Torchlight III Reviews
The gameplay design of Torchlight III is fun and motivating, but it has some deeper flaws that need to be addressed. Players must have a balance of difficulty and challenge. Giving players too much advantage at the beginning and overpowering them will not benefit the longevity of the game. If you need proof, go look at Bungie's Destiny 2, which is struggling to maintain challenging content, while believing that making players 'grind' for shoddy rewards is the right solution for the issue. Finding that balance of building up a character properly and delivering difficulty and challenging enemies along the way is what other action RPGs, like Diablo, classics. Echtra Games did a great job with the initial groundwork of Torchlight III's gameplay design, but it needs a bit more balance in some backend areas.
There isn't much for me to love or hate here. Torchlight III is a slow burn, one that struggles to stand out like its predecessors did back when this genre wasn't nearly as stacked with great competitors.
Torchlight III doesn't bring anything new to the looter dungeon crawler and that's okay.
A simple and no-frills action/RPG that ticks all the boxes, so you can keep clicking the monsters.
If you are new to the Torchlight franchise then Torchlight III is an excellent jumping on point. At $30 it's a great binge game to play with friends while we all wait on the next-gen onslaught that's just around the corner. But, if you're a hardcore ARPG fan looking for something deeper then you may be better served elsewhere, namely by Torchlight II.
This is the same old Torchlight, but somewhat diminished. Classes are full of character and lots of fun to play, while Relic abilities encourage experimentation and significantly change combat. However, there's nothing especially new or exciting about this third instalment.
Deep down, Torchlight III could be a great game. If the developers revamp the map and UI issues I pointed out I'd be over the moon. But in its current state I can't in good conscious tell you to pay full asking price. Hold off until this is either patched or on sale.
Overall, I have to say Torchlight III is in an ok-ish place right now. Torchlight III has the potential to be a great ARPG like Diablo III or Path of Exile, but right now it does need a bit more polish.
Everything Torchlight III does, it does worse than one of its contemporaries. Primarily Diablo. While what is here looks good and plays fine, it's repetitive and lacks the magic of games it shares a genre with. But all of that could've been forgiven if it had at least allowed me to suffer through it with a friend in local multiplayer, but it couldn't even do that. If you get the urge to play Torchlight III, just play Diablo III instead.
Torchlight 3 will scratch any basic RPG itch for adventure, loot, and fantasy, but even with a heckin' doggo sidekick at its side, it feels a bit too old-fashioned to stand out from the rest of the pack.
Torchlight is a beloved dungeon-crawler that has carved out a place in the competitive genre. With a bright art style and story, it stands apart from its edgier cousins like Diablo and Path of Exile. The good news is that Torchlight 3 carries that torch very well, however, there is a regrettable shallowness to the game that fails to live up to its predecessors… and much of the answer seems to lie within the development of the game.
Though the experience is hampered by bugs, glitches, and a few design issues, the snappy and moreish combat, the treasure trove of stats and skills, and the delightfully chaotic co-op play make Torchlight 3 a must-have for anyone looking for more ARPG goodness.
Torchlight III is a lighthearted, simple co-op ARPG that might provide some fun to casual ARPG players or serious fans of the series, but doesn't do much else to justify its existence.
Torchlight III feels an awful lot like what it is: a free-to-play multiplayer game that thought better of itself, and decided to become a proper full-price microtransaction-free primarily solo release. If I didn’t already know the path it had taken, I’d have spent my entire time playing the game being gnawed at by wondering just what it was that made it all feel so off.
But as annoying as the decision to completely separate single player and multiplayer is, there’s no denying the actual gameplay of Torchlight III is a joy. It’s very polished; we’ve encountered a few hiccups, but nothing too frustrating – when passing through a portal, we’ve occasionally been taken back to the entrance of an area rather than where the portal opened, for example. But that’s about it. Very few – if any – Diablo-likes have been able to grab our attention like Torchlight III has. It’s the type of game that begs you to explore just one more area before turning it off; and when you succumb to the ‘quit game’ option, you’re already looking forward to being able to jump back in again.
Torchlight III, while clearly wearing the franchise's skin like a badge of honor, never hits the marks of the previous entries. This is a very basic ARPG that frequently shows its free-to-play roots, and in a market overflowing with action-packed role-playing games, being a mediocre sequel isn't going to win you any favors -- especially from hardcore fans.
Torchlight 3 offers a solid foundation of ARPG goodness, but the balance of loot drops and progression feel off to the point where long sections of the game feel interminable. When everything is clicking, players can destroy waves of bad guys with the best of them – but expect an ebb and flow to the good times.
Torchlight III is a great entry in the series as it doesn’t explicitly try to be exactly like its predecessors. Instead, it attempts to do new things using classes and relics to personalize the adventure along with a few accessible leveling systems and skill trees. It all works for the most part, but it’s a design that doesn’t allow for the deepest amount of customization. Sure, building a fort and collecting loot with my friends is fun, but there has to be some balance and short term goals that make each level up and new area discovered worth it.
Torchlight III gets the fundamentals of action RPG well enough. When it comes to clicking on tiny monsters to murder them, the game does that as well as any other, but it offers little in the way of innovation or depth. I didn't see everything that Torchlight III has to offer, but my time spent left me feeling that I'd seen enough and ready to move onto something else with more to offer. Torchlight and Torchlight II showed that ARPGs had life beyond Diablo. In a way, Torchlight III is a victim of its predecessors' success in breathing such vibrant life into the genre. Torchlight III's simplicity might position it as a decent introduction to the ARPG genre. For most players, it's hard not to suggest they direct their attention elsewhere.
Torchlight III is a totally adequate action RPG and absolutely feels like a new Torchlight game. Anyone worried about weird, holdover free to play elements or significant jank from the project changing directions needn’t be worried.