Torchlight 2, My Impressions... (updated: 5/10/12 with Final Impressions)

[Zebo]

Ditto!

Frustration/Anger/Rage outweighs joy - i am not playing D3 to get pissed off constantly.

(Play a little through Inferono, die 6 times in a row to chained elites to get a lvl 54 drop..you get the idea. No other game can be as idiotic. RMAH can kiss my ass because there will be other games out there). And the Panda WoW extension can kiss my ass too, just as a side-note.

The drops are disgustingly random, always what you dont need, throughout game. The so called legends are worse than blues let alone yellows. The game forces you to use auction house to proceed which I do not enjoy. Do not enjoy both pricing my items to be able to afford a good item. And hunting for good deals on a okay item. Anyway I hit a brick wall at inferno too and it's quite obvious they want you spending 100's or millions in gold or $2000 to proceed. TL2 and GD won't play that. Game is yours and grinding will yield good items.

If you even need items to proceed unlike DAH3 which is a 100% item based game as opposed to stats, skill and items in the past. You could run naked in D2 and TL quite far with good skill and stats.

 

[Aikouka]

I was listening to a video with Schaeffer in it, and they were talking about how much easier modding should be with Torchlight II. Here's two things I'd like to see:

1) Modified action bars: Like World of Warcraft, I want to stack my bars on top of each other, and bind them accordingly (modifier + number). Frankly, I don't know anyone that ever uses a keybind past 6, and I'm only reliable up to 5.

2) Adjustable Map Positions: The map can be repositioned; however, there are too many options. I want to be able to say "I only want large-center and mini-map" and it will toggle between those two.

#1 is more desirable as you get higher in levels and have more abilities or learnable spells.

#2 was my greatest irritation during the beta. I'd swap the map to the middle and then have to mash the map button 3 or so more times to get it back to the top right corner.

 

[Ashenor]

I hit the same wall in D3, i was on inferno and farming it the first week. Being a DH any bow upgrade was literally 15 million plus for what i needed. Made it to act 4 and still only had 25k dmg no where near the 50k or so you need to be able to do anything somewhat easily. I was not finding decent stuff to sell, could not afford the upgrades i need to progress, have not play in like 2.5 weeks.

 

[darkewaffle]

Loot is the same in pretty much every ARPG. D1, D2, D3, TL, Divine Divinity, Sacred, Dungeon Siege, etc. It works on a bell curve, so almost everything you find is average and probably not very useful with a small portion falling to the left and right side turning into utter garbage and genuinely good. There's nothing new in D3 about this, the only difference is the AH is now there to show you what you could be wearing if you somehow managed to get one of those 'genuinely good' drops for each slot; which is decidedly unnecessary (and mathematically unrealistic) given how lax the gear check is and how passive the AI is until Inferno [A2].

Which is supposed to be a wall and a major gear check, Inferno that is. Ultimately the entire genre comes down to 'farming', I don't think that giving you a compelling reason to farm (progress over 'Everest') beyond simply "my gear is better than yours" (a la D2) is a bad thing. I like that after so much time played already there's still more I want to do and want to be able to do; whereas in D2 and TL once I beat the campaign I felt like there was nothing to do because nothing really got harder from that point.

 

[shortylickens]

OK, dual wands arent nearly as nice as I thought they'd be. They alternate attack so your DPS is just an average of the two, which is never as good as the best one, obviously.
Best thing it to use one wand plus a shield. Add sockets and put in gems for the elements you are missing. Like use an ice/lit wand and then throw in two gems of fire for those enemies that need a good burning. Ditto the pistols.
I have no idea if dual melee is faster since I aint tried that yet.

 

[Ashenor]

I heard some rumors that there was hacked beta versions still out there. Anyone playing those? I did not get a chance to beat the beta.

 

[HardcoreRobot]

I hit the same wall in D3, i was on inferno and farming it the first week. Being a DH any bow upgrade was literally 15 million plus for what i needed. Made it to act 4 and still only had 25k dmg no where near the 50k or so you need to be able to do anything somewhat easily. I was not finding decent stuff to sell, could not afford the upgrades i need to progress, have not play in like 2.5 weeks.

blizzard will be happy to correct that issue for you, for a small fee of course

 

[Ashenor]

blizzard will be happy to correct that issue for you, for a small fee of course

Hah ya i am sure they will .

I just hope TL2 comes out by the end of next month, then Borderlands in Sept, so some decent stuff to look forward, and maybe some Grim Dawn Alpha by the end of year.

 

[Aikouka]

There was another good tidbit that I heard from Schaeffer during the Totalbiscuit E3 session: they're adjusting the way talents level. After so many points (I assume each 5), the talent will start providing more bonuses/effects. An example could be that a passive that just provided +crit will also provide +hit when you get 5 out of 15 points in it.

