Parental Rating:

Our Score:

Many gamers out there are already aware of the game Torchlight thanks to Steam. However the Xbox Live Arcade release is nothing to be ignored, especially for those that missed it on their computers. Torchlight feels pretty much the same on the console as it did on the PC. There are different classes you can pick and you can get a pet (you can also choose from a few) before starting your dungeon crawling adventure. The first thing I will warn people about is - don't expect much in the way of customization. Gender is tied to class, and there isn't a lot in the way of different pets to choose from.

The gameplay is fairly straight forward, a basic attack with one button and hot key spells to others like the triggers. Healing and mana regeneration are both tied to bumpers and your inventory is the back button. Hot keying spells is a little different than the computer simply for the lack of buttons on a 360 controller, but it still remains fluid. It's basic, it's simple and it means that you'll be hitting a lot of the same buttons over and over and over. It can get really repetitive but it's a dungeon crawler - for those experienced with the genre it should, at this point, be expected. And like many crawlers the dungeon itself can get really repetitive. Most of the game will be spent in one main dungeon that does not change it's look very much from level to level. There are basic themes, so the first five will all look very similar, then the next five might get some moss on the walls making the colors different but still much the same. In fact it's not that odd to find one level that is almost identical to another just with different enemies. Even the "side" dungeons don't offer much of a break since they also look a lot like the main dungeon. More than repetitive button mashing, this is kind of the biggest let down of the game.

Your pet is a fun addition, he/she is not much of a fighter. They will attempt to help you, but be ready to deal with most of the enemies yourself. For ranged fighters they do serve as a nice distraction, as some enemies will completely ignore you and attack your pet. Again, though, they aren't good fighters so eventually the pet will have gotten hit too much and you'll be the main focus. Fishing allows you to feed your pet in order to temporarily help beef them up a bit, but it is also just another way to clog your inventory and is easily forgotten if you get to the point that you can fight on your own. You can also teach your pets spells and while they have a really slow reset time this is still cool as you can't learn all the basic spells so it's a good way to "cheat" and get yourself another one. The main purpose your pet will serve is hauling your loot back to town to sell  so you can stay in the dungeon longer. Every time you send your pet off though, they tack on an additional 10 seconds (give or take) to how long your pet will be gone. This is understandable but it starts to feel like a punishment as you'll lose extra inventory room and eventually get to the point that it takes your pet so long you might as well just use a scroll and go back yourself.

Inventory space is a major fall back, you only have 50 slots and then your pet's inventory boosts that, but there is a LOT to carry. Enemies drop a lot and there are lots of chests to find which should be a good thing right? Well it is and it isn't, I find myself constantly changing my weapons and armor so I also find myself ignoring things like putting gems in sockets for boosts or enchanting said weapons and armor. If I am just going to sell it anyways, why bother? Also, I get sick of having to stop every ten minuets to sort my stuff and send my pet away in order to make room for more crap that I am going to have to sort and then send my pet to sell again. Though as some people would argue better too much then too little. The good side is once you get far enough into the dungeon you start to find more valuable stuff in with the crap so it becomes easier to beef yourself up through armor.

All in all, most people probably know what they're going to get before they even start the game up. If you've played a dungeon crawler before this is just a simple version. It's not going to be as complex as say Diablo but it's fun and definitely holds its own in the genre. If you've never played a dungeon crawler this isn't a bad one to start with. It's not too hard (at the basic difficulty) but offers a challenge. 4 out of 5