• Log InLog In
  • Register
Liquid`
Team Liquid Liquipedia
EDT 01:09
CEST 07:09
KST 14:09
  • Home
  • Forum
  • Calendar
  • Streams
  • Liquipedia
  • Features
  • Store
  • EPT
  • TL+
  • StarCraft 2
  • Brood War
  • Smash
  • Heroes
  • Counter-Strike
  • Overwatch
  • Liquibet
  • Fantasy StarCraft
  • TLPD
  • StarCraft 2
  • Brood War
  • Blogs
Forum Sidebar
Events/Features
News
Featured News
Power Rank - Esports World Cup 202552RSL Season 1 - Final Week9[ASL19] Finals Recap: Standing Tall15HomeStory Cup 27 - Info & Preview18Classic wins Code S Season 2 (2025)16
Community News
BSL Team Wars - Bonyth, Dewalt, Hawk & Sziky teams9Weekly Cups (July 14-20): Final Check-up0Esports World Cup 2025 - Brackets Revealed19Weekly Cups (July 7-13): Classic continues to roll8Team TLMC #5 - Submission re-extension4
StarCraft 2
General
The GOAT ranking of GOAT rankings Power Rank - Esports World Cup 2025 RSL Revival patreon money discussion thread Jim claims he and Firefly were involved in match-fixing RSL Season 1 - Final Week
Tourneys
Esports World Cup 2025 Master Swan Open (Global Bronze-Master 2) Sparkling Tuna Cup - Weekly Open Tournament Sea Duckling Open (Global, Bronze-Diamond) FEL Cracov 2025 (July 27) - $8000 live event
Strategy
How did i lose this ZvP, whats the proper response
Custom Maps
External Content
Mutation #239 Bad Weather Mutation # 483 Kill Bot Wars Mutation # 482 Wheel of Misfortune Mutation # 481 Fear and Lava
Brood War
General
BSL Team Wars - Bonyth, Dewalt, Hawk & Sziky teams BW General Discussion [Update] ShieldBattery: 2025 Redesign BGH Auto Balance -> http://bghmmr.eu/ Ginuda's JaeDong Interview Series
Tourneys
[Megathread] Daily Proleagues CSL Xiamen International Invitational [CSLPRO] It's CSLAN Season! - Last Chance [BSL 2v2] ProLeague Season 3 - Friday 21:00 CET
Strategy
Does 1 second matter in StarCraft? [G] Mineral Boosting Simple Questions, Simple Answers
Other Games
General Games
Stormgate/Frost Giant Megathread Nintendo Switch Thread [MMORPG] Tree of Savior (Successor of Ragnarok) Path of Exile CCLP - Command & Conquer League Project
Dota 2
Official 'what is Dota anymore' discussion
League of Legends
Heroes of the Storm
Simple Questions, Simple Answers Heroes of the Storm 2.0
Hearthstone
Heroes of StarCraft mini-set
TL Mafia
TL Mafia Community Thread Vanilla Mini Mafia
Community
General
US Politics Mega-thread Post Pic of your Favorite Food! Things Aren’t Peaceful in Palestine Russo-Ukrainian War Thread The Games Industry And ATVI
Fan Clubs
SKT1 Classic Fan Club!
Media & Entertainment
[\m/] Heavy Metal Thread Anime Discussion Thread Movie Discussion! [Manga] One Piece Korean Music Discussion
Sports
Formula 1 Discussion 2024 - 2025 Football Thread TeamLiquid Health and Fitness Initiative For 2023 NBA General Discussion
World Cup 2022
Tech Support
Installation of Windows 10 suck at "just a moment" Computer Build, Upgrade & Buying Resource Thread
TL Community
The Automated Ban List
Blogs
Ping To Win? Pings And Their…
TrAiDoS
momentary artworks from des…
tankgirl
from making sc maps to makin…
Husyelt
StarCraft improvement
iopq
Socialism Anyone?
GreenHorizons
Customize Sidebar...

