Tag: rpg

I bought Torchlight on Steam. I spent ~19 hours playing a “Destroyer” class character, dual-wielding a hammer and a sword for much of the game and finishing at level 37. Here are my quick thoughts the experience:

Pros…

The artwork – The cartoon look of the game is reminiscent of WoW. It’s a nice break from the usual game textures.

The loot – In short, tons. If you’re at all a fan of Diablo, Titan Quest, and the like, this game’s for you.

The pet – Besides fighting the hordes along side you, your cat or dog companion has its own inventory slots for you to stash even more of your spoils. And when all of your slots are full you can send your pet back to town to sell your loot! Single best game feature ever.

The price – I paid $20 for it through Steam and spent a little over 18 hours playing it. That’s $1.11/hour – damn cheap entertainment.

Cons…

The artwork – While I found the artwork endearing, not everyone will find Torchlight’s “cartoony” art style appealing.

The repetition – Kill everything that moves, pick up the spoils, rinse and repeat. I found myself occasionally wonder “when does this game end?”

The pet – While your pet may excel as your emissary back at the market, her endurance leaves something to be desired. She doesn’t die, but rather runs away when her health drops too low. This is followed by a narrator repeatedly uttering the annoying phrase “your pet has fled.” You can feed her health potions by opening your inventory and dragging one of your health potions to her food dish, but it’s a bit clunky.

I bought Borderlands on Steam; played as a soldier; spent ~30-40 hours on it; and finished at level 36. My favorite weapon was the Desert Stomper combat rifle.

Here are my quick thoughts on the game…

Pros…

The artwork – The watercolor look of the game is unique and a really nice break from the usual textures. It was always interesting but never distracting.

The loot – Ridiculous amounts of it really. It didn’t take long to rack tons of cash, weapons, shields, and grenades.

The weapons – The shear number and types of weapons turned into a sort of mini game for me. I found myself constantly swapping them looking for the best load out.

The save system – It’s a checkpoint system, but there are plenty of them; also, the game saves automatically when you exit. It was nice not having to manage the saves

Cons…

The map system – Essentially useless. There is no overall world map to show which part of Pandora your quest is located or how the various areas connect to one another. This makes using game’s teleportation system a lot like trying to find a needle in a haystack.

The vehicle weapons – You get a rocket launcher and a machine gun. Unfortunately, both are seriously nerfed. Luckily the best weapon on the vehicle is the vehicle itself – just running over baddies gets the job done.

The bad guys – In a word… repetitive. You can only fight so many bandits, burning psychos, and skags before you want to throw down your guns and head back to Fyrestone to have a beer with Dr. Zed.

The ending – No spoilers, but let’s just say that it left me wondering if maybe the fire alarm went off and Gearbox developers decided to finished the game quickly and run out of their building.

Tips…

Aim for the head – good advice in any game, but headshots are especially effective in this one.

Armor and health – With the plethora of weapon make and models it would be easy to focus on your offensive firepower. Spend time initially though building up your HP and getting the best shield you can.

Avoid weapons with ridiculously high damage – rocket launchers, some shotguns and sniper rifles in this game feature damage that seems too good to be true. “Damage 850!? Woo hoo!!” Turns out that most are significantly nerfed. Focus on having a balanced weapon. Accuracy and recoil reduction are important stats.