Torchlight Reviews

Decent and fun diablo-type game, but a lot easier to get into. Was one of the first games I ever played and it's nice to return to it after so long.

Torchlight is a simple and solid Dungeon Crawler, held back by a lack of QOL aswell as an atrocious difficulty spike in the later part of the game that killed the enjoyment for me. Despite some hiccups, Torchlight is still a really fun budget title. I recommend it on a sale. The only thing that would complete this game for me is if it had multiplayer, but Torchlight 2 has it, so maybe you'd want to pick up that one instead.

This game came out at the perfect time, when Diablo 3 was taking forever to be launched. I didn't have the patience to finish it then, but I'm trying again, after many years. It's a fun game, easy to play, with clear classes, not too many item types, and the pet addition is a nice touch.

Its a classic a little rough but very much like the FATE series and i love it for that. Definitely worth a playthrough if you like simple dungenon crawlers like FATE hardest difficulty is a grind though but you can prepare using the shared stash.

So, I've taken the time to beat this game on three separate playthroughs with each run being for each character (Vanquisher, Alchemist, Destroyer) and can confidently say that I can fully recommend this game. Torchlight 1 has a high replayability potential and I had and have a lot of fun playing even after I beat the main dungeon floors (there are 35 floors in the main dungeon), You only have three classes to play as and, although it has no customization options outside of a name and pet selection (only two pets being a dog or cat) you can temporarily change your pet into other monsters by feeding them fish that you buy from vendors, find out in the wild, or fish yourself, but I myself never bothered with this feature outside of a couple times because they aren't permanent. Boo. Barring that, this is a very almost cartoon-ish styled variant of Diablo but the mixes and builds of combat synergies are seemingly endless as you progress on your character. For instance, my ranger (vanquisher) runs around with two wands and i'm lighting up the entire field of vision with elemental damage and turrets everywhere. She's not supposed to be using wands, but I made it work and, to be fair, wands synergize really, really well with her range oriented skill set. My alchemist runs around with a sword and shield with robots and damage crystal(s) running straight into the fight; is this wise? No, no it isn't because the alchemist is super duper squishy in most situations, but his skill set has made it to where the enemy can't move fast enough to hit me before I can bring them down. The point I'm making is that the possibilities are endless and that adds to the replayability along with the dungeons outside of the main dungeon floors are procedurally generated so, though you will run into the same enemies you've fought before, the map will, most likely, never be the same dungeon twice. After you beat the game for the first time, there are two options that are available to you, one being that you can "retire" your character, which means you take only ONE item from that character and prestige it for your next playthrough, but in doing so that character canonically passes that item down (aka herilooming) to your new character and you will not be able to use that character again. Like, EVER so be absolutely sure you want to before you do it, because there's no going back after you do it. Do I think it's worth that? Personally, no, but I only did it for the achievements. While you can do this if you wanted, you can also not retire your character and go the second route which is the "Shadow Vaults". The Shadow Vaults open up to you after you beat the first time and stays open for you for that character and any other character you have either old or freshly made. If you wanted to, you could make a new character and, at level one, ignore the main story completely and head directly to the Shadow Vaults. The cool thing about the Shadow Vaults is that it scales with your level on each floor. For example, if you start at level 1, the floor starts at level 1, too. When you move to floor two, that floor will be level 2 and so on. One thing I'd like to note, however, is I went into the Shadow Vault at level 1 when I started my Vanquisher on Hard difficulty, changed my mind and completed the hard mode main dungeon floors, came back to the Shadow Vaults after doing that, and all of the enemies were level 1 still. I was hoping they'd jump up to my current level (level 48 at the time) but they only went up one level, so I think it scales based on the level of the previous floor, but it does quickly scale up as you continue deeper into the Shadow Vaults, the xp and loot does, too. Something else I'd want you all to know is that there are 100 floors in the Shadow Vaults and NO FAST TRAVEL so if you happen to die while you're down there and you didn't place a portal down with the "Town Portal" spell or a "Town Portal Scroll" well, you've got a long, long way to run. While the enemies do respawn in the previous dungeon floors you've already ran, their levels remain the same level as the first time you ran through them so, if you wanted to, you could just run right by them and ignore them, it's not like they could do any real damage to you by that point. Which is good because, you might have to fill the map out again, it won't stay unveiled if you go through it again, so please PLEASE! learn from my mistakes. Ugh. I also would like to note that there is one enemy in particular that you will inevitably come across called the "Dark Zealot" and, to say that these guys are the epitome of bullsh** is an understatement; they became such an issue that, at some point, they will make you question if you're geared right at all because they have the possibility to 2 piece you, not even exaggerating. After looking around online, I found from several different sources that the developers ran out of time balancing the game and, as a result, the Dark Zealot in particular, boss variant or not, will absolutely rock your world upside down as they are completely and wholly unbalanced, so if you see a Dark Zealot, kill that mf as fast as possible; one of them is bad enough, two of them is a panic show, anything more than two is an aimbot death wish. Good luck with that. But I can't recommend this game enough despite the Dark Zealots existing, the story is non existent and, we're not there for the story anyway, we're there for the fighting. Give this one a go, you'll have fun.... until you run into Dark Zealots, then it's a battle of attrition.