Website Feedback

Closed Threads



Active: 635 users

Torchlight 2: My First Impressions

Blogs > Ghin
Post a Reply
1 2 Next All
Ghin
Profile Blog Joined January 2005
United States2391 Posts
May 14 2012 05:22 GMT
#1
I recently got accepted into the Torchlight 2 Beta and have been enjoying it. I thought I would share some of my first impressions of the game and my very short experience with the Berzerker class on Elite Hardcore (elite is the hardest difficulty). After that I'll talk a little about some of the neat things in the game and answer any questions you might have.

[image loading]
so im doing that really annoying thing where i start with the ending

Torchlight 2 is an action RPG, if you don't know what Torchlight or Action RPG means, you should stop reading here and learn how to use Google. There are 4 classes and a skill tree something like Diablo 2. You get a point every level and put it in the skills you want to get more powerful. You don't need any prerequisites other than character level to pick skills, so you can pick something at the bottom of the fire tree if you're a wizard even if you were putting all your previous points into the fairy rainbow unicorn tree before that. Or to put it another way, you don't need Blizzard to get Frozen Orb.

[image loading]
rawr im a berzerker

The first thing I noticed when I got into the game was the Charge meter. It's that thing at the bottom with a wolf on the right side. When you're hitting monsters, the bar charges up and when it fills up, the Berzerker goes into a rage for a few seconds. Every hit becomes a critical and things start to get dismembered and splattered across the screen when you hit them. As a Berzerker, I basically suck unless the meter is full.

[image loading]
yes there are lots of flashy colors in this game

The graphics in the game are sort of cartoony and the colors are vibrant. I enjoy the art style but I found out while taking pictures that the effects really block my view of the character. This is not something that happened while I was playing, so I was a little surprised. It is very easy to tell where everything is, although sometimes I had trouble targeting some monsters (this is beta, after all).

[image loading]
some dead ratmen who were harassing me

As far as difficulty goes, Elite is very hard. There's Easy and Normal difficulty for all you noob casuals out there, and Veteran difficulty for people who have played an ARPG before. Veteran felt just about right to me for having no idea how to play. There is also the option for Hardcore where your character dies permanently, which I always have to have on to enjoy games in this genre.

[image loading]
this is your brain on berzerk mode

My image of a Berzerker is a little different from the one in the game. I imagine a giant guy decapitating monsters with a massive hammer, roaring and covered in blood. In the game a Berzerker is a sort of dual wielding Drizzt wannabe archetype. I never really see the advantage of using two weapons and to make it worse the Berzerker starts off with claw-type weapons that have low damage and no splash (melee weapons that arent claws deal splash damage). To be fair, I could pick a 2 handed mace and explode monsters if I actually found one.

(Later on when I learned a little more, I did in fact do this and it made things much easier.)

My Torchlight 2 game started with a flash animation style video of the Alchemist from TL1 breaking out of the mines and having a fight with the Destroyer and the annoying quest girl. Apparently the Alchemist now has a giant mechanical deathsuit that belches smoke.
+ Show Spoiler [said cinematic if you're curious] +

After watching the opening cinematic, I started my adventuring career in an encampment with the Destroyer. My first quest was to be an errand girl and run up the road to a town and warn them the Alchemist is coming and to run away and stuff. Obviously the road is covered with monsters.

[image loading]
now with 100% more eyepatch

My starting skill was called Eviscerate and when I used it a red werewolf ghost thing swiped with my weapon. Eviscerate hits in an arc and leaves a damage over time effect on nearby monsters. The other level 1 skill in the tree was a passive that regenerates life on crit. I looked at my character screen and noted my whopping 3% crit rate. The other trees were Frost which looks like a wizardly bent on the Berzerker with magic damage type things and Shadow which looks like a more tactical tree with movement and support skills.

