Just play grim dawn if you need that itch. It also has a great story to go with it.
There was a 3rd Torchlight game? 😮
Let’s hope the new Titan Quest is decent enough
TIL Zynga still exists
It’s definitely a name I haven’t heard in ages
Had recently picked up Torchlight 3 and been plinking through it on my Steam Deck.
It’s not great - but fits the mindless AARPG genre fine. I’m sure it doesn’t have the depth/mechanics to keep the Exile and Diablo fans happy.
Torchlight and Torchlight 2 are great games and even have mods available.
I hear 3 and Infinite are not, though.
Torchlight is so highly spoken of… Am I the only person that thought it was pretty pedestrian?
I think a lot of it is timing, too. Remember, the first Torchlight was 2009, we’re talking pre-indie craze. There’s been no Super Meat Boy or Fez yet, I think. ARPGs hadn’t absolutely flooded the market yet and seeing a very competent and stylized, if simplistic Diablo-like back then could generate some interest. That carried on to the 2nd, which had a lot of improvements.
There’s a bunch wrong with 3 and Infinite, but they were also competing in a saturated market and, you’re right, the Torchlight “brand” didn’t really have enough luster on its own to carry a series.
EDIT: Diablo II was 2000 and Diablo III would be 2012. We were fucking starving back then.
Yeah it was absolutely insane how long Diablo 3 was taking, so yeah Torchlight released when people were desperate for ARPGs.
Different tastes.
The simplicity, artwork and playability appeals to me.
Been a while since I played 2.
I recently played 1 and was surprised how well it played on the Steam Deck. Felt very native and is small enough on disk to leave it in for any dungeon slashing needs.
Being able to function on the deck does not make it a good game, just saying
I never uninstall it, in fact I have several copies: Steam, GOG…
Was 3 made after aquisition?
I guess so.
The first two (mainly the first) had that special something you get in indie games.
You may enjoy Last Epoch. It definitely scratches that itch for me, and is a bit more entertaining than TL imo
Last Epoch needs to let us skip the campaign once it has been done once.
I do not play these games for the dogshit story, I want to kill stuff and get new loot and the story gets in the way of that.
Same thing with PoE (haven’t tried PoE2). I don’t want to have to rush 5-6 hours on a new char just to get through the dog shit story.
Diablo 3 fixed that a decade ago. Shouldn’t be that fucking hard.
Last epoch’s campaign is so mid too. I feel like they somehow both underplayed and overplayed the time travel stuff. At least it’s pretty short
The campaign is long for what it is. The time travel adds absolutely nothing to the gameplay.
There actually is a campaign skip. It’s baked into the map via the dungeons (and you can skip to boss now with charms), but you can skip two thirds of it on a second playthrough.
I’ll contest that i think the skip function needs a little work but it does exist
I know that skip, but it’s not a real solution. Why is it a problem to let people enjoy the gameplay loop without forcing them to go through the pacing of the story?
I’m not entirely sure what you’re requesting then. The end game monoliths start at level 58, and the lowest level I’ve been able to complete them without dying repeatedly is level 30 or so. The campaign skips start at level 20, and give passive and idol slots. Are you asking for the game to just start your alternates at level 60? I’m not following.
Additionally, once you unlock your mastery at the end of time, you can just go straight to the end game monoliths on a second character - there’s literally nothing stopping you from doing this.
As it stands, you can skip 3/4 of the story if you use the current method. Now that you can skip dungeons and go straight to the dungeon boss, you are easily able to bypass a ton of story, and fairly quickly. I have 6 characters in this season, and i did the campaign skip on each one. You can get past the entire campaign in about 90 minutes with this method now, which doesn’t seem too bad you me. You also get passive points and idol slots for completing the skips. You can actually skip almost straight from the first major part of the ruined era (level 20) all the way to the level 50 era in a matter of minutes. If you’re geared up for this, go for it!
When i said i was contesting it, i was conceding to you that i somewhat agree with the skip function needing improvements. That being said, I do think as they’re adding general game improvements, it is making the idea of having alternate characters much better and easier.
Let’s take D4. For all its flaw, you can start a character without having to re-find all the Lilith statues and nothing is locked behind the campaign.
You venture out in hell tides or do a few dungeons to unlock some legendary aspect right off the bat.
This is what I want with Last Epoch. The campaign is essential because it unlocks totem slots and passive points. Taking an hour and a half of content (probably more if you don’t have as much experience as you) I don’t want to do just so I can start playing my character as I want is not fun.
I only have an hour a night max, every few other nights, so these 2-3 hours to “start” a character is 2-3 nights for me.
When a new season start in D4, I name my character, assign my 10 skill points and go do whatever I want. It it takes a min and I’m started and I don’t need prior equipment to do so.
Yeah but D4 is designed to be an MMO and is open world, where last epoch is linear. It’s hard to try to bake in the exact same mechanics when the games are so different
Additionally, that’s a minor aspect of d4. For each alt i need to run around to every region and do all these side quests to get reputation points, and i need to do it in each difficulty. I have to do it multiple times, whereas i don’t really need to do that in last epoch.
I’ll reiterate that if you try the skips as designed it’ll be close to what you want. But i agree that it needs improving. D4 is an objectively much worse game than LE; i absolutely do not think that LE should strive to be more like it.
How much have you actually played both games?
Thanks – It’s on the wishlist. I don’t really play for Seasonal content or anything so I can be patient until a heavy discount.
You should try The Slormancer if you haven’t already.
Just started playing it and would also recommend!
The only good part of TL3 were the classes.
TL3 as MMOlite had an “interesting” idea with the campaigns having different ideas and some dynamic events on maps. Then they went with SP and just stringed the campaigns one after another so you have to regear quickly after the zones… and then final boss IIRC does all 3 type of damage and you just sigh if you get that far.
Torchlight 3 was always a disappointment. The whole development process was a mess and the product was trash.
