# Torchlight 2



## tommers (May 22, 2012)

Is currently running a beta (till thursday - extended from today.)  Sign up at Runic games to get in on the action.

It's amazing. Crack in game form.  Just endless clicking, loot & explosions. Very satisfying.  A never ending spiral of increasing numbers and ultra-violence.

Game is out in 'the summer'.  For 15 quid.  Pre-order gets you a copy of the first game to be getting on with.  Let's hope they don't cock it up like the similar game that is more than double the price.


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## tommers (May 22, 2012)

http://www.gamers-association.com/2012/05/preview-two-hours-with-torchlight-ii/


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## tommers (May 29, 2012)

http://thebaneofqueequeg.blogspot.co.uk/2012/05/torchlight-2-preview.html


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## Shippou-Sensei (May 29, 2012)

i almost pre-ordered.

i have a friend who liked diablo  so i think co-op torchlight with him would be cool


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## tommers (May 29, 2012)

It's good.  The co-op would certainly work better with somebody you know.  It's basically just clicking things till they explode but then so is diablo. There are some cool bits. Cannons are a lot of fun.


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## Vintage Paw (May 29, 2012)

I'm considering this. Is it at all like the first game? I have that but I've never played it.


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## tommers (May 29, 2012)

Yes it is definitely similar.  It's just more.

It improves on the original in lots of ways but the core of it is the same.

It's not out till 'summer' so maybe give the first one a go. If you hate it then you know!


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## grit (May 31, 2012)

tommers said:


> Yes it is definitely similar. It's just more.
> 
> It improves on the original in lots of ways but the core of it is the same.
> 
> It's not out till 'summer' so maybe give the first one a go. If you hate it then you know!


 
I really really wanted to like it, I bought the first one on release. Its just feels too much like a mindless click fest, looks very pretty though, love the art style.


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## tommers (May 31, 2012)

Do you mean the first one or the second?  (Although that can probably be levelled at both, and all of this type of game)


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## grit (Jun 7, 2012)

tommers said:


> Do you mean the first one or the second? (Although that can probably be levelled at both, and all of this type of game)


 
The first one. Wasnt really motivated to get in on the second beta.


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## Kid_Eternity (Jun 16, 2012)

The first one was good fun while it lasted...


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## Shippou-Sensei (Jun 16, 2012)

Shippou-Sensei said:


> i almost pre-ordered.
> 
> i have a friend who liked diablo so i think co-op torchlight with him would be cool


 
i pre-ordered

now i have a spare copy of torchlight 1


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## tommers (Jun 16, 2012)

Can you gift it?


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## Shippou-Sensei (Jun 16, 2012)

yep.

it was just annoying  as i just  gifted a copy


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## tommers (Sep 17, 2012)

bump as it is out on Thursday.

I have a press copy... lots has changed since the beta and in a good way.  Skills are a LOT different.


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## tommers (Sep 21, 2012)

So... what do people think?  I know VP has been playing, and Shippy said he has.... I've got to write a review but too many crying babies and excellent real-time space roguelikes.


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## Vintage Paw (Sep 21, 2012)

I like it a lot. I didn't play the first one, so I don't know how it compares, but I've been enjoying all the clickclickclickclickboom. It's the sort of game that _shouldn't_ be compelling, but is.

I've got an Outlander, and the 'shotgonnes' are terribly good fun (and great against endless swarms of things). And I started an Embermage last night, which is also great fun. It's all terribly chaotic, but I like that.

I'm still trying to get my head around the levelling up system. It kinda feels like you have to stick with one or two extra active skills if you want to level them up to make them powerful, and that it's pointless investing in all or most of them as they slowly open up as you gain levels. I suppose if you're playing with the same character and you raise the level cap, raise the difficulty, and go back into dungeons after you've done their initial quest (they appear to respawn, although the quest obviously doesn't) you might get enough levels and points to fill out stuff. I'm not sure I really understand it though. With my Embermage, I'm putting points into the first Ice power, the first Fire power, then just passives--the one that makes people teleport if they hit you, the one that makes your wands do weird things every so often, staff mastery when I can be bothered (I'm mostly using wands atm), and that one that makes your charge last longer. That's already a lot of things to put points into, and it feels really stretched. If I was going to put points into a whole bunch of other active skills too, I'd have lots to choose from, but they'd all be pretty weak. Yeah, I'm not really sure I get it.

I got stuck in the scenery in a dungeon yesterday. I looked online and in the first game you had to open the console, and type 'ascend' and it would teleport you to the next level of the map. But the usual way of opening the console wasn't working. I contacted support, and they got back to me really fast, told me what opens the console in the new game, then got back to me really quickly again when I replied that my silly macbook pro keyboard doesn't actually have an 'insert' button  Excellent customer service on the day they launched.

I read the Kotaku review yesterday, and it pretty much gelled with how I feel so far about the game. It'll be great fun for a while, but then it'll rely on modders and online play to keep you interested.


