If I were to summarize this game in one sentence it'd be "Child's first Hack n' Slash lootfest for those who weren't around for Diablo 2". And that's perfectly okay. Namely because that's me.

Torchlight is an isometric action RPG where you bind active skills to the mouse and number keys and make your way down 30 floors to kill the big bad, only for you to turn into the big bad yourself in the sequel (Sound familiar?[en.wikipedia.org]). Along the way you will level up and find incrimental upgrades in the form of magically enchanted gear to buff a list of stats and attributes to make your time much easier.

After that, you're pretty much done, you can then enter an endless dungeon full of ever-increasing baddies onwards to level your character to level 100 and then retire, but you will usually be absolutely done into your early 60s and will want to move on.

If none of that sounds fun, Hack N' Slash games are not your thing. Sorry.
If it does sound fun, congrats; buy this game and get started immediately so you can catch up on all the Hack N' Slashes you missed over the years.
________________________
While many might think that the level to 60 and quit is a dumb thing. I honestly think that might be the entire point. At least for me, this is a game you blaze through during a nostalgia trip and then move on. Your accumulated knowledge from various other loot fests will be put to use here to absolutely destroy the balancing in the game compared to your downward trudge the first time because you thought you could handle Hard (More on that later). I very much look forward to my next playthrough in 2-3 years.

However, that doesn't mean the game is without a large share of flaws due to its age. I will go over the Pros and Cons
________________________

• This game was $20 during its release back in 2009. It has since been given out in bundles, as well as a free gift to people at one point. It's currently $15 as of this review and usually gets 75% off during sale times.
  
• The art style used here is timeless. Even after 7 years, it looks as good as it did day 1
  
• VERY easy to run on a modern-day windows system (At least compared to Diablo 1/2)
  
• It is an excelent gateway to other Lootfests
  
• 4 basic character atrributes are simple to understand. Life, Melee damage, Ranged Damage, and Elemental Damage.
  
• You have access to a pet that can sell your garbage for extra coin without you needing to leave
  
• A lot of numbers do not have a soft cap to them. So if you exploit the start of the game, you can get enough gems to get something dumb like 16 +4% crit chance gems which totals to roughly an 80% crit chance after maxing the skill on the tree
  
• Simple and robust modding system, drag mod files into mod directory and you're set.
  
• You can somehow remember every single line in the game despite only playing it about 5 times through total

• The Pet is 95% useless in any combat situation, the best thing they can do is maybe draw some mobs away from you before he dies again..
  
• And again....
  
• And again......
  
• As this game is over 7 years old, you can believe you can have a difficult time trying to find mods, let alone developers who still support them.
  
• Movement speed is one of the worst things. If you pick the melee or mage, you move like a snail. Picking the ranger will have you move like a turtle. Get movement speed enchants and Haste ASAP
  
• Difficulty scaling is by far one of the worst I have ever seen in a game. More on that later
  
• This game was released during an awkward point where you combined basic attacks as well as active skills; meaning you run out of mana constantly
  
• Store weapons and armor are at least twice as good as loot you find in the dungeon; so you will be mostly buying new gear instead of finding a really nice equip.
  
• No easy way to identify multiple items at once without binding the scrolls to a hotkey
  
• An overwhealming majority of your early-game skills are outclassed by the ones around level 25. Resulting in quit a handful of wasted skill points.
  
• No non-cheat/mod way to respec your character. Once you pick a skill and confirm, it's there forever.
  
• Unique/legendary gear is largly just a rare item with a unique model, hardly an guarenteed stat rolls, and the ones that are guarenteed are largly useless in my experiance.
  
• As with all Diablo-typed ARPGs, it is almost impossible to list a name for this genre.

________________________
Now then, on to my biggest complaint throught the review; the higher difficulties are 100% trash. Do not even bother picking them unless you want to hate yourself. I have did a little research on Floor 1 and concluded that the HP and damage scaling is like this: Easy = 50%. Normal = 100%. Hard is 200% and Very Hard is about 300%. Besides that, nothing else changes; no extra loot drops, no mob changes, just extremely high numbers for your level. As such, the only way you can get through most of the floors is to overlevel like crap before then, which is just padding to make the game longer.
Tacked onto this, the final boss is one of the worst designed bosses in history, in my opinion. At level 28, with a 79% crit chance after 15 +4% crit chance gems it took me 25 minutes of nonstop running and potion chugging to defeat him on Hard, As Seen Here. (Sorry about the waternark, issues with shadowplay) I will admit, I was 2 levels behind him, but this is with 0 going back to grind in a 5 hour speedrun.
________________________
HOWEVER. Despite all my gripes with my most recent playthrough, I will still wholeheartedly recommend this to anyone on the fence about playing a Hack N Slash Loot Fest ARPG Diablo Clones, and a fun little romp for veteran players to break the game the way they want it to, especially for only $15.
Just, you know, not on Hard or Very Hard