I remember having played this game when I was a younger and wanting to try it again... I've played a lot of ARPGs in my time and this game just isn't good, not with the lots of other games there are nowadays and that were there even during its time. I didn't go into it with wanting to dislike it, but have not really found many things to like, or at the very least enough for me to like the game, enjoy my experience, and give it a positive review. I'm not a fan of the graphics, but that's always been the least important aspect when it comes to games for me, but I can't believe this game is from 2009 judging from... well, everything. The graphics didn't age well (looks like a cheap mobile game), amount of classes (3?!), mechanics, skills and skill trees (every class has 15 active and 15 passive skills), loot (a lot of trash drops) and the controls and combat - very clunky, eg. most of the ranged attacks usually either didn't even connect or only had range of about half the screen. I'd have expected the game to be at least 10 years older than that, everything just feels so lackluster and jank for its time. If it were, I wouldn't have been so harsh with the review but simply put, there were games that were miles ahead at the time - Titan Quest or Diablo II, which lo and behold, are still very good, playable and loved to this day, even in spite of being older. As opposed to that, I don't think I've ever seen a person saying Torchlight is a good game. There are some nice ideas, like the pet - being able to send it back to town to sell your items. If only the inventory wasn't 3x7, while also having to carry scrolls and potions, making it at least 4 slots smaller. Other than that though, the pet is just basically a way worse and dumbed-down version of the Diablo II mercenary. The only other "good" thing about the game is that you can mod it and the mods don't disable steam achievements, at least the ones I installed. This would be good if the base game itself was good and if some mods just didn't feel mandatory to make the experience less painful. Now if we move on to the cons, other than everything already mentioned above, there is no respec, why? Yes, there is a mod for it, but still. There were games before its time that had this mechanic, so why does this game not have it? The game is very slow to get your character up and running, which is not actually too bad, it's expected, but this might make some newer players turn away by itself. It's also extremely repetitive. The game didn't feel too hard at the start even on the highest difficulty setting, regardless of that, but then I'd randomly get oneshot by some traps when normal enemies could barely even more my health bar. The balance is very poor - I still remember my first death, which was to a trapped chest dealing over 50% of my health in a zone 5 levels below me, while literally every single other trap I've triggered dealt about 1/10 of the damage of this one, pretty much not even moving my health bar. I just don't get it. On top of that, the monster damage on very hard gets absurd very quickly towards the latter half of the story, even before completing the story you're gonna start getting constantly oneshot with very little counterplay, unless you're of course kiting around half the map and standing half a screen away from the mobs, or already have farmed a lot of gear previously. Wanting to write a non-biased review, I've finished the game in all modes, but I rarely had fun playing it - I thought maybe I would start enjoying it at some point, but that didn't exactly happen. Simply put, this game didn't bring anything innovative at the time that would be meaningful and worthwhile enough to mention. And unless you're going into the game with extremely strong nostalgia, I can't recommend it. It is cheap when on sale though, so I'll at least give it that.

I loved the game growing up and to this day absolutely love it. It's simple, to the point, and fun to play. 10/10 hack and slash dungeon crawler. It ticks all the boxes. 100% recommend.

⭐ 7.5/10 - A Solid ARPG Experience Torchlight is a fun, action-packed dungeon crawler that feels like a lighter, more casual take on Diablo. Developed by Runic Games, it features a charming art style, addictive loot-based gameplay, and a surprisingly deep pet system. Pros: ✅ Satisfying Combat – Hacking and slashing through hordes of enemies is smooth and enjoyable. ✅ Great Loot System – Tons of weapons, armor, and enchantments to experiment with. ✅ Companion Pet – Your pet can fight, carry loot, and even sell items in town! ✅ Mod Support – The game has a strong modding community that adds new content and improvements. ✅ Runs on Almost Any PC – Even older machines can handle it without issues. Cons: ❌ Repetitive Dungeon Design – The levels start to feel samey after a while. ❌ No Multiplayer – It’s a purely single-player experience, which is disappointing for a game like this. ❌ Shallow Story – The narrative is basic and forgettable. If you're looking for a straightforward, loot-driven ARPG that doesn’t take itself too seriously, Torchlight is a great pick. It’s easy to get into and offers plenty of hours of dungeon-crawling fun. However, if you’re after a deep story or multiplayer action, you might want to look elsewhere. Verdict: A solid choice for casual ARPG fans, but don’t expect a masterpiece.

Torchlight is a pretty simple but fun game. Its not as complex as other top down RPGs, but solid if you just want a good time

Torchlight is a nice and somewhat cute timekiller, perfect to spend an evening mindlessly clearing a dungeon after a hard day. Problem is that as a game, it is extraordinarily boring mess of grind, poor gameplay design choices, dull skill trees, dull champion/boss fights and a difficulty "curve" which looks like jigsaw line. I completed it on the hardest level (Very Hard without permadeath), and wouldn't waste my time on this ever again.