Taking over where its popular forebear left off, Torchlight II is a downloadable action-adventure role-playing game with dungeon crawling elements ripped straight from Diablo and a story worthy of the moniker “Tolkien-esque.”
How to Download Torchlight II
You can download the game from either GOG.com or Steam. To begin, click on the Download button placed towards the end of this review.
The Game Review
Developed and published by Runic Games, 2012’s hack-and-slash masterpiece Torchlight II largely refines the first game’s features and introduces a few new twists of its own.
Similar to the first game, dungeons are randomly generated which means that no two playthroughs will be the same. You basically battle your way through these mazes and kill monsters for loot and experience. This is intermittently broken up by hub worlds and in-game narrative but dungeon crawling and slashing your way to better gear is at the core of Torchlight II.
The campaign in Torchlight II is much longer than the one in Torchlight. As such, the game features more content in the form of hub worlds and places to interact with non-player characters. Players who felt like Diablo 3 was lacking in this area will be thrilled with Torchlight II’s amount of content. And those of us who enjoy a really epic role-playing game will also find a lot to love.
In its simplest form, Torchlight II is everything a good sequel should be: More of all that works, less of that which doesn’t.
The basic user interface is completely different from the original game but, overall, the same rules apply here in Torchlight II.
The in-game world, however, has come a long way since the first game. Now it features day and night cycles as well as weather effects. This imbues the world with a new level of immersive realism that isn’t necessary but certainly welcomed.
Players are able to customize their character’s appearance and pets make a return appearance from the first game. Classes, a mainstay of role-playing games, make their expected appearance and offer hidden opportunities for further playthroughs. The game even added a “New Game Plus” mode for those players that finish the game, extending the content that much further.
Portrayed from an isometric perspective as is common in this genre, Torchlight II’s graphics are bright and detailed but not overtly cartoonish or dismal as in Path of Exile. There’s really nothing to complain about in the graphics department but if one thing had to be said it could be criticized for not making much of a leap beyond the first game. The audio department more than makes up for this deficiency with a soundtrack that is appropriately epic and sound effects that are visceral and atmospheric.
