WOW Torchlight is identical to Diablo!

[Molondo]

Time to play TL. I still can't believe Matt Uelmen is posting here. Tristram was brilliant!

 

[gorcorps]

LOL @ how the total bullshit was called out by Matt himself. I know he's too nice to think of it this way, but this will go to the ownage of the year nominations I'm sure.

 

[Locut0s]

LOL @ how the total bullshit was called out by Matt himself. I know he's too nice to think of it this way, but this will go to the ownage of the year nominations I'm sure.

How is this ownage in any way? Matt simply replies to clarify a few issues that people had wrong.

 

[ScorcherDarkly]

Well that was wonderfully entertaining. Thank you Mr. Uelmen for posting.

 

[Zenoth]

How is this ownage in any way? Matt simply replies to clarify a few issues that people had wrong.

That I had wrong, you mean. And I certainly don't feel bad in admitting it, I should have made more research instead of trying to remember something I clearly didn't recalled correctly, all-in-all it served me a superb lesson that I'm not ready to forget about and will put in practice more often. And that Mr. Uelmen in person came here to chat with us at the same time is for me along with many others a true honor.

 

[Aikouka]

Torchlight is actually a pretty decent game overall, but that depends on how you set your expectations (especially if said expectations include multi-player ).

I think one of the better aspects of it include the large amount of players creating mods for the game. I haven't paid as much attention to a few of the mods recently, but there were some fantastic new character classes created last time I looked with their own custom animations and such.

 

[duragezic]

It's a great game, especially at the price during some of the sales. And the fact that it was created in like 10 months is amazing.

Not having multiplayer is obviously a problem for a lot of people, but I think it made sense to do it that way. And they released it with the editor that they basically so you can mod just about everything. Mods definitely add some replayability which a lot of people seem to ignore. Probably some of the same people who slam games with no mod support even though they don't play them anyway.

 

[Wardawg1001]

I enjoyed it for a little while. Gameplay got old quick though, I couldn't even make it through the first play through. I ended up doing a bunch of the extra dungeons that you can access through those special maps or whatever. Anyway I ended up way over-leveled pretty quickly and got tired of how cheesy it was to blow shit up with no problem with my exploding arrows or whatever they were.

 

[Raduque]

All you guys bitching about no multiplayer, it was held back because the company that made Torchlight is also developing a "MMO"/persistent world game based on TL.

 

[Anubis]

i purchased it last night when i got home from work, played for about 4 hours, very fun and yes its very much like diablo, good time are being had

 

[secretanchitman]

The soundtrack alone is worth paying for it, composed by none other than Matt Uelmen, the original composer for Diablo, Diablo II, StarCraft, DII: LoD, WoW, and Diablo 3 as well, although he ain't alone for D3's soundtrack this time around, if you want a preview of the music in D3 that is indeed from him you need to search for the original D3 game-play showing the Barbarian that was released about two years ago I believe, in which a rep from Blizzard describes the character and the skills as the video plays, the music you hear in the background was composed specifically for that trailer by Matt Uelmen.

There, found the trailer/demo in question: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=byy723gTSQQ

That's the first part out of two, just listen to the music in the background, the main part plays until the point at which the rep starts talking. And, of course outside of the soundtrack Torchlight has a lot in common with Diablo II which is a given due to the team, but it's certainly not as good as Diablo II itself that's for sure, but if Torchlight had multi-player it would have been the definitive Diablo II "replacement" in the meantime until D3 comes out, but honestly even if Torchlight would have had more... say... reputation (let's put it this way) it would have been crushed by D3 upon day one of its release, and I think that Runic Games know that all too well to risk it with multi-player, but if they still do it (because I believe that they do still consider it) then they have some serious balls.

i thought matt uelmen wasnt confirmed to come back to diablo 3...but if he is, fantastic, because i definitely want the tristram theme back!

back on topic, torchlight is basically a tweaked version of diablo, and its a good thing. ive played all the clones like titan quest, but it definitely doesnt compare to torchlight. i especially like the fact that you can send your pet to down to sell stuff and have it come back to you within minutes.

the ONLY problem that i saw with the game? the lack of multiplayer. i know they said that an mmo was coming out, but i just want some good old-fashioned multiplayer like diablo 1/2.

 

[zinfamous]

If it were identical in gameplay it would be pretty fun at least, but I think they cloned all the wrong parts unfortunately; I want my $4 back.

ROFL!

but actually, it's a clone of Fate, which is a clone of Diablo....

I picked it up for 5 bucks, too. got to maybe level 30something? with a caster mage thingy and haven't picked it up in a few weeks. shit like this gets way too redundant.

...then I picked up the Titan's Quest deal from DoD from a week or two ago...kinda the same redundancy. Still playing it, though.

 

[zinfamous]

I enjoyed it for a little while. Gameplay got old quick though, I couldn't even make it through the first play through. I ended up doing a bunch of the extra dungeons that you can access through those special maps or whatever. Anyway I ended up way over-leveled pretty quickly and got tired of how cheesy it was to blow shit up with no problem with my exploding arrows or whatever they were.

yeah, my "Orbital Energy Ray Doom Cannon" spell mops up everything way too quick. :\

 

[Borealis7]

Torchlight isn't identical to Diablo, its 1:1 IDENTICAL to Fate, which is a Diablo clone.

 

[kalrith]

Has anyone played both Titan Quest and Torchlight? I'm wondering how they compare. I've been enjoying TQ and might have to pick up Torchlight once I'm done.

 

[zinfamous]

Has anyone played both Titan Quest and Torchlight? I'm wondering how they compare. I've been enjoying TQ and might have to pick up Torchlight once I'm done.

waaay more redundant, and easier to overpower than TQ. I'm actually playing through TQ right now.

 

[kalrith]

waaay more redundant, and easier to overpower than TQ. I'm actually playing through TQ right now.

That's good to know. I've really enjoyed TQ. It "fixed" most of the issues I had with Diablo 2, and even inserted a decent story line in there. The graphics are obviously a nice improvement, and the dual-class aspect makes for many more character combinations.

 

[AyashiKaibutsu]

Yea, I like Titan Quest better. Torchlight isn't bad for mucking around sometimes though.

I always thought Warcraft II's soundtrack was the best Blizzard put out, but everything after that has been quality too.

 

[Wyndru]

I think I bought it off of steam for $20 which left me a bit sour when I ripped through it so quick, and before I was done playing it there was the holiday 5$ sale.

 

[tk149]

Hey all,

I never respond directly to discussions like this for a few reasons, but wanted to correct this statement, just because it involves recent material and I wouldn't want to claim the hard work of other talented people as my own.

I left Blizzard as of the release of "Burning Crusade" in January 2007, and had nothing to do with the creation of that track, which was released over 17 months later. Also, calling me the "composer of WoW" is a bit off, that title has had at least ten composers, and you aren't likely to hear more than a tiny bit of my music until you reach Outland, which is after at least a thousand or so hours of play, if not much more than that. The interview I did with Shacknews can be easily found if you google my name, I recommend it if you find my work interesting for whatever reason.

And, just to be clear, even though I haven't been involved with the production of Diablo 3 for well over three years, doesn't mean that I'm not looking forward to it as much as anyone, especially the work from the consistently excellent sound and music team.

Hopefully those who found TL lacking in any way will enjoy the future efforts of our team, I know I am enjoying creating it!

Sir, I love your work. I can "hear" Diablo music in my head as I type this.

 

[M0oG0oGaiPan]

Pretty awesome how the guy you were talking about pops in the thread.

 

[zinfamous]

Pretty awesome how the guy you were talking about pops in the thread.

awesomer than when this happened?

http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=231560&highlight=

D:

 

[skace]

Torchlight lacks more gotcha moments. The devs need to play more nethack and realize that the best things for hack and slash are to be thrown into situations that are heavily against your favor.

Torchlight is more like... a very steady incline. Almost too steady. Granted I can't say I played it forever, in fact I can't recall what level my character is. I also think the skill system needs more work, I like when a skill system has so many good skills that you can't decide which one to use. WoW's talent system was this way. Lots of roguelikes are this way.

But yes, the music is excellent.

 

[MJinZ]

lol I actually only played Diablo I and II single player.

Uh, wow. The whole point of Diablo II was multiplayer. Windforces, Stone of Jordans, teleporting Necromancers, building epic dueling builds, harvesting runes...

That was the whole fun of it.

 

[MJinZ]

Thanks, though you are much too kind, hundreds of thousands of musicians could have had a career like mine and made music which was even better, I was just lucky enough to run into David Brevik and the Schaefer brothers when I was a clueless 21-year-old.

Maybe you're thinking of Original Sound Version instead of VirtualSoundVersion?

That track does seem to reference a few Diablo themes, and does it in a fun, exciting way, but I didn't sign off on it, nor would I want to claim the hard work behind it. I believe that track was written by Russell Brower and performed by Eminence Symphony Orchestra, though I can't officially state that, other people may well have been involved.

I'm in touch with people at Blizzard all the time, I consider many of them good friends. The Shacknews interview has a discussion of this.

I'm glad you liked the "Palace" track and town in TL, those are probably my favorite two tracks from the game, as well. Hopefully the greater development time we have on our current and future projects means a more satisfying product in terms of many elements of the game, including the soundtrack.

I should probably stop here - I'm not a PR guy and don't want to get in the habit of posts like this, it's just a matter of time before I either spill unreleased stuff or say something inadvertently offensive.

Thanks!

I love great music, but here's a tip you can pass onto the devs on your team:

1) Find everything lacking in your game that Diablo II had - like Multiplayer!

2) Do it just as well or do it better

And people will actually buy your game!

I would also have to say that artistic and design direction is very important. Look at how the new D3 Wizard and Monk are shaping up, please do not make us play green goblins and purple monkey heroes!