More Torchlight II Observations

Now that I have a character approaching level 30 in the Second Act and have had some multiplayer time in, I feel like I can make some more comments.

First, FIX THE BUGS! I have had the disappearing stash and shared stash bug hit with me unable to access my gear online or offline. Mysteriously, it all reappeared late last night and so far I can use the rare and unique gear. We’ll see if that lasts. Saved game synchronizing to Steam’s cloud has been hit or miss for me. This is frustrating.

Second, this is a remake of Diablo II as far as the plot line goes and the settings. I do not view this as a bad thing, in fact I was happy to see the desert again. Enough has been changed to avoid lawsuits, but if you are a big Diablo II fan this is your game to play.

The performance of the game engine has been a pleasant surprise, with the only slowdowns I’ve encountered being in online play. Playing with others is a blast and incredibly fast moving due to people triggering fights left and right. The graphics are pretty with the cartoony/anime style of Torchlight looking better than ever.

Sound is well done and my pet cat purrs after he kills something. It reminds me of the best cat ever, my late pet Sid. So I have named the critter in my solo embermage build after him.

Loot is ridiculously plentiful. While there is an option to turn off seeing normal items, I cannot get that to work in solo games. It works fine in multiplayer. Inventory management is sleeker than ever, but it gets a constant workout due to all the goodies you find. Trading with others in your party is very easy.

Remember how frustrating it was to get your first complete set in Diablo II or Torchlight? Expect to have at least one by level 10 in my experience. I actually had two complete sets on my mage by level 12.

I really like the game, but advise people to wait for a couple of patches before completely committing. If you are willing to deal with bugs, buy it now if your are an old school Diablo fan.

Getting Old and Slow, Plus Torchlight II Impressions

Forget having to get bifocals, it is getting slower in video games that is getting to me. A couple of things have proven this to me the past week. While never one of the best, I could at least game on the hardest or second hardest settings the first time I played a game. With the release of Black Mesa, a remake of most of the original Half Life, I find myself having to continuously lower the difficulty in order to progress.

I did fine until the Marines showed up. Then it became a ridiculous exercise in getting killed twenty or thirty times just to clear one area and limping out of it with under ten health. And getting killed with one shot in the next area.

I used to waltz through Half Life at its hardest settings, so this is a body blow for me. Older games were harder than the current ones,yes --  but this is painful.

The second thing was talking to one of my younger friends I game with. He can’t understand why he beats me handily in PvP when I can run through single player games on difficulty levels he can’t handle. That is simple to answer: twitch reflexes will always dominate in PvP with tactics being a secondary factor. Guile and tactics often compensate against AI opponents who follow predictable paths. Humans are a lot more random.

Watching him play at his house, I was amazed at how fast he could flip through screens, type, and fight without missing a beat. That is simply beyond my ability these days.

At least Torchlight II is something I can still play at veteran level and not die very often, in fact only once so far and that was due to stupidity on my part. So far it is much more like Diablo II than the first game and the graphics look great with no slow downs on max settings despite amazing waves of enemies. The changes all work to the better from what I have tested through level 11 casual and level 7 veteran ember mage builds.

But…

It is buggy. Horrifically buggy. I have a friend who can’t launch it without completely locking up his computer. One side quest I accepted couldn’t be done because the entrance to it refused to trigger. Then there is the multiplayer which was not functioning because Runic Games could not handle the traffic. I could not even create an account last night.

It is as bad as the Diablo III rollout, which is incredibly ironic.