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## FridgeMagnet (Sep 21, 2012)

I played the first one a lot, and it was a lot of fun, but it was the game that has most made me think (after four hours clicking on stuff) "wait a second what the fuck am I doing with my life". It was so incredibly automatic, and also actually quite easy but with enough reveals and new loot and levels and monsters that you didn't find it as repetitive as you really should have. There wasn't the sense of interacting with a story or exploring a world that you get from (good) RPGs - you're basically on rails.

So I haven't been that tempted by v2 I admit. I suppose that is an "it's not you, it's me" response really.


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## tommers (Sep 21, 2012)

I pretty much agree with all that. Especially the bit about it being something that shouldn't be fun but is. You're just clicking stuff till it dies but somehow that's ok.

The levelling system is to force you to pick skills.  One of the problems with the beta was more points in a skill were pretty redundant. That's why they've added the tier stuff.

I'm going to play some more tonight and see what it's like.

Oh and yes, as a company they have been an absolute joy to deal with.

Edit: that was to VP. Doesn't make much sense otherwise.


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## Chz (Sep 22, 2012)

Can anyone who played the multiplayer aspect of the first Dungeon Siege contrast and compare to this? DS was a bit pants single player, but it was *hugely* fun MP.


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## tommers (Sep 23, 2012)

I like the way that the solution to most problems seems to be "turn the surrounding area into a sea of molten lava"


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## debaser (Sep 24, 2012)

Beserkers great, I've not touched half the skill tree and I'm still loving making the most of what I've got. The bosses have been great fun.


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## ruffneck23 (Sep 24, 2012)

i got it, its soo good its almost took me away from broderlands 2 on the weekend....


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## Vintage Paw (Sep 24, 2012)

The boss fights are some of the most chaotic desperate button mashing I've ever experienced, and yet immensely satisfying and good fun


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## debaser (Sep 24, 2012)

The story is, well.. it might not be awful. I don't know I'm several hours in and I couldn't really care less. There's some bad guy, doing bad things, go there stop him.. I won't be touching Diablo III but I remember the cinematics from diablo II fondly.


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## Vintage Paw (Sep 24, 2012)

There's a story?



I don't think I've listened in full to what a main quest giver has said to me yet. I just see what the rewards are,click the big green arrow, and run away to hit things.


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## tommers (Sep 24, 2012)

That is what it's all about!  That IS the story. 

The alchemist is one of the characters from the first one. Isn't there some kind of doubt whether he's evil or not? I can't hear any of the audio on the cutscenes so it's hard to tell.

Anyway - got things to click on till they die. Soz.


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## tommers (Sep 27, 2012)

I wrote a (kind of) review.  Read it if you're bored.

http://thebaneofqueequeg.blogspot.co.uk/2012/09/torchlight-ii-good-bad-and-indifferent.html


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## Vintage Paw (Sep 27, 2012)

Nice review 

It also taught me something: I thought I had to wait for spells that were specifically listed as being for a pet. I didn't know I could just bung any old spell in there and they would use them  Thank you!


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## tommers (Sep 27, 2012)

Thanks!  Are there any that are listed for pets?


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## Vintage Paw (Sep 27, 2012)

Well, the only one I saw was the one that reduces the time your pet takes to go to town. I thought there would be others. Since all the ones I've had so far have been things I either want myself, or stuff like "blocks better with a shield" which is useless for my pet, currently my pet has zero spells  We're still kicking arse in the desert though. I might see if my pet utilises that little tremor one I got recently, that apparently has a chance of bringing down shields or something. I don't, if I'm honest, really know what the fuck that actually does. If you're close enough, it smashes urns. But I can do that by hitting them  I've found spells quite hard to come by.


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## tommers (Sep 27, 2012)

Yeah, I had that tremor one and I replaced it with something (else) that makes fire.  I like the fire.  Smashing pots is a shit use of a spell slot.

Torchlight 2 is the first proper game that my 2 year old son played.  I cleared the desert, put some suitably impressive spells in the right click slots and let him run about creating fire.  He loved it.  A bit too much.  I had to take it off him cos he was getting too excited and shouting "Fire! Fire!" and giggling to himself.

This morning he woke up and we came downstairs and he said "Daddy, can we play the game with the fire, where we hit the computer and run about and the dirt goes in here (pointing to the fan) and the computer goes BOOM!"  (The laptop overheated while he was playing last time.)

So effing proud.


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## Vintage Paw (Sep 27, 2012)

You're teaching him well, tommers


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## Sunray (Dec 17, 2012)

Got this in the #000000 friday sale for 7.49 and I've been suitably impressed.

Its the turbo charged Diablo 2 that Blizzard never made.

Found a homage to Minecraft with a tiny mine with blocky creepers and a pixelated but actually 1/2 decent wooden sword.


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## tommers (Dec 17, 2012)

Sunray said:


> Found a homage to Minecraft with a tiny mine with blocky creepers and a pixelated but actually 1/2 decent wooden sword.


 
Cool.  Where was it?


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## Sunray (Dec 17, 2012)

Its isometric north of the Sundered Lands, the bit where all the craters, trenches and old war machines are dotted around.  Its a huge area so took some finding.


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## tommers (Dec 17, 2012)

Ah cool, that's exactly where I am at the moment!


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