I like it, yeah - and think it is a solid game showing a decent evolution that beings together Baldree and his Fate stuff with some of the design and polish from the guys who did Hellgate (former Blizzard folks). I am not trying to be a PITA, but I have a bit of knee-jerk leftover from 2005 where it seemed that hordes of folks who never played Fate were pounding on it for what amounted to it being to 'casual friendly' and not 'dark & gritty' enough.
Way I look at it is this - it is extremely good at being exactly what it tries to do, which is much more than the vast majority of games manage these days. I encourage all to check it out - especially now on sale at $5 - and see if you like what it is trying to do … it is not for everyone … and not really close to my favorite sort of game.
OK, I guess I can see that, but still it seems that EVERY commenter/reviewer/etc is going WAY out of their way to make ANY sort of omparison between Fate & Torchlight when they're so damned similar.
I have yet to see a single review that mention Fate in a Torchlight review. It's just eerie.
Yes, I did enjoy playing Fate, and now play Torchlight but there is no way in hell I'm giving these guys any sort of props for originality since there is ZERO. I mean I see the same freaking monster models, hear the same sound effects, etc. I can't help but wonder if Wild Tangent isn't a funder of Runic games or if the models/effects were generically licensed packages(likely). The gameplay is identical, but Torchlight is more "accessible" to the masses as it's available digitally from more than a single source and apparently will soon have a retail package with a new pet skin(ferret).
but beyond the cosmetics, retail games like Divine Divinity that had a nice story, Dungeon Lords that tried to make character classes MUCH more complex, Titan Quest that made character classes more complex(and succeeded), etc. just make me happier than drooling reviewer over some underdog that quite frankly is beating a dead horse. Hell even Hinterlands brought more to the table even if it was even shallower in the end.
As to longevity, FFS I still play Angband, ADOM, and TOME, and likelly will long past when Torchlight/etc. are dim memories.
Bottom line here, don't get that knee jerfk casual ARPG response, becaue quite frankly that exactly what Fate was and Torchlight is. Just be happy that they're as successful as they are and maybe someday we'll get a Dungeon Lords that works/is completed as designed, speaking from a complexity point. Hell, I'll bet that Fate/Torchlight sell/sold more than Titan Quest which is good/bad. (I LIKED TQ because it expanded the typical idiot ARPG character classes, which is also why I REALLY like the idea of Dungeon Lords and as much as it ever did work. I also REALLY like RANDOM dungeons, but I also like to have more than just a random dungeon… if that's all I want I'll play Angband and get the best of all worlds exepting gfx.)
[EDIT=day(s) later]
I hate to say it but I was playing Torchlight today and noticed yet another striking similarity, the same ----ing voice speaking the identical ----ing lines about quests, etc.
I'm getting more and more disgusted with current criticism of Torchlight and ALL of the review focus on the dipshits that "created" Diablowz rather than the REAL motivator of the game.
On that note, I'll post another dfifference, QUESTS, so far up to L15 I can only pick up one extra quest while in FATE I could have 3 going for a floor. In Torchlight I get a main "story" quest + what I guess to be a main story ancillary QUEST forced on my character. This leaves the "bard" giving the generic Fate quests along with another character that gives dungeon specific quests with a tele to the "dungeon, yet they've ALWAYS had the same boring tilesets as the current MQ dungeon levels.
I ROFLMAO every time I see the 84 score for the game in my Steam account, giving it a 40% at best myself IMNHO, and if I was a really and truly evil bastard -40% for over re-use of Fate assetts, and another -100% for attempting to bank on Diablo guys. (Sorry I never really liked Diablo. It was just too chimp for me.)
[/EDIT]