If I were to summarize this game in one sentence it'd be [i]"Child's first Hack n' Slash lootfest for those who weren't around for Diablo 2"[/i]. And that's perfectly okay. Namely because that's me. Torchlight is an isometric action RPG where you bind active skills to the mouse and number keys and make your way down 30 floors to kill the big bad, only for you to turn into the big bad yourself in the sequel ([url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diablo_(video_game)]Sound familiar?[/url]). Along the way you will level up and find incrimental upgrades in the form of magically enchanted gear to buff a list of stats and attributes to make your time much easier. After that, you're pretty much done, you can then enter an endless dungeon full of ever-increasing baddies onwards to level your character to level 100 and then retire, but you will usually be absolutely done into your early 60s and will want to move on. If none of that sounds fun, Hack N' Slash games are not your thing. Sorry. If it does sound fun, congrats; buy this game and get started immediately so you can catch up on all the Hack N' Slashes you missed over the years. ________________________ While many might think that the level to 60 and quit is a dumb thing. I honestly think that might be the entire point. At least for me, this is a game you blaze through during a nostalgia trip and then move on. Your accumulated knowledge from various other loot fests will be put to use here to absolutely destroy the balancing in the game compared to your downward trudge the first time because you thought you could handle Hard (More on that later). I very much look forward to my next playthrough in 2-3 years. However, that doesn't mean the game is without a large share of flaws due to its age. I will go over the Pros and Cons ________________________ [h1]Pros[/h1] [list] [*][b]This game was $20[/b] during its release back in 2009. It has since been given out in bundles, as well as a free gift to people at one point. It's currently $15 as of this review and usually gets 75% off during sale times. [*]The art style used here is timeless. Even after 7 years, it looks as good as it did day 1 [*]VERY easy to run on a modern-day windows system (At least compared to Diablo 1/2) [*]It is an excelent gateway to other Lootfests [*]4 basic character atrributes are simple to understand. Life, Melee damage, Ranged Damage, and Elemental Damage. [*]You have access to a pet that can sell your garbage for extra coin without you needing to leave [*]A lot of numbers do not have a soft cap to them. So if you exploit the start of the game, you can get enough gems to get something dumb like 16 +4% crit chance gems which totals to roughly an 80% crit chance after maxing the skill on the tree [*]Simple and robust modding system, drag mod files into mod directory and you're set. [*]You can somehow remember every single line in the game despite only playing it about 5 times through total [/list] [h1]Cons[/h1] [list] [*]The Pet is 95% useless in any combat situation, the best thing they can do is maybe draw some mobs away from you before he dies again.. [*]And again.... [*]And again...... [*]As this game is over 7 years old, you can believe you can have a difficult time trying to find mods, let alone developers who still support them. [*]Movement speed is one of the worst things. If you pick the melee or mage, you move like a snail. Picking the ranger will have you move like a turtle. Get movement speed enchants and Haste ASAP [*]Difficulty scaling is by far one of the worst I have ever seen in a game. More on that later [*]This game was released during an awkward point where you combined basic attacks as well as active skills; meaning you run out of mana constantly [*]Store weapons and armor are at least twice as good as loot you find in the dungeon; so you will be mostly buying new gear instead of finding a really nice equip. [*]No easy way to identify multiple items at once without binding the scrolls to a hotkey [*]An overwhealming majority of your early-game skills are outclassed by the ones around level 25. Resulting in quit a handful of wasted skill points. [*]No non-cheat/mod way to respec your character. Once you pick a skill and confirm, it's there forever. [*]Unique/legendary gear is largly just a rare item with a unique model, hardly an guarenteed stat rolls, and the ones that are guarenteed are largly useless in my experiance. [*]As with all Diablo-typed ARPGs, it is almost impossible to list a name for this genre. [/list] ________________________ Now then, on to my biggest complaint throught the review; the higher difficulties are 100% trash. Do not even bother picking them unless you want to hate yourself. I have did a little research on Floor 1 and concluded that the HP and damage scaling is like this: Easy = 50%. Normal = 100%. Hard is 200% and Very Hard is about 300%. Besides that, nothing else changes; no extra loot drops, no mob changes, just extremely high numbers for your level. As such, the only way you can get through most of the floors is to overlevel like crap before then, which is just padding to make the game longer. Tacked onto this, the final boss is one of the worst designed bosses in history, in my opinion. At level 28, [i]with a 79% crit chance after 15 +4% crit chance gems[/i] it took me 25 minutes of nonstop running and potion chugging to defeat him on Hard, [url=https://youtu.be/FIcnOQsJIP0]As Seen Here.[/url] (Sorry about the waternark, issues with shadowplay) I will admit, I was 2 levels behind him, but this is with 0 going back to grind in a 5 hour speedrun. ________________________ HOWEVER. Despite all my gripes with my most recent playthrough, I will still wholeheartedly recommend this to anyone on the fence about playing a Hack N Slash Loot Fest ARPG Diablo Clones, and a fun little romp for veteran players to break the game the way they want it to, especially for only $15. Just, you know, not on Hard or Very Hard