Torchlight - Why haven't you bought this yet
 

Torchlight is a Diablo clone.

There. I've laid it out. It is a Diablo clone. But it is really, REALLY sharp. The game is of low hardware demand and is only about 800mb to install. You can find it on Steam for shy of $20, and it is money well-spent.

There is a multiplayer mode on the way, but it is a year or so away. This was made by a tiny group of folks, but it is still awesome and nicely polished. A few things:

1) Three classes. Your typical bruiser, a markswoman of sorts, and then your mage build.
2) Each build has three skill trees. For example, the warrior has one that favors all-out smashy-smashy, whereas the others are for minion-usage, or AoE attacking in conjunction with tanking.
3) You have a pet! Dog, cat, whichever. You can feed them stuff and they temporarily turn in to monstrosities that tear things apart. Adding to it, they are lovely pack mules of sorts. Full up on loot and don't want to use a town portal scroll (Diablo clone I said~)? Throw your stuff on to your dog/cat, hit the money-bag icon above their stats, and they run to town to sell your stuff for ya.
4) The weapons are awesome from the get-go. You don't start off with a wooden sword and grind for a mystical fly-swatter of pissing-off. No. You find staves early on that can make fucking lightning bolts. Guns that will one-shot uber mobs. Things get flashy from the word go on the awesome weaponry front. Adding to this, there are gag weapons lying around. Supposedly there is a sword that screams whenever you swing it around D:
5) On the same token, skills look incredible. My first skill I learned by choice? Drop a lightning sword down on the enemy's head. Looks awesome and is great for taking down uber mobs.

Just a quick run-down of things. Sockets exist for gemstones (for stat buffs), the armor system is just like Diablo, as is the inventory system and such.

However, it has a nice charm to it that I downright adore. Some clones make me go "ugh. Bored." However, I'm hooked on this. It just came out on Steam, and the albeit small dev team is pretty active. They are already about to kick out a patch in spite of it coming out just yesterday.

Anyhow, it's worth a look. I already have Borderlands in addition to this, but L4D2 demo hits online sometime soon (Valve is having issues). Definitely a blitz of games. And Dragon Age? Good lord :psyduck:

ANYhow. Give this game a shot if you are a fan of the Diablo-type hack and slashing or all-out mayhem. It is quite nice :3:

Sorry, but I played this since yesterday.

It is pretty without high system requirements.

I'd be all over this if not for Borderlands just coming out. FPS hack and slash comes before point and click hack and slash. :(

This.

The game is amazingly addictive in the way only the best Diablo clones are. The whole gameplay has been streamlined, though. (I mean, they've had a lot of time to perfect the formula) Also, mages are pretty fuckawesome in this game. Having what is essentially a melee build tree for a mage makes me want to run up to the studio and give them a big hug. <3

Also also, the sending your pet to town to sell loot thing cannot be stressed enough. It is pretty much amazing and makes you wonder why they never did this before.

Because I await the mac port.

The only critique would probably be difficulty. I am playing on Normal, and I haven't needed to use potions too often. Folks recommend starting on Hard or Very Hard if you want true Diablo cruelty.

I love nothing more, though, than to come across a narrow walk-way chock full of monsters. Charge is a skill I love spamming :3:

Deni --
:( Mac doesn't seem doable in the near future. Pretty tight group of guys operating on a budget, bear in mind. Anyhow, a semi-decent laptop could run the game easily. It isn't like we're talking Fallout 3 here.

An update to your linked thread!

I enjoyed Titan Quest so I'm curious to see what this is like. I'll try the demo.

COUNTER PAUNCH.

http://www.torchlightgame.com/faq/#faq18

Last I heard it was over 70% complete.

Don't you run bootcamp?

The composer from Diablo 1 and 2 worked on this game. AWESOME. I loved the D2 soundtrack.

Oh what the hell, $20 for a Diablo clone that doesn't suck? Sign me up.

Of course, but I like to support it when designers make a native mac version.

Played through the demo. I was pretty impressed with the amount of polish. It's like Diablo 2.5 with a slightly cartoonish look. I was also surprised by how quickly the game lets you forget about white items (of course, assuming the demo isn't just leading me on to believe that you get blue and gold items within your first three levels). It doesn't seem on the surface that this is a waste of $20 by any means.

You slip past white items rather fast. There are still some really freakin' rare pieces of gear, of course. If I read proper, the demo simply caps you on a certain amount of time (ie: an hour or two). The demo is supposedly rather indicative of how the game is as a whole.

Once again, I recommend playing on Hard if you want a challenge. I'm still on Normal, and the only time I've had issues was doing a special quest chain wherein you head in to some dude's portal and clear a floor or two to get to a special item. I went in to one and was about two levels lower than the monsters initially. I didn't get a gold until the fifth or sixth floor, personally. My only balance gripe is that two-hander weapons are pretty underpowered. I have yet to find one worth bothering with. Adding to item rarity, higher difficulties supposedly constrict the loot-drop rate. This is all from what I have read, bear in mind. Item drops are much rarer on Very Hard, evidently.

And I fucking love charge. Nothing says badass like ramming through a crowd of trash mobs <3

Also, Diablo's composer helped? Well crap. No wonder the music was so perfect.

Actually the demo only seemed to end when I tried going down the stairs past the first waypoint, and it didn't end so much as it shot me back to the main menu. However, by the time I attempted to go down said stairs, I had completed the three portal quests in the town that the demo allows, so there was nothing else for me to do but try going through again with another class.

I also tried it on Normal and I also died only in one of the portal dungeons. That said, it was probably more because I was being careless.

The Alchemist seems like a weak class. I was expecting some more elemental shit, and there is some, but having to slog through trash mobs one at a time (as opposed to the Destroyer who, as mentioned, tears through multiple baddies with little difficulty) makes the game drag a little more than the devs probably intended. I don't think it's an issue of a lack of good/useful 2H weapons (because I have seen some), I just think it's a weak class.

I'll have to try the Vanquisher when I get home from work.

I personally went minion tree and arcane for my playthrough, which seemed to mop up enemies pretty well. I was using a wand and a pistol for most of the time as crowd control whenever I critted. (The thorns spell helped too.)

But then again, I haven't played the other two classes that much, so I don't have a lot to compare it against.

Ive been going through this a bit, and build properly, the alchemist is a beast for awhile (level 20. Havent got him higher than that). That arcane tree can do scary stuff, though Ive noticed only spells and skills with +X% of Weapon DPS are really worth it.

Aside from that, I am trying destroyer, and having problems. I his AoE works out fine, but against bosses, I am chainchugging pots to stay alive.

I am not too sure about how all the game mechanics work yet though. Some are confusing.

(Destroyer + Dervish + x health steal per hit) versus a boss = joy

Also, I think I lasted about 20-25 levels with the same sword thanks to throwing it into every shrine of enchantment I found. Why I didn't think to supplement my trips to town with visiting the enchanter as well is beyond me.

I basically ended up pooling all my talent points into a few choice skills. Maybe I regret not exploring the other options, but nothing else sounds exciting.

I'm now level 42 or something and I've cleared the "end boss". Seems I'm heading into an endless series of the same levels I've already played randomly generated with the same basic quests in mind:

1.) kill this boss
2.) find this item
3.) yeah, find me an item too, but i'm a monster who speaks in some wacky language

It hasn't grown stale yet, but I'm definitely looking forward to trying the gun-toting chick for my next playthrough.

I'm loving not only the game itself, but the developer's active presence in their tech support area and the already impressive amount of mods is really awesome.

This is a mod from the devs that adds respec potions to the vendors. I like this, because I've never been a fan of "Oh you BROKE YOUR CHARACTER" style skill systems.

Also, Dope, check this mod out, apparently the level 20-??? maps only use the one tileset as yet, and this is another dev-created mod that adds new maps to the hopper, so to speak.

That respec potion mod is great. The other mod deals with the purchase of portal maps, which I haven't even touched yet.

I have to say...now that I'm approaching level 50, I find myself being less and less effective in combat, in terms of dealing damage and absorbing it. I do manage to die from time to time, though it's still mostly because I'm being a little lazier than I ought to be. But I do find myself burning through potions like they're water. I should've stuck with that sword. :( Still, I think the optimal scenario I was envisioning was to take about 5 swings at a guy before he plops, and it's generally taking 7+. With some of the tougher guys, those 2+ extra swings can be the difference between using a potion or not.

And, finding replacement equipment is increasingly rare, mostly due to the fact that I'm holding on to older blues and yellows that I've socketed or enchanted but still maintain low armor stats.

Dopefish, I think that entire enchanting thing is one of the best things about the game. It does let you keep an item for X levels after it should have been good just because you can keep on adding to it. But you do have to get rid of them eventually :P

Stick them in the public stash! For some reason I had 6 different summoner uniques (Part of a set, a sword, and 2 pieces of armor) drop, so I created a summoner/brawler Alchemist.

I am debating making a char on easy just to farm for me, because even now at 20, my destroyer has real issues staying alive unless he just chain spams his AoE knockback/stun.

I don't have the free funds right now to get the game yet, but when I do, I'm definitely purchasing this. This may draw the ire of some folks, but I can't really see myself going back to Diablo 2, compared to what's been offered now, at least from a pure screen resolution perspective. 800x600 in 2000? Understandable. 9 years later? Gahhhh!

Question though: Those mods for the game (I'm shocked there are mods already but that's a different subject), would they work for the steam bought version?

AFAIK, all mods work on the Steam version as well.

Additional Spam:
Torchlight got Penny Arcade'ed today. I assume you know where to look.

My newest gripe: the economics. I see what they did there (RPG economics are always a key kog in the game) by giving you probably 10% of the gold an item sells for while making items that increase gold find more prevalent, but I feel like every time I come back to town to sell things I'm getting robbed by these vendors. I also realize there's a skill in the tree to alleviate that, but it's like they want you to want to play more and find your own loot instead of buying it, which is MADNESS.