Torchlight 2 for Switch is the porting to Nintendo console of the famous game developed and published in 2012 by Runic Games. Its predecessor Torchlight received great success back in 2009 (when it was released) thanks also to the designs created by ex-designers of Fate, Diablo and Diablo 2.
The game looks like a ARPG that traces in the footsteps of Diablo and that promises to give us hours and hours of fun with one classic style adding more than 200 new monsters, 40 additional areas and much more.
The ancient evil awakened
The strong point of this chapter has never been the plot, and the second chapter reaffirms it. The game will pick up the story after the events of the first Torchlight, which ends by seeing the alchemist, the destroyer and the vanquisher win against the source of corruption.
The narrative of the second chapter opens with one strange creature holding the heart of Ordrak, the ancient evil dragon, who threatens to turn the world of the 6 elements upside down by trying to absorb magical energy from the Elemental Guardians.
Our goal is therefore mainly based on the mission of searching for and killing a hero of the past corrupted by theHuman, a mineral that gives magical powers.
The story will consist of 4 acts for the campaign mode, along with many secondary (and other) missions scattered around the map.
Never change a winning team!
In Torchlight 2 the gameplay is certainly one of its strong points. In fact, in addition to keeping a skeleton from Classic ARPG, presents a world full of mini-boss, interactive objects and events such as the appearance of portals that will lead us to legendary challenges.
There is also no shortage of elements hack ‘n’ slash: the player will often be surrounded by endless waves of enemies from every angle to be defeated with the help of massive weapons or ancient magic.
There will be 4 classes available:
- Berserk; agile warrior who attacks with swift slashes and bestial powers
- Stranger; hawk-eyed sniper, specializing in the use of ranged weapons
- Engineer; class that uses very heavy weapons to crush the enemy
- Mago; scholar of the mystical arts capable of controlling ice, fire and electricity
To the fray will also be added the own pet, which can be a magical deer, a demon-hen or even a being that is very reminiscent of the celebrities headcrab di Half-Life.
Our companion will help us a lot in our adventure being equipped with a damage output huge and the ability to launch magic to our liking. However, for lone wolves there is also the possibility of traveling leaving your partner to base camp.
We have not encountered any problems with the control mapping in the Nintendo Switch version of the title and instead looks like comfortable e intuitive even to those who are not used to the genre.
Compared to the old version which presented a bar at the bottom of the screen where to have the commands di ability e objects here they are present 8 commands (A, B, X, Y, R, L and the 2 ridges) arranged circularly around the life and mana markers.
These will be fully customizable making everything clear and minimizing the invasion of the HUD.
We will find ourselves in front of an intuitive menu in this porting: we will be able add statistics with ease, change ours equipment, to assign skill points, manage our pet and much more.
However, we can see several flaws in this component of the title, such as the scarcity of classes available and of Customization of one's character, the absence of one complete view of the map, drops of framerate when on the screen we will find ourselves with many elements, even if infrequent, problems with input of the commands and the lack of variety of settings.
Regarding the settings we will have only 2 categories: L 'audio where you can choose the volume of music, effects e voice chat and the HUD / HD vibration where we can precisely activate o turn off HD vibration, decide whether to activate or deactivate blood health bar of enemies and show or not theelmo equipped.
To the various negative sides of the title is added the obligation to have the Nintendo Switch Online active. This can be very annoying for anyone who wants to use it without the active system.
Let's shed some light on the graphics
Graphically the title comes in a cartoon style that results very pleasant to the eyes.
In terms of design, the world of Torchlight 2 looks like a classic fantasy with the addition of some steampunk elements, however, the development team spares no additions goliardic. For example, Torchlight 2 for Switch has the unique option of having a pony-unicorn come pet.
Particle effects, while simple, are also clear and they manage to make the player understand the element of magic that is being used.
Bosses are most of the time huge menacing beings ready to kill the player, and therefore have a strong epic aura. Unfortunately for some bosses the 3D model of a normal enemy has only been enlarged, making these battles more ridiculous than epic.
Speaking of dungeons, however, we noticed that they have one good variety of themes and colors: we will find catacombs lit only by hot torch lights to get to goblin mines full of crystals to detonate with explosives.
Unfortunately, however, the only real problem in this sense is that the structure of the dungeons often repeats itself bringing the player a feeling of repetitiveness that we have often tried during our games.
As for weapons and armor, their design is done well, we have not found anything particularly original for a fantasy setting, however it respects all canons like that with the addition of robot and elements steampunk.
In fact the presence of guns and others of futuristic objects for the context it does not distort the game world but rather adds interesting graphic elements even for those who want to enjoy more technologically developed settings.
The characterization of the various NPCs is credible and already at first glance you can understand what kind of character you are talking about. Among the various NPCs we will find humans, dwarves, ancient wizards, robots, giant magical beasts and much more.
Being a port of a dated PC game 2012 the 3D models remained true to a style low poly but even for large characters this is not a problem. Torchlight 2 already defended itself well in its time graphically and it is no less even today.
Conclusions
Torchlight 2 it's a ARPG that manages to please the veterans of the kind and that manages to approach those who are novices. The gameplay simple e intuitive makes the title very pleasant and the general context ensures hours of fun.
It has no major defects that make the title unpleasant or unplayable and the mapping of the commands is done in a workmanlike manner.
We certainly recommend it to those looking for an adventure that does not last only 10 hours and to those who want to take a dip in the past reliving those emotions that only a classic ARPG can give.
If you are interested in the genre you can read our review on Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire.
