc that follows their swing is a bit of a "finally!" for me. Gives two handed weapons one hell of an advantage (since I was kissing the butt of dual-wielding so much there). I know other games have done this, for sure, I'm just not sure if the sort of click-and-slash game has done it yet.

Oh man, the unique axe I had for the latter half of act two, I think it was called "The Honorguard's Torch" or something, had a stat that gave it +100% to secondary damage, which I bumped up another 24% with a gem. All said, I was doing 100% damage to my primary target and 150% damage to everyone else in a 180-degree arc around him. It really brought home how deep the wrinkles in the system go. I also like how the different classes of weapons have different traits: axes get a higher crit, swords have a higher upper damage, polearms have a wider reach and arc, etc. It gives reasons to prefer a weapon type beyond what passives you've invested in. Great, great design.

[Murdoc]

So I have this cannon... I really like this cannon, the enchantments are great and I can gem it up better with time... but will there ever be anything that allows me to change the base damage it does?

Seems weird to want to get married to a weapon early in the game, but it was a monster and I haven't found anything close to it since, except it's a tad weak now and becoming ever weaker as I move forward.

[elmuerte]

Don't get too attached to items.

[Gormongous]

Yeah, you might be able to get a couple more enchants to make it last a few more levels, but everything in this game has a lifespan you can't really alter.

The funny thing is how confirmation bias can work in this game. I used the aforementioned Honorguard's Torch for almost all of act two, repeatedly passing over items with better DPS before my current weapon just felt more effective. It wasn't until I started comparing offensive stats under the "Arcane Statistics" tab that I realized some rare I'd picked up was superior to that axe in every way (damage, attack speed, elemental types, striking arc, range, secondary damage), only it didn't have the same model and effects of it, which were causing me to underestimate it. I really like how that "deeper" character tab lets you really dig out the math underpinning the whole system.

[Henroid]

I started an experiment on my Berserker, using axes instead of claws, and it's way easier getting through things. Though, I found a unique axe when I started this and didn't realize that its high damage for its level is limited by the stipulation that it does no arc'ing secondary damage. Still, claw weapons lack a lot of the oomph other weapons bring. I'm still trying to get used to the fact that Berserkers have less HP than Embermages.

Anyway, I had it pointed out to me last night that the album for the game is free, and it's included in the Steam download (in your steamapps folder). I've decided to stop referring to this sound of music as being "like Diablo 2" and just calling it Matt Uelman's style. Because nobody else can really replicate it, the guy is just really talented.

[Squid Division]

I'm not really one to crow about soundtracks, but this game's is really good. Although the huge crescendo in the menu music is a bit ostentatious.

[Korax]

... a bit ostentatious.

[Murdoc]

Finally retired my icy goblin cannon. The thing is though, it still works, it just takes forever to kill anything.

It knocks people back, it stuns them, it blinds them, and does something else, it was great! I'd just have to wail on them for half an hour.

* Oh got my gun bot, it's amazing.

So I got to Act 2....

[spoilers] This is pretty much meant to mimic Diablo 2, right? The story of following an ex hero that turned bad, act 2 is now a desert land, etc... A little disappointing because I have bad memories of the desert in D2, it was just so bland. [/spoilers]

[elmuerte]

damn it... I can't play this game for just a short while. I start off to play it for like 30 minutes, about 20 minutes in I think to myself, "Ok, I just clear this part and them I stop". And before I know it, I've been played for an hour.

This is pretty much meant to mimic Diablo 2, right? The story of following an ex hero that turned bad, act 2 is now a desert land, etc... A little disappointing because I have bad memories of the desert in D2, it was just so bland.

Yeah, looks like it. Torchlight 1 was more like D1 when you just went deeper and deeper, where T2 is like D2 where you have "hub" plains with multiple dungeons with only a few levels. It wouldn't be as bad if they added more variation, but it's pretty much always the same formula for the dungeoon and hub plains.

btw, does anyone know if those plains are also randomly generated?

[Henroid]

They are randomly generated, yes.

[Murdoc]

Well that's cool then. I just would have liked the Act 2's area theme not to basically be D2.