Ah. So it's 1/11/2011 and the end of my vacation. I'd be sad except that I really am looking forward to immersing myself in coding for the next month.

I actually didn't plan to post on this date that everyone is making a fuss over (especially G4tv. Hope Candace Bailey turns out to be a good host. Olivia, we miss you) I end my vacation today because the work has piled up and I need to go trim it down a bit. But first...

FINISHING UP WITH TORCHLIGHT

Torchlight took the best game mechanics of Diablo and created a smooth and satisfying single player experience. I spent maybe 30% of my game arranging my inventory, transmuting gems, browsing stores and gambling for good items. Looting was a breeze, especially with the help of your pet-turned-salesman.

The skill system, is admittedly not as deep as Diablo's. But that's not necessarily a bad thing. Since the only pre-requisites for unlocking skills is character level, you don't get "locked" into a specific skill tree. This allowed me to invest singular points into skills just to see how they function. I didn't have to create multiple characters just to see what a classes ultimate spells look like.

The interface functioned extremely well, especially once my hands memorized the hotkeys. It was so smooth that I would be pulling out equip or skill menus in the middle of battle. Mechanics-wise, my only complaint is that some of the enemy hit-boxes were off. I found myself relying on shift-clicking (hold position attack), even for my Destroyer who is a melee fighter.

I did a complete run with a Vanquisher and played through half as Destroyer and Alchemist. However, the flat storyline gave me no compelling reason to keep playing. To be specific, the lack of a worthy enemy kept me from feeling that i was on a grand quest. I felt more like an exterminator than an adventurer.

In Torchlight, the primary quest is to go deep into a dungeon to find the source of corruption. Fair enough. Eventually you learn that its being caused by an ancient and powerful evil. Good, good. And the evil is manifesting in an old man who, at the end of each area, throws a boss at you... Wait, what? That's my big bad guy? Oh wait, there's a giant demon at the end. Ok, phew. That's more like it. But still, I spent 75% of my game thinking that my main antagonist was a weak looking old man. I know that a greater evil had been hinted at in the narratives, but because you never see him, he makes no impression.

Let's compare it to Diablo II. You follow a cloaked man who leaves a taint of evil in his wake. You see clips of him in a tavern massacre. You see him fight a sword-wielding angel with nothing but his fists. And win. You see his transformation, his ascension as Diablo, Lord of Flames.

There was something special in the way that the storyline of Diablo II unfolded that made you eager to see more. Between the cinematics and the dialog between you and the townspeople, a picture of a world on the brink of destruction was painted in my mind, and I felt the need to see it through.

Another gripe: Torchlight had a voice-over narrative as you entered each area, but it was never enough to really get you into the game. It didn't help that the background during the narrative was a picture of a book, the supposed journal that the text was being read from. There were no cinematics, not even a "puppet show" to help illustrate the situation. I would've settled for roving-cam footage of the area.

Overall, Torchlight is a solid game that is worth a try. But apart from mods, I see no reason to play through it more than once.