During the long wait for Diablo 3, we’re no longer lonely — because now we have Torchlight. Here’s some info (download links at the bottom):
Chinese Name: Torchlight English Name: Torchlight Genre: ARPG, action role-playing game Release Date: 2009 Developer/Publisher: Runic Games, Perfect World Entertainment Language: English Overview: Runic Games (a new company founded by Max Schaefer, one of the original founders of Blizzard North) has unveiled a new trailer for its ARPG Torchlight, and it looks like a lower-fidelity version of Diablo 3. The single-player version goes on sale October 27, priced at US$19.99 for the digital download. The online version isn’t expected to hit the market until 18 months after the single-player release. Earlier reports also said the global publishing rights for the game went to China’s Perfect World.
Adventure/Action RPG
Torchlight is an action RPG built around adventure. In the game, adventurers set out from the town of Torchlight and head into the nearby mountains in search of a magical ore that can power their weapons — but also endangers their lives. With a simple, direct interface, the game aims to deliver fast, explosive action and a gorgeous, gripping world.
A Quick Look at the Three Classes
There are three classes to choose from. The Destroyer excels at melee combat, and his brutal methods make short work of many enemies; the Alchemist can summon minions to help him and kill enemies from a distance; the Vanquisher is an excellent shooter who can use traps to confuse and distract her enemies.
Seven Game Features
Randomization: The game world is randomly generated, so every adventure is unique — each time you set out on a journey you’ll run into different monsters, treasures, puzzles, and items.
Approachable interface: Torchlight was designed from the start to be simple and easy to pick up, and the intuitive interface lets players explore this colorful world with ease.
Retirement system: Once a character reaches a certain level, they can “retire,” and retiring grants specific perks and bonuses to a new character.
Pets: Players can choose a pet to keep them company, and the pet levels up along with the player… it can help you in combat, carry items for you, and perform plenty of other useful services.
Character creation: Players can create a personalized character and choose a pet companion. Through different face shapes and hairstyles, every player can customize a character that is uniquely their own.
Fishing: When you’re tired of fighting monsters, you can head to a fishing hole to relax and show off your skills, seeing what you can reel in. Fishing is fun and can earn you and your pet some benefits — plus some other rewards, of course.
Editor: Runic Games will provide an editor for all players to use, letting them create, design, and share their own content.
Download Links: Original download page for the hard-disk version: http://www.verycd.com/topics/2777404/ Direct download link for the hard-disk version: [火炬之光].Torchlight.full.rip.rar Note: This is a hard-disk version, and it’s in English. If you don’t want to buy a legit copy but still want a full install, you’d better wait a while. Perfect World will put out the online version before long.
Perfect World really is something — its worldwide partnerships keep getting stronger and stronger.
[18:13 update] Adding an address for the disc image: Torchlight [Disc Image] Original download page: http://www.verycd.com/topics/2777397/ Direct download: [火炬之光].sr-torchl.bin [火炬之光].sr-torchl.cue
[10.30 update] I played it a bit yesterday. The installer is only about one CD in size. I haven’t seen any cutscenes yet. The 3D engine is like Titan Quest’s, and the overall visuals and combat controls are like Diablo 3’s. The pet system is something I found genuinely novel and unexpectedly fun. You can keep a cat or a dog, and it has its own separate inventory and equipment slots. It can carry items for you, wear equipment, learn skills, and even run back to town in the field to sell things — then come back happily a few dozen seconds later and hand you the money!
I still haven’t figured out how to fish. Maybe my pet is already hungry…
[10.31 update] Last night I played until late and got down to dungeon level 19. Turns out this game’s territory just keeps extending downward.
I figured out how to fish. There’s a fishing spot in the lower-right corner of the town of Torchlight, and other maps have fishing spots too. Click the mouse to start fishing, and just reel in at the right moment. The fish you catch can transform your pet, and different fish do different things.
Besides class skills, you can buy scrolls in the game to learn spells. Your main character can learn 4 and your pet can learn 2, and you can forget them at any time to relearn. Sadly, on my first playthrough I bought a few of the most expensive ones — Ice Blast, Charm, Identify, and a lifesteal one… So far Identify is the only one I use smoothly. I’m an Alchemist, and I usually put 4 points into Magic and 1 into Defense when I level up, so my spell damage is already strong; these skills feel pretty useless to me. Ice Blast at level 1 has low damage and a long CD. Charm has a chance to make enemies switch sides for a few seconds, which badly slows down how fast I gain XP. Lifesteal doesn’t seem to do anything, so I can’t be bothered to use it — later I swapped it for Group Heal II.
I kind of regret picking “Easy” difficulty — it’s a bit too easy. The few minions the Alchemist summons are really efficient at killing bosses! Back in Diablo 2, when my Necromancer’s skeleton army ran into a boss, it was as if the joints between the bones were held together with paste — so flimsy…
This game’s music follows the Diablo style, and there are even a lot of familiar sound effects. The spells and controls borrow from Diablo 3, and a few of the Alchemist’s skills already give me a whiff of Diablo 3. That said, there are plenty of detail-level problems that still need fixing — Runic Games was too rushed during the final 10% polish phase, which makes me feel they haven’t quite matched Blizzard.
11.3 update Rumor: Torchlight forced Diablo 3 back into development (source)
Word in the industry right now is that Torchlight’s release forced Diablo 3 back into development, and Blizzard has stopped announcing new Diablo 3 news. This is exactly the outcome we predicted long ago: a game that lets players experience most of Diablo 3’s ideas ahead of time will, from any angle, deal a huge blow to Diablo 3’s popularity and massively erode expectations for it. Blizzard has now stopped putting out any Diablo 3 news, and it looks like Blizzard’s determination to completely overhaul the game’s systems may take some of the edge off the awkwardness it feels about Torchlight.
I remember how the open release of Nox in 2000 dealt a massive blow to Diablo 2 — merely a partial overlap in elements made a sensitive Blizzard send Diablo 2 back for a full year of rework. This time, Torchlight’s near-total imitation has convinced Blizzard to go for a complete rework. Looks like we players will have to wait until at least 2014, when plenty of players will be married with kids, before we get a chance to play Diablo 3.