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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]](http://i.imgur.com/gZ73o.png)
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]](http://i.imgur.com/XbF8d.png)
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]](http://i.imgur.com/q5v3s.png)
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]](http://i.imgur.com/11FTC.png)
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]](http://i.imgur.com/uq3VA.png)
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]](http://i.imgur.com/okcz7.png)
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]](http://i.imgur.com/IzYKE.png)
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]](http://i.imgur.com/inOnc.png)
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]](http://i.imgur.com/uEMCi.png)
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]](http://i.imgur.com/s8GGy.png)
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]](http://i.imgur.com/7PcPQ.png)
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]](http://i.imgur.com/p7m9E.png)
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]](http://i.imgur.com/llHIc.png)
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]](http://i.imgur.com/sEDO8.png)
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.
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.
 
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Very nice blog  , if Diablo 3 wasn't coming out this would be my definite game of choice.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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Very well written story! Had me hooked  The game itself looks very promising. Well done!
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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.
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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.
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I have played torchlight 1 and i really dislike it... really boring game after 10 floors -.-
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Hilarious and informative. Thanks!
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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?!
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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
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wow this game looks so much worse than D3. Unfortunate they came out so close together, or i might have given it a try.
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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.
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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
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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 
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Looks just as boring as the first game.
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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..
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Oh man, wait untill the "Diablo 3 is too cartoony!" people get their hands on this game.
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Great blog, thanks. Would've loved to play Torchlight 2 back half a year ago. If the time allows it i'll play it after i got bored by D3.
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On May 14 2012 16:13 Valentir wrote:Show nested quote +On May 14 2012 15:50 surfinbird1 wrote: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.
Kind of like the classic BW vs SC2?
About the game: Seems like the style is very TF2 cartoony (which is cool I guess), but I will be playing the shit out of D3 instead
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here's my first line of thought reading the title of this thread:
torchlight -> flashlight -> fleshlight
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Pretty fat blog you have here.
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I actually loved Torchlight 1. It was so so so much fun. I didn't realize they were making a Torchlight 2, but honestly, I only bought Torchlight 1 as a stand-in for my Diablo cravings. Now that D3 is out, I'm not sure if I'll ever pick up Torchlight 2. But you never know. It looks so good, love the cartoon-y feel to it. Thanks for sharing!
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OP has epic skills in narrating his gaming experience. Enjoyed reading all his previous pieces of art.
Great blog for probably my fav game of 2012!! Sorry Diablo 3...
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Is it really good? I feel like this is one of those games that is good but is underdeveloped and under-appreciated.
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d3 isnt too cartoony its too colorful... luckily we got ppl who already made a mod that makes it "less colorful" in turn making the game a lot nicer.
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torchlight is the 2nd best diablo copy. the first best was Titan Quest. i sometimes even though i prefer titan quest over diablo, but titan quest gets boring faster (approx 2 months - diablo holds for years^^).
so sad there will never be titan quest 2 most likely - but hell, i have diablo 3 now :D
so ye... i will buy torchlight 2 and probably spend 20ish hours on it, thats it.
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I will change a torchlight II beta key for the ongoing beta weekend (till tuesday) in exchange for a diablo III trial key.
contact me via PM if interested...
User was warned for this post
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Ghin Ghin Ghin! Do a D3 blog! Or just a small review or something.
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Had great fun with Torchlight 1, this one looks great too, glad there is multiplayer in it
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EPT
