I recently finished Torchlight. I made multiple attempts getting into in the past. Somehow, it never really griped me, even though I enjoyed Diablo a great deal. The other day, all the Diablo 3 talk left me craving for some good old comfort gaming. It was the perfect storm for me to get into Torchlight.
I blame my reluctance to the beginning section of the game. For example, Torchlight has a quite confusing village layout. Whose idea was to let you enter the village right next to the most obscure vendors? The first person you talk to offers the service of combining items. The next guy offers you item enchantments. And none of this actually works before you enter the dungeon. Why even having those people around then? All I want to to get some healing items and basic gear
The actual entrance to the Torchlight mine, the main dungeon, is quite confusing too. You just walk left through some murky geometry and suddenly you are in it. It’s just nowhere near as iconic and poignant as the entrance to the old church of Tristram.
Which way to the eternal evil? The entrance to the Ember Mine is pretty much illegible (it’s on the left).
Clear layout. Foreboding lighting. This is how you start an adventure.
Things are made even worse by the confusing introduction to the story. At the entrance, you right into a battle between some dudes and some monsters. You have no idea what is going on and which side you are on. Eventually you muddle trough and you are rewarded with a conversation between two of the characters. Something about Syl, Brink, Master Alric, Monsters… One of them runs away. Who are these people and why should I care?
Torchlight is just uninviting at first. The beginning is a major letdown that prevented me from getting into the game numerous times. And it has a lasting effect, too. So later, when the plot twist and betrayals occur, you don’t give a rat’s shit anymore. But luckily at that point, you have all the loot and dungeon crawling to keep you interested. Still, it sells the effort put into the charming cartoony steam-punk world way too short. And that’s a shame because there is a lot to like once you get over that initial hurdle.
horrible review
“Torchlight has a quite confusing village layout. Whose idea was to let you enter the village right next to the most obscure vendors? ”
because this makes you wander around and explore the village ?
because it puts the most useful vendors near the dungeon entrance and portal ?
if the most useful vendors were near the town entrance then every time I took a portal back to town I’d have to run through town back to the town entrance. That’s not far, but it is a pain and a waste of time (as anyone who played Act 2 of D2 knows)
“The actual entrance to the Torchlight mine, the main dungeon, is quite confusing too. You just walk left through some murky geometry and suddenly you are in it.”
Wrong and misleading.
You actually say later that there is a battle you join in the beginning of the game. So that’s a bit of a correction on your part, but you make it sound as if “you just walk and there you are” and that’s not true at all.
You see a battle. You see monsters escape down into the mine. You are instructed to follow them. So its not “you just walk and there you are”.
As for “who are these people and why should I care”, that can be said about any game.
Finding out “who are these people and why should I care” can be part of the process that makes a game great.
In many games you start off knowing very little, but through gameplay and NPC interaction you discover the plot and story. Its the unfolding story that makes the game interesting.
Granted, Torchlight was very short on story and lore, but “who are these people and why should I care” could also be said about the beginning of any of the Elder Scrolls games.
Really, your whole review was quite bad.
Regarding the first battle you say, “Eventually you muddle trough and you are rewarded with a conversation between two of the characters. ”
You use the words “eventually” and “muddle through” as if this battle is long, detailed process, when it actually only takes a few seconds and there is no muddling. You fight. You’re instructed where to go next. And that’s it. The whole things lasts about six seconds.
Torchlight had quite a few problems, but you didn’t touch on any of them. The review was quite shallow and in many places misleading.
You are off to a bad start yourself, buddy. What made you think this was a review?
That argument could be used to justify anything. In reality a confusing layout doesn’t encourage exploration, on the contrary.
I’m talking about how the player enters the village for the first time. I haven’t criticized the portal placements. It’s irrelevant in context of the introduction.
The entrance is bad at communicating visually that it is an entrance. For me it was surprising when I walked left to that crossroads and suddenly the dungeon started. The mine is perhaps the most important place in the game. Dramatically, they completely dropped the ball on it. I’m kinda surprised that you think I need elaborate this.
That description is meaningless, because it applies by definition to every story. At first you know nothing. Later on, you discover backstory. This is by necessity true. But it’s not what makes a story great. New characters need also some hook, something that makes the audience care about them even when they know very little about them. Movies use various techniques to do that. Torchlight successfully avoids all of them. In fact, it does the contrary. The first thing you hear from the characters is “Help or stay out of the way!”. Bossing people around is a good way not to make any friends. If you want to learn more about how movies enable and don’t enable empathy, I recommend the following video to get you started:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FxKtZmQgxrI
I’m sorry I poo pooed on your game. But clearly, you were looking for something else entirely. But thanks for commenting anyway. It seems like there really on this. I might write a more detailed, step by step article in the future.