Take THIS, Diablo III!
I finally wrapped up a Casual playthrough of Torchlight II this weekend! I preordered the game last summer so I could dabble in the first Torchlight for free for crying out loud! I believe this was when Hubby and I were playing Diablo III as well? My memory of that time period is a bit fuzzy, as my life was a cycle of work, feed baby, change baby, nap, repeat. I do recall being a master at playing games while nursing, burping, and rocking our baby to sleep. I miss those days. I could get away with playing on my PC because my little one didn’t move. Now it’s like I turn my head for five minutes and he’s tumbling down the stairs or something.
Yeah, our computer/gaming attic isn’t toddler-proof, so I don’t get up there very often anymore, unless it’s to use the treadmill when hubby is home. This leaves very little PC gaming time for me. Maybe someday we’ll have the money for a gaming laptop. For the last six months or so when I have the opportunity to sit at my computer for a little while, I’ve been playing Torchlight II.
When I fired up Torchlight II, I decided to be an Embermage. Mages are usually my thing. I love standing back, casting fancy magic, and letting my pet do most of the melee work. My idea worked out pretty good for me. Especially when I discovered Hailstorm. Man, that spell is incredible. There are three elements to choose from: Fire, Lightning and Ice. I decided to stick with the ice element mostly, as it tends to freeze/shatter enemies. And Hailstorm rocks. Did I mention that yet?
The only thing that didn’t work out for me was getting gear with ice damage perks. I swear, these RNG games always seem to know exactly what not to give me; which is always the one thing I actually want. And do you think I could get an enchanter to randomly give me an extra ice damage enchant? Hardly. I got a lot of strength bonuses on my gear, though! I try not to let these pesky aspects get to me in RNG-dungeon crawler games, because I know the whole point for every other player in the world is to farm until your eyes bleed. And at least they don’t expect you to spend real money to get what you want. *Cough*Diablo III*Cough*
Speaking of farming, the random map generator and other goodies you unlock after beating the final boss are pretty awesome features that I wish I had more time to dedicate to. You can start your end-game experiences there, or plunge right into a New Game+.
Fresh after playing Diablo III, I especially loved starting off each gaming session with the following three options: Single Player, LAN, or online mode. The first Torchlight somehow missed online co-op mode, which I find strange for this type of game. For those of you turned off by such a lonely experience, Runic games heard your cries.
I liked this game enough to keep coming back to it when I just as easily could have given up on trying to finish it. Most of the features from the first game return with improvements. I liked teaching my pet spells. Though I did forget to feed him fish a lot of the time. I have fishing relapses from playing WoW and generally find fishing boring, so I didn’t do too much of it anyway. But the leveling, dungeon-exploring, and item collecting were all fun ways for me to pass the time at a casual level. And I don’t doubt it is just as fun for the more hardcore group as well!
Anyone else play this game as a different class and on a (real) difficulty have any input you’d like to share?
The Loot Horde Blog 