It was, after all, immensely satisfying watching my little fire-spitting, electric bolt-emitting robot, Ronny-Four (named after Johnny-Five of Short Circuit fame), gradually become a force of destruction, learning to cut through hordes of enemies like an electric razor cuts through hair. Who says games have to last forever, though? When taking Torchlight III as a 20-hour long action-RPG with a clear-cut ending, it suddenly becomes a lot easier to look upon the journey fondly. This isn’t Path of Exile it’s hard to imagine a sizable fanbase chewing through Torchlight III’s dungeons for dozens, certainly not hundreds of hours after the campaign has wrapped up. So Torchlight III truly isn’t ever going to become a mainstay of anyone’s gaming rotation, not even with friends in online co-op mode. Even with an enchantment mechanic, letting players reroll the elemental effects and bonuses of items, the endgame fails to provide much depth. The endgame offering, an interesting series of increasingly challenging dungeons with various buffs and handicaps, suffers from a lack of clear drive and sense of overarching progression. Unfortunately, while the gameplay holds its own, there’s not much to keep players here in the long run. Dungeon crawling and mopping up hordes of foes from a familiar isometric perspective is always going to be a joy, particularly if, like me, you’re one to find pleasure in marvelling at gathering clouds of damage numbers and basking in the distinct (albeit, in this case, comedically anticlimactic) level up chime. Don’t get me wrong, there’s nothing to fault with the core gameplay. So how is it? Well… it’s fine-pretty good even-but where its numerous competitors boast life-devouring hooks like razor sharp talons, Torchlight III barely musters hooks apt to hang your coat on. And so, after years in development, an identity change and around four months in Early Access, Torchlight III was released. When that new direction, titled Torchlight Frontiers, seemed to head towards a place devoid of anything resembling fun, the team decided to change course and create a more traditional Torchlight title with a microtransaction-free “premium” business model to match. Taking over from Runic Games, developer of the first two Torchlight titles, Echtra Games initially saw fit to take the franchise in a new free-to-play direction. So it was with simultaneous fear and anticipation that I first dipped into Echtra Games’ action-RPG Torchlight III. Whether it’s Diablo or Cookie Clicker, anything with gradually increasing numbers and/or the promise of a rare loot drop can get me signing away my free time (and most of my responsibilities) quicker than you can say “level up”. I say that with a degree of confidence because, as shameful as it is to admit, I am one of those at-risk players. The addictive, neurochemical-leveraging nature of loot-based games is well-documented, and anyone with a tendency to get hooked on their cycles of endless (arguably aimless) progression should be very careful. Instead, it would have been forgotten in a dark, addictive haze of XP, grinding and number crunching occasionally punctuated by that oh-so glorious golden loot aura: a true dopamine cocktail. It’s possible that, if they had, the article would never have been finished. On second thought, maybe it’s a good thing that the article’s author never used loot-based videogames in their research. Hell, even the fiercest sceptic of colour theory would soon find their doubts melting away in the warm glow of their first orange/gold item drop (it’s true: you never forget your first). After all, just a few hours jogging the loot-treadmill of titles like World of Warcraft, Destiny, Borderlands or, with their near-universal green, blue, purple and orange loot rarity identifiers would be enough to dispel any belief that colour has no bearing on emotion. It just seems a shame that, throughout their presumably lengthy research period, nobody thought to swing by and drop a loot-based videogame in their lap. I admire the author’s effort, I really do. It fought tooth and nail, citing decades of studies and building grand, multi-faceted arguments to make the point that humans are hardwired to respond emotionally to the sight of certain colours. I read an article once discussing colour theory. Reviews // 4th Nov 2020 - 2 years ago // By Jamie Davies Torchlight III Review
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |