Torchlight II PC Review

Gameplay is Torchlight II is simple to get to grips with, yet difficult to master. With a range of difficulty choices ranging from the super easy all the way up to Hardcore mode, there is sure to be the right level of challenge to suit your skills and play style. We chose to play our co-op game on Normal, yet we still found the game to be quite challenging and the battles intense. This was especially true after about 10 hours gameplay as the enemies and dungeons go a little tougher.

More important that difficulty though is that the game never stopped being fun. It’s simple click to kill mechanics mixed with a few spells and powerups on the hot keys really keeps the pace of the game flowing. The the basic mouse navigation really helps with exploring the map a breeze, which is a good thing given some of the dungeons and areas you enter can eat up an hour or more of your time to explore.

The biggest feature for us had to be the games loot system, especially while gaming in a LAN or Online CO-OP game. If you open a chest or kill an enemy, then the loot that you see on your screen is all yours. While the other players who are taking part will also see their own loot from the chest or on the battlefield. This saves a million headaches that come with loot sharing or people who try horde it all for themselves.

The game also features a very competent inventory system, while it doesn’t take long to max out your storage capacity its quick and easy to off load some of the loot on to your pet. Each time you create a new character you have a choice of 8 fantastic pets. These act as a combat assistant, can be leveled up like your character and also double your storage capabilities. When you’re deep in a dungeon and need to free up some space in your backpack, you can give you pet a bundle of items and send him off to town to sell some loot. The pet normally returns within 1-2 mins with a pile of gold and any items from your shopping list you requested, such as mana and health potions.

The games stat system is pretty robust, with every bit of armour, weaponry and more having a comprehensive statistical effect on your gameplay. Its easy to compare and swap out equipment on the fly and it’s something you’ll find yourself doing a lot. As I’ve said, there really is a lot of loot in the game and its not uncommon to find that every 20mins of battle results in 5-10 mins of inventory sorting, equipment and stat boosting.