NIDZUMI+

Flat Fact is a column for Nidzumi that entails the ramblings and rants of one Matt Maharaj. This week, a look at Torchlight…

2:04am and my eyes are wary. I have a plane flight today sometime in the afternoon, I keep telling myself just a few more minutes up but hours pass and I am still here. All I can say is forgive me if seem a bit sleep deprived. I promise you though that its a deprivation I will show off proudly as a trophy awarded to me by this amazing game; Torchlight.

Runic Games has got it right as the release of Torchlight pushes over 24 hours, I find myself playing in awe at the scope of this game that only cost me $20. That’s not to say it’s the largest game in the world but for the amount of money spent and the enjoyment I am having right now on the triple screens, I am the happiest I have been to ever support a developer!

PC Gaming, if this is a sign of what’s to come, is far from over and to anyone singing the tune, Runic Games has just thrown a brick through your window with a nice long label tied to it saying “Ha Ha”

Torchlight was developed by the creators of Diablo, or more precisely ex-Blizzard North employees, Max Schaefer, Erich Schaefer and Travis Baldree being the main noteworthy names. They had given up on Flagship Studios in 2008 and the entire team jumped into a new company, so in reality nothing changed just the company name, but hey, I am no businessman.

I must say that at first I was a sceptic. Could these old time legends of the game development world pull off another game of that calibre? I always shuddered at the thought of Torchlight, as every-time I thought of it the only thing that came to mind was horrible flashbacks of Hell-Gate London, the game that was simply unpolished and released by Flagship later in their lifespan. That’s not to say Hell-Gate was horrible, just not to my standards that a game should be upon release (Perhaps a push from the publishers I think).

However Travis had done work on Fate, which although was a great game, it still felt like something was missing for me.

As beta came and went for Torchlight, I began to get more and more interested. For starters the game requirements were low, or perhaps the proper words for anyone who had upgraded their computer in the last 8 years are non-existent.

Coming in at 800Mhz, 512MB of Ram, 650mb (Note about this on the end of article) of Hard Drive and 64 MB of addressable memory. In the FAQ there’s a note at the end of this which sums up just how non existent the requirements are.

The requirements are so low, we are even able to play Torchlight on the netbooks around the office!

As a traveller I enjoy games I can play on a laptop, and with so few of them out there that aren’t from pre-2004, my ears immediately perked and the biggest draw for me personally was I was about to head off on holiday just a few days after release. I decided that this will be the cure to any travel boredom I endure while away. Sorry Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Echoes of time, you’ll have to wait.

The second thing that grabbed my attention was the price. The game was launched via Digital Download for nothing more than $20. Where I am in the