Runic Games, the developers of Torchlight and its superior sequel, Torchlight II, perhaps had the best chances possible for managing to stand strong in the shadow of Diablo. The studio was founded by Travis Baldree, the creator of Fate, and Max Schaefer and Erich Schaefer, the co-founders of Blizzard North, and the leads on Diablo. Which is to say, the top-three ARPG creators in the world.
Where the original (and fantastic) Torchlight was set in a single, massive, ever-descending tower, Torchlight II hugely expanded upon the setup, with multiple overworld hubs, and a much more detailed campaign. And like Titan Quest before it, offered us that rarest feature of the Diablo-like: color.
It’s a bright and cheerful game, with its World Of Warcraft-like chunky cartoon art, featuring a huge range of enemies to wallop. And honestly, it’s pretty much perfect at realizing the format. What it doesn’t do, like almost every other example of the genre, is advance that format to anywhere new. But if you’re looking for the Diablo-like at its absolute peak, you really can’t do much better than play the game created by the people who invented the genre.
(And yeah, I’m definitely recommending this over the recently abandoned Torchlight III, that after a tumultuous eight years of various development, often in an attempt to create an MMO, eventually came out as something of a damp squib.)
