Back in 90’s games like Diablo set the standard for the hack-and slash genre and while Runic’s latest game, Torchlight, follows that formula almost to the letter.  Torchlight’s story tells the tale of a traveler who travels to the vast dungeon on the outskirts of the town of Torchlight.  You enter the mine in hopes of finding the magical substance ‘Ember’ as well as equipment that might have been enchanted by it.  You’re shortly introduced to the antagonist, an evil wizard who wants to use the Ember for evil.  While the plot by no means is a reason to progress through the various levels of the dungeon, the stellar game play and addictive character management is well worth the pricetag.

You have three character types to choice from before starting your quest.  The Destroyer – a muscular barbarian who focuses on melee combat, The Vanquisher- a scantily clad woman who uses traps and projectile based weapons to destroy her foes and the Alchemist- who focuses on magic based attacks as well as summing creatures to his aid. From the off  you have the decision to choose either a cat or dog for a companion.  You can equip your companion with magical rings, necklaces and teach it spells, as well as feed it magical fish that turn it into a different type of creature for a short period of time.  While they can hold their own most of the time, your companion is most useful when you fill up their packs with loot you find and send them back to town to sell it for you. This not only makes storing your loot easier but it also keeps the player immersed in the games rich and stunning atmosphere.  Unfortunatley there is no co-operative mode, which makes it all the more important that the quality of the single player experience is up to scratch.

Though you only explore one dungeon in the game, each set of floors has a new environment ranging from a dwarven mine filled with mechanical enemies to a lava pits filled with goblins. Graphically each floor is distinctly beautiful and detailed to the point where you’ll forget that your still in the same dungeon. Your character & pet will sometimes get stuck on the environment but this happens just rarely enough that it doesn’t really impact your experience.   At the end of each set of floors you encounter a boss, none of which are all that challenging.  After you complete the single player campaign you can continue exploring but there is also the option of retiring your character and passing along one piece of equipment to a new character if you decide to start over.

While it’s story is pretty abysmal and the game lacks any co-op mode, Torchlight’s polished gameplay and addictive level & loot mechanics are well worth the time investment it requires. At only £14.99 Torchlight might be one of the best budget PC games released this year.

Jay Krieger

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