Diablo III has been out for almost two months now. Between the early infrastructure problems and the severely nerfed character customization compared to Diablo II, many fans of the Diablo series are left with an experience that is simultaneously fun and dripping of mediocrity. Salvation may arrive in September, though, in the form of Torchlight II.
Torchlight II has many things going for it that have fans of Diablo and Torchlight dubbing it “Diablo 2.5″. Here’s a breakdown:
- Skill Trees. Oh Blizzactivision, why did you axe the skill trees from D3? The 4 classes in TL2 will each have 30 class-specific skills in their trees. Plus, every 5 points put into a skill transforms it into something better (see Webbstre’s comment below).
- Pets. Tired of running back to town to sell off the crap? Let your pet do it for you.
- Play Offline. Since TL2 doesn’t have an auction house or dedicated servers, you’re more than welcome to play offline or over a LAN. But if you choose to play online with one friend serving the game, no problem.
- Mods. If you like experiencing a different facet of games you enjoy, you might choose to delve into the user-created mod community.
- Larger Party Size. Do you sometimes have too many friends on at once to fit into a D3 party of 4? No problem. TL2 is slated to support up to 8 players, with even larger parties possible with mods.
- A Larger Game. D3 takes about 15 hours to complete on any given difficulty level. TL2 should easily run 30 hours.
- Less Repetition. D3 has 4 difficulty levels, each one unlocked for individual characters as you use them to beat the prior level. TL2 only has 2 difficulty levels. Playing through all difficulty levels in either game should run roughly 60 hours, so you get about the same playtime per-character either way, but see the same stuff 4 times in D3 vs. 2 times in TL2.
- TL2 Costs $20. Or, you can get a 4-pack for $60. Booyah.
With all this going on, Torchlight II may well offer an experience more in-line with what Blizzard fans were expecting with Diablo III. Diablo III may have its saving grace in PvP, if it’s done right and offers a much deeper experience than D2′s PvP did. Even then, though, it won’t offer the level of character customization that most D2 fans were looking for. Combine that with all the other pluses listed above, and Torchlight II is sounding pretty damn sweet.
[For more info on Torchlight II, see the FAQ on Runic Games Fansite.]
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| Markham Asylum is a founding member of Delta Attack. His tier-1 favorite genres are role-playing, puzzle, and strategy. His tier-2 are adventure, shooter, and platformer. He strives to provide spoiler-free postings whenever possible. Markham Asylum has written 398 posts on Delta Attack. |