Loot is the same in pretty much every ARPG. D1, D2, D3, TL, Divine Divinity, Sacred, Dungeon Siege, etc. It works on a bell curve, so almost everything you find is average and probably not very useful with a small portion falling to the left and right side turning into utter garbage and genuinely good.

Except in Torchlight II, the gear that drops is at least around your level. It wasn't uncommon for me to get gear (in the beta) that I couldn't even use yet, and that included both the attribute and level restriction (note: you only have to meet one of them). In Diablo III, most of the gear that I get is just not worth it. Even if the item is good, it's too low level for it to be worthwhile. As a note, I am still leveling in the game, and I'm probably slightly over-leveled. However, if you dropped me a few levels, the drops would still be 4-5 levels below me.

Plus... Torchlight II has Purply Healing Wolf Dash of Awesomeness.

 

[Ashenor]

How long is TL1? I have played it a few times but never finished it. Maybe i will go back and restart and beat it now.

 

[DaveSimmons]

OK, dual wands arent nearly as nice as I thought they'd be. They alternate attack so your DPS is just an average of the two, which is never as good as the best one, obviously.
Best thing it to use one wand plus a shield. Add sockets and put in gems for the elements you are missing. Like use an ice/lit wand and then throw in two gems of fire for those enemies that need a good burning. Ditto the pistols.
I have no idea if dual melee is faster since I aint tried that yet.

TL 1 or 2-beta? Do you have the dual wielding skill leveled up?

In TL 1 I had a wand-user and once I had a level or two of dual wielding a second wand did do much better DPS than wand + shield.

 

[Aikouka]

Runic posted a blurb with some post-beta changes:

http://www.torchlight2game.com/news/2012/06/21/post-beta-changes-and-updates/

• Re-worked the character skill pane arrangements to allow finer distribution of skills without being arranged in the classic 'tree' style. Passive skills are separated and unlock for investment much earlier.
• Skills now get additional bonuses at ranks 5, 10 and 15 to reward increased investments.
• Lots of individual skill tweaks and balances.
• Torchlight I (Diablo 2 style) function-key skill binds are implemented
• Skills can now be 'queued' and will execute when the previous attack or skill completes
• Ping meter next to each party portrait so you can identify players with latency issues
• Loads of bug fixes
• Respec is now available throughout the game, and will allow you to respec any of the last three points spent for gold.
• Fullscreen Windowed mode added
• Additional connectivity fixes
• Enchantment effects are now identifiable separate from standard effects in tooltips
• Sorting button for player inventories
• Merchant inventories are sorted by default
• Map opacity now adjustable
• Skill sets now swap with weaponsets
• Tentative functionality for 'sniffing' cheaters so that you can block them.
• Continued work on the finalizing the other acts
• Improved some lackluster unique items identified by beta testers.
• Increased the amount of health and mana 'stealing' weapons.
• Improved the rollover information on equipment to provide more and clearer information.

 

[vmarkx3]

some German game websites are proclaiming Aug 28th 2012 release date for TL2

guess thats technically summer, was hoping for end of June or at least July release but I guess they need to polish the game up still

 

[Ashenor]

Ya i was really hoping for a July release, the 28th of August is to close to Borderlands 2 gah!

 

[georgec84]

I just might bite on this. Seems like such a better game than Diablo 3.

 

[AMDZen]

some German game websites are proclaiming Aug 28th 2012 release date for TL2

guess thats technically summer, was hoping for end of June or at least July release but I guess they need to polish the game up still

Why isn't there an official release date this close? Seems odd

 

[Worthington]

If that's true.. ouch. That's the same day that Guild Wars 2 releases.

 

[Ashenor]

Ya here is hoping for a release well before GW2.

Would be nice for TL2, GW2, and BL2 to all be spaced out some.

 

[terry107]

An interesting infographic comparing the original and sequel was posted on the Torchlight website. They need to release this damn game already!

 

[AMDZen]

they need to release this damn game already![/img]

rawrrrr!!! This!!!

 

[Molondo]

I'm so looking forward to this. D3 was a major disappointment for me.

 

[nyker96]

just when I'm getting bored of D3, maybe will chk this out.

 

[AMDZen]

WTFDTMFPOSGCTFOA?? ISCTOAWTF?

caps

 

[Borealis7]

is there an option to start the game on Hard difficulty? or you have to unlock it like Diablo?
TL1 was FAR too easy (same as the Fate games TBH)

 

[The_Golden_Man]

Is Torchlight II similar to Diablo 3? Looking at pictures at Steam right now.. Looks very similar.

Is it singleplayer only?