#Torchlight 2 legendary item plus#

The steampunk influence is obvious and relatively unique in the genre, and it’s all bright, colourful and, most notably, happy. Its aesthetic is one that is very pretty despite the game’s slightly lower graphical capabilities. Graphically, its cartoony style is likely to split people’s opinions. It’s not really a big problem, but it feels dull and slow in a game that is otherwise so exciting and fast. They have tried to combat this by having active skills (as opposed to passive skills) also gain an additional benefit every five skill points but it doesn’t really do enough to alleviate the issue. This is classic aRPG form but it’s something I had wished the genre had grown out of – it feels archaic and dull to increase skills by so little at a time. All skills can have 15 skill points sunk into them, with each point very slightly increasing its effects.

#Torchlight 2 legendary item plus#

Levelling is exactly as you would expect you get five attribute points to put into your attributes and a skill point every time you level up, plus you get an additional skill point every time your fame levels up, which is increased by killing champions. Each class has skills that can increase the rate at which their charge bar increases. Each one has a different charge bar that gives you additional benefits as you kill enemies – the Outlander, for example, gains crit chance, dodge chance, attack speed and cast speed as the bar fills, whereas the Engineer’s bar is split into sections that, once filled, are used up by certain skills to enhance their power. The Outlander specialises in a combination of ranged weaponry and magic, whilst the Ember Mage is all magic, the Berseker is all melee and the Engineer is the one to choose if you like pets. They have longer range than shotgonnes/cannons and pistols. However, bows and crossbows feel far less satisfying that the guns due to their less, well, explosive nature. Pistols can be dual-wielded for some fast damage output at a longer range and cannons are essentially the same as shotgonnes. A shotgun deals damage at a relatively short range, but in an arc, so it’s perfect for taking out the groups of enemies that are inevitably getting closer. Much like the first game, its steampunk styling means guns are present and, despite having first tried a shotgonne (shotgun, if you really need that translated) and not liking it, I quickly grew to love them as an Outlander. It lacks the physics engine other games in the genre have so you’ll never get to send enemies flying in all directions but seeing them all explode into a red mist is almost as satisfying. You’ll be covering a lot of ground quickly and killing enemies rarely feels dull, whether they’re exploding at the strike of your sword or they’re collapsing as your whirlwind tears through them, Torchlight 2 does an excellent job of making you feel powerful. What the game does best is gameplay it’s fast-paced and unreasonably entertaining.

The hunt takes you across various environments throughout 4 acts (if you’ve played any aRPG that does similar you can probably guess the main environments). Set years after the first game, T2 has you chasing the Alchemist (one of the classes in the first game), who has become corrupted by the Ember Blight coming from the heart of Ordrak (the final boss in the first game) after he destroys the town of Torchlight.

It is the evolution everyone wanted – it’s a Diablo-like in a modern format and, as such, it’s genuinely difficult to fault in and of itself. Torchlight 2 is almost perfect as a classic-styled aRPG. With that kind of pedigree it was difficult to think that Torchlight 2 wouldn’t be good, and with good reason. Add to that the creator of Fate, another aRPG, and Flagship Studios (which was made up of largely Blizzard North employees that worked on the Diablo games), and you’ve got a line-up of experienced developers who have all worked on something big in the genre. That is a lot of pressure for one relatively small developer to withstand but then again Runic Games is staffed by the co-founders of Blizzard North – ie, they created Diablo and Diablo 2. Then Diablo 3 was released and those who were disappointed turned to Torchlight 2 to bridge the gap they felt Diablo 3 failed to fill. Torchlight 2 aims to fix that and, as such, had the hopes of many on its shoulders. The first game was very good mechanically, but when it came to its storyline, it fell short of its influences by a rather wide margin. There was a lot of hype for Torchlight 2.