The great Torchlight II crew has let us in on their beta. Even better, there is no NDA for the game.
So far our experience has been what we expected: Mostly the same game, just better and more of it. There are more enemies and character options. A slew of new quests to check out, etc. So far the netplay has also been pretty good, although there are hiccups like in any beta.
Even the early environments look really good, with lakes and rolling hills. There are all-new particle effects for many attacks. So the game is looking good on that level.
The game maintains simple interfaces for controlling your character. Useful hotkeys are back, and you can drink your best potion or use an item with a simple press of a button. Everything controls extremely well, and the game runs smoothly even when playing online. We also noticed that they have some interesting settings in the options, such as changing the amount of text displayed. Combat can get a bit confusing with a lot of players throwing out abilities, so you can just cut off the pop-ups if it is too much for you.
Torchlight II and Old School Potion Use
We have seen mixed reviews for the potion system in this game. Overall, we like it, but probably partially because we enjoyed Diablo 2 so much. It really takes us back to when we used to fight Diablo and chug them down.
The #1 Reason this Beta is Good
It doesn’t treat you like an idiot. You are given the gameplay mechanics early on. Torchlight II doesn’t baby you, as well it shouldn’t. Too many games do that already. Torchlight II still isn’t very hard for hardcore players, but then that is what the highest difficulty is for. It is nice to see a game that does not automatically assume that players are stupid. Be sure to check out their main site and our site for more info.