[image loading]
EVISCERATE

Rather than go down the road so thoughtfully placed in front of me, I decided to go off to the right around a small pond. Because I was playing on Elite difficulty, the ratmen took sizable chunks of my life bar out with each swing of their tiny arms. As I killed them all, my rage meter grew. When I had killed all the monsters, my rage meter filled and expired before I could get to the next group. The awkward timing of my rage bar was a common theme of my time with the Berzerker. I prepared better for the next groups of monsters by dragged the final ratman a little further along before I killed him to satisfy my rage. Doing this led me into a bandit encampment where I was set upon by the brigands. I nearly died when the bandits opened fire on me with their rifles, but potions and my rage kicking in saved me from certain doom.

[image loading]
so this is what it feels like to be in front of a firing squad

After killing all the bandits, I returned to my errand girl quest. The road was blocked in places by javelin-wielding bears behind fortified walls of debris, but I smashed the walls with my kung fu and killed everyone. On the way I rescued some poor noob NPC from a burning house and some ratmen. I wanted to steal his car but I couldn't figure out how to drive it.

[image loading]
where's the engine on this thing?

I did eventually make it to town. However, I was shocked and appalled to find that these were not normal corn-loving villagers. I had stumbled into a hippie commune. Long haired freaky people sat in circles talking about, like, whatever man. The women wore small strips of cloth instead of shirts. I warned the elder about the Alchemist to finish my quest, but he was like, chill out man, the Alchemist already left, man. The elder sent me off to check on a Guardian or something, I stopped listening. I bought some armor from the blacksmith, who was a Vanquisher so it wasn't dirty hippie armor. With my new armor I set off down the road. However, this road winds through an Indian Burial Ground (or IBG for short).

[image loading]
ohhhhh fuck skeletons

The land here was covered with creepy blue phosphorescent mist and weird bluish ghost torches lit the path. Zombies, skeletons, and other horrors waited on the path to feast on hapless adventurers like myself. The most annoying of these is the Vile Gnasher, a cannibal corpse of a zombie that feasts on dead monsters and resurrects them as other Vile Gnashers. This can get out of hand in an IBG very quickly as you can imagine.

[image loading]
the dreaded Vile Gnasher up close

Up the road I discovered a hippie waiting outside what appeared to be a crypt decorated in extreme poor taste. The green question mark over her head indicated a side quest. Help a hippie by going into a corrupted crypt almost certainly haunted by giant undead monsters for the reward of a dog collar? Sign me up!

[image loading]
the skeleton knights have shields you break

Was this a good idea? I was having trouble killing the normal, non-blood drinking undead. How would I fare against giant abominations who never feel the light of day? I had a premonition of my own death like in a bad movie where they keep flashing forward to the end because they're terrible writers.

[image loading]
aforementioned poor taste in interior design

The crypt was filled with an evil red mist and masses of candles lit by homosexual zombies. I killed a few on my way down the stairs and had to stop and recover from the unnaturally strong beating of their undead fists. I turned a corner and entered a large room where I was ambushed by acid slime.

[image loading]
acid slimes covered in Eviscerate

What I was not aware of or prepared for was the massive poison damage I received from them splashing acid on me repeatedly. In a second I had lost all my life and my promising Berzerking career had ended.

[image loading]
congratulations! you have died!

I enjoyed playing the Berzerker, but to be honest its probably the least fun of the 4 classes. I didn't really understand how I was supposed to play the zerker given that he was so fragile because of Elite difficulty.

If you have any questions about the game I would be happy to answer them.

****
Legalize drugs and murder.
solidbebe
Profile Blog Joined November 2010
Netherlands4921 Posts
May 14 2012 05:41 GMT
#2
Very nice blog , if Diablo 3 wasn't coming out this would be my definite game of choice.
That's the 2nd time in a week I've seen someone sig a quote from this GD and I have never witnessed a sig quote happen in my TL history ever before. -Najda
Alpino
Profile Joined June 2011
Brazil4390 Posts
May 14 2012 05:48 GMT
#3
On May 14 2012 14:41 solidbebe wrote:
Very nice blog , if Diablo 3 wasn't coming out this would be my definite game of choice.


Yeah me too, but I guess Diablo 3 will make Torchlight 2 more sucessful on the long run drawing more attention to this kind of game, being like an alternative to the mainstream D3.
20/11/2015 - never forget EE's Ember
surfinbird1
Profile Joined September 2009
Germany999 Posts
May 14 2012 06:50 GMT
#4
On May 14 2012 14:48 Alpino wrote:
Show nested quote +
On May 14 2012 14:41 solidbebe wrote:
Very nice blog , if Diablo 3 wasn't coming out this would be my definite game of choice.


Yeah me too, but I guess Diablo 3 will make Torchlight 2 more sucessful on the long run drawing more attention to this kind of game, being like an alternative to the mainstream D3.

Personally, I am looking forward to Torchlight a lot more than D3. I played the shit out of D2 and was super stoked for its successor till they announced that you can't spend your stat points anymore, their revised skill trees and, last but certainly not least, the real money auction house. Sorry Blizz, but I'd rather have an excellent Diablo clone like Torchlight than a terrible Diablo game.
life of lively to live to life of full life thx to shield battery
Valentir
Profile Joined May 2008
Norway266 Posts
May 14 2012 07:13 GMT
#5
On May 14 2012 15:50 surfinbird1 wrote:
Show nested quote +
On May 14 2012 14:48 Alpino wrote:
On May 14 2012 14:41 solidbebe wrote:
Very nice blog , if Diablo 3 wasn't coming out this would be my definite game of choice.


Yeah me too, but I guess Diablo 3 will make Torchlight 2 more sucessful on the long run drawing more attention to this kind of game, being like an alternative to the mainstream D3.

Personally, I am looking forward to Torchlight a lot more than D3. I played the shit out of D2 and was super stoked for its successor till they announced that you can't spend your stat points anymore, their revised skill trees and, last but certainly not least, the real money auction house. Sorry Blizz, but I'd rather have an excellent Diablo clone like Torchlight than a terrible Diablo game.


The above posts shows that you have not tried the beta then. Allowing you to use all the skills in the game is a bad thing? The game is amazing and all the D2 fans crying is getting old.
frakkin hell.
TOCHMY
Profile Blog Joined June 2010
Sweden1692 Posts
May 14 2012 08:16 GMT
#6
Very well written story! Had me hooked The game itself looks very promising. Well done!
Yoona <3 ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Look! It's Totoro! ☉.☉☂
capu
Profile Blog Joined June 2011
Finland224 Posts
May 14 2012 08:39 GMT
#7
If you have time I'd like to read some kind of short summary on your thoughts about the game at the end of your blog.
Ghin
Profile Blog Joined January 2005
United States2391 Posts
May 14 2012 08:57 GMT
#8
On May 14 2012 17:39 capu wrote:
If you have time I'd like to read some kind of short summary on your thoughts about the game at the end of your blog.


How short? What would you like to know about?

Really short version: It's fun. I like shooting monsters with a cannon. Definitely buying it.
Legalize drugs and murder.
emucxg
Profile Blog Joined May 2007
Finland4559 Posts
May 14 2012 11:08 GMT
#9
I have played torchlight 1 and i really dislike it... really boring game after 10 floors -.-
Floobie
Profile Joined February 2011
England296 Posts
May 14 2012 11:31 GMT
#10
Hilarious and informative. Thanks!
tw!tch
Profile Blog Joined October 2010
United States563 Posts
May 14 2012 11:36 GMT
#11
On May 14 2012 14:22 Ghin wrote:
The crypt was filled with an evil red mist and masses of candles lit by homosexual zombies.


hahah whattt why were they homosexual?!
Noobity
Profile Blog Joined February 2011
United States871 Posts
May 14 2012 11:51 GMT
#12
The only problem I have with this game is simply that it did not come out 4 months ago. I really think it's going to be more than overshadowed by D3 which is a shame because Torchlight 1 was phenomenal.

I very much intend to play through T2, it's just a matter of when. Thank you fore the insight though, Ghin. Well done and humorous
My name is Mike, and statistically, yours is not.
m3rciless
Profile Joined August 2009
United States1476 Posts
May 14 2012 13:26 GMT
#13
wow this game looks so much worse than D3. Unfortunate they came out so close together, or i might have given it a try.
White-Ra fighting!
Deleted User 61629
Profile Blog Joined March 2010
1664 Posts
Last Edited: 2012-05-14 13:46:59
May 14 2012 13:46 GMT
#14
--- Nuked ---
Ghin
Profile Blog Joined January 2005
United States2391 Posts
May 14 2012 13:54 GMT
#15
Even though the comparisons seem to be unavoidable, I think Torchlight 2 will be fine even in Diablo 3's shadow. It wont be out until at least July so you have plenty of time to get bored of D3, and its 20$. I've had much more fun playing the Torchlight 2 beta than I ever did playing the Diablo 3 beta. I didn't even make a second character when I played D3.
Legalize drugs and murder.
PassiveAce
Profile Blog Joined February 2011
United States18076 Posts
May 14 2012 14:41 GMT
#16
I love when you do write ups of aRPG's, you have a real talent for telling these kinds of stories. I hope you can do more of these when the game is released (your D2 blogs are all fantastic).
5 stars
Call me Marge Simpson cuz I love you homie
CaptainCrush
Profile Blog Joined November 2010
United States785 Posts
May 14 2012 15:05 GMT
#17
I liked torchlight but it got very repetitive, I hope this one branches out a bit. It was a good start but I wont be getting this one unless they have made some decent upgrades... and if Diablo 3 doesnt keep me busy for quite a while.

Little sad to already see some of the same units in there, like the rat guys and the skeletons... I realize that skeletons are a pretty generic and almost necessary foe for an action RPG, but they are the exact same animation
Yacobs
Profile Joined March 2010
United States846 Posts
May 14 2012 15:07 GMT
#18
Looks just as boring as the first game.
DCRed
Profile Joined May 2011
Finland435 Posts
May 14 2012 16:01 GMT
#19
News flash, ARPGs are very repetitive, yes, your second coming of Jesus Christ Diablo(Baal, Mephisto, all the Prime and Lesser Evils and Hell and Heaven together) 3 is an action rpg too and is by the nature very repetitive! Who'd have thought. Anyways Torchlight 1 was rushed out since they needed the money to make the game they wanted to(hint: the game has 2 on it) and indeed it wasn't the best possible ARPG we've seen but then again you could find it on sale for like 5e, not that bad.

Now Torchlight 2 is what the devs have focused a lot, it's been delayed for some time and now it's finally coming stronger than ever. There's this purist talk how it has old Diablo devs working on it so it must be better but to compare it to D3 I like to look at the real differences between games, shocking I know. I can't be the only one who finds themselves playing these kind of games every now and then for your quick skeleton bashing time investment and strangely enough I find this urge often when I don't have access to internet. Second, modding, lifeblood of PC games, reason why games +5 years old are still being played today is due to the game being available to modding. I played TL1 more than I probably should've but it's all thanks to the wonderful mods out there, and this is a very big reason for me why I'm personally more interested in a game which is also 40e cheaper. All things considered both games will no doubt be good at what they do and it's only a good thing we still have choices these days.

Oh yeah, the blog, nicely written but I do question on the sexual preferences on skeletons as I'd imagine they are not too big on boning anyone anytime soon..
Backpack
Profile Blog Joined March 2010
United States1776 Posts
May 14 2012 16:26 GMT
#20
Oh man, wait untill the "Diablo 3 is too cartoony!" people get their hands on this game.
"You people need to just generally care a lot less about everything." -Zatic
1 2 Next All
Please log in or register to reply.
Live Events Refresh
Next event in 5h 51m
[ Submit Event ]
Live Streams
Refresh
StarCraft 2
Livibee 138
ProTech43
StarCraft: Brood War
Nal_rA 4483
Sea 2876
Zeus 334
Sharp 210
Sexy 66
ToSsGirL 54
Noble 15
Britney 0
Dota 2
XaKoH 264
League of Legends
JimRising 730
Counter-Strike
Stewie2K570
Super Smash Bros
hungrybox660
Other Games
summit1g10890
shahzam880
Organizations
StarCraft: Brood War
UltimateBattle 68
Other Games
BasetradeTV32
StarCraft 2
Blizzard YouTube
StarCraft: Brood War
BSLTrovo
sctven
[ Show 15 non-featured ]
StarCraft 2
• practicex 70
• davetesta40
• AfreecaTV YouTube
• intothetv
• Kozan
• IndyKCrew
• LaughNgamezSOOP
• Migwel
• sooper7s
StarCraft: Brood War
• BSLYoutube
• STPLYoutube
• ZZZeroYoutube
Dota 2
• masondota2897
League of Legends
• Rush941
• Stunt481
Upcoming Events
Esports World Cup
5h 51m
Serral vs Cure
Solar vs Classic
OSC
8h 51m
CranKy Ducklings
1d 4h
BSL20 Non-Korean Champi…
1d 8h
CSO Cup
1d 10h
BSL20 Non-Korean Champi…
1d 12h
Bonyth vs Sziky
Dewalt vs Hawk
Hawk vs QiaoGege
Sziky vs Dewalt
Mihu vs Bonyth
Zhanhun vs QiaoGege
QiaoGege vs Fengzi
FEL
2 days
BSL20 Non-Korean Champi…
2 days
BSL20 Non-Korean Champi…
2 days
Bonyth vs Zhanhun
Dewalt vs Mihu
Hawk vs Sziky
Sziky vs QiaoGege
Mihu vs Hawk
Zhanhun vs Dewalt
Fengzi vs Bonyth
Sparkling Tuna Cup
4 days
[ Show More ]
Online Event
4 days
uThermal 2v2 Circuit
5 days
The PondCast
6 days
Replay Cast
6 days
Liquipedia Results

Completed

CSL Xiamen Invitational
Championship of Russia 2025
Murky Cup #2

Ongoing

Copa Latinoamericana 4
Jiahua Invitational
BSL20 Non-Korean Championship
Esports World Cup 2025
CC Div. A S7
Underdog Cup #2
IEM Cologne 2025
FISSURE Playground #1
BLAST.tv Austin Major 2025
ESL Impact League Season 7
IEM Dallas 2025
PGL Astana 2025
Asian Champions League '25

Upcoming

CSLPRO Last Chance 2025
ASL Season 20: Qualifier #1
ASL Season 20: Qualifier #2
ASL Season 20
CSLPRO Chat StarLAN 3
BSL Season 21
RSL Revival: Season 2
Maestros of the Game
SEL Season 2 Championship
uThermal 2v2 Main Event
FEL Cracov 2025
HCC Europe
ESL Pro League S22
StarSeries Fall 2025
FISSURE Playground #2
BLAST Open Fall 2025
BLAST Open Fall Qual
Esports World Cup 2025
BLAST Bounty Fall 2025
BLAST Bounty Fall Qual
TLPD

1. ByuN
2. TY
3. Dark
4. Solar
5. Stats
6. Nerchio
7. sOs
8. soO
9. INnoVation
10. Elazer
1. Rain
2. Flash
3. EffOrt
4. Last
5. Bisu
6. Soulkey
7. Mini
8. Sharp
Sidebar Settings...

Advertising | Privacy Policy | Terms Of Use | Contact Us

Original banner artwork: Jim Warren
The contents of this webpage are copyright © 2025 TLnet. All Rights Reserved.