It’s a nice way of making progression feel a little more organic but doesn’t feel quite personal enough, with a lot of useless stuff and not much room. This town system sees each character have their own little fort where they can use in-game items to build stalls, decorations and important crafting stations. It does implement a town creation tool that gives you the option to respec your character and things of that nature, but it fails to be interesting rather quickly. It can be fun initially but the lack of challenge and diverse missions leaves everything feeling rather stale. They rarely offer incentives other than pummeling bad guys until the next batch decide to show up. You constantly feel like you are chasing a quest marker and not the quest itself. From here, you move to the next area, move back to the first, move back again, clear out a mine and repeat. You pummel the boss with little effort and move onwards. After getting off a boat and picking your character, you wander forward until meeting a boss. This is apparent from the first moments of Torchlight III. Most items offer a basic stat difference but won’t majorly change your build.
You won’t care majorly about missions and will most likely continue on just to upgrade your character and see where they end up.
This leaves the basic gameplay loop to be a little bit dull. This is changed somewhat with items, but even they don’t offer drastic differences. Unlike other ARPGs, end game characters in Torchlight feel very similar, almost closer to a MOBA in their strict hero setup. After picking your class and relic, and extra little skill tree, you feel like you’re on the main path for most of the game. This is a needed addition as your class tends to feel a little rigid. They don’t do too much but they do add a slight bit more to general customization. These can be an owl, a dog, or multiple extra unlockables. The train companion is one of my favourite parts of Torchlight III having a small battle train following you, fully equipped with a tiny gun, is always a pleasure.Īs well as picking your class, you have a choice of companion that can be upgraded with auras, buffs and combat abilities. They all favour in different styles, with the Forged being a mechanical being adept in both short and long range combat, the Dusk Mage being of the magical type with a mid-range attack, the Sharpshooter holding a rifle and range abilities, and the Railmaster with a train companion. After the minute or so of introduction, you are allowed to pick one of four classes and three companions, from the Dusk Mage, the Forged, the Railmaster or the Sharpshooter.
Luckily, Torchlight has never really been that kind of game. Whilst the narrative does twist somewhat throughout your time, you probably shouldn’t expect a story that will shock you. That is pretty much the entirety of the story in Torchlight III. Taking place after the events of Torchlight II, the world of Novastria is under attack by an ancient evil and only you (and three friends) can deal with it.