Game: Torchlight

Platform: Xbox 360 Arcade

Publisher: Runic Games

Developer: Runic Games

ESRB: T

Genre: Diablo Clone

Players: 1

What's Hot: Brilliant Diablo clone ported seamlessly to the 360

What's Not: Multipayer will have to wait for the sequel

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Review by: Jason McMaster

When Torchlight was released for the PC at the low, low price of $20, a lot of people took notice. Torchlight was designed by some of the team members responsible for the original Diablo, and proved to be an instant success. Now the PC market isn’t the only group to have access to dungeon-plunging goodness, but does the experience stand up? Yes. Yes it does.

You arrive in a town tormented by monsters. That town is Torchlight. The monsters are in the nearby mine, disrupting the production of the super-special ore, Ember. Ember has a corrupting effect and has been responsible for the destruction of many civilizations, most of which are hidden in the tunnels beneath town. Someone has to go down into those mines and clean house. That’s where you come in.

This game is a Diablo clone. Actually, scratch that, this game IS Diablo. For those of you who aren’t familiar with the way a Diablo clone plays, it goes something like this: waves and waves of monsters bum-rush you from all sides as you violently click (and give yourself carpal tunnel) and mow them down. Then, and most importantly, you loot the living bejeebers out of everything you can find, level up and invest in new powers to stomp more monster face. Repeat!

Torchlight gives you the choice of playing a ranged character, warrior or magician. As you level, which happens often at first, you fill in different ability points to create your (mostly) unique character. Depending on your character class, you’ll have different choices and powers. Each power tree has a unique feel to it and a fit can be found for most play styles.

The biggest concern I had before playing the 360 version of Torchlight was, “…can this game be as good without a mouse?” Since all of your powers are directional in basis, just pointing your character in the proper direction and hitting one of the assignable hot keys, your character attacks the enemies in his path. There’s a bit of auto-aim involved, but that’s to be expected. The hotkeys work well enough, with the main buttons mappable and a trigger to flip between key groups. The game translates very well to the 360 and makes for a very pleasant play experience. The best part of all was the lack of pain in my wrist after wiping out a few waves of monsters.

The game looks the same as its PC predecessor, which can lead to the occasional stagger in the frame rate as the visuals start piling on. Anyone that played the PC version should be right at home here. In fact, the game is basically the same all around, which, disappointingly, means that the XBLA version of the game also lacks co-op. This is the only real downside to Torchlight.

Runic is the “Little Company That Could.” It created a fantastic Diablo clone for the PC and then did the unthinkable – transferred that game to the 360 with almost seamless aplomb. In short: get it.

Jason McMaster is a regular contributor to GameShark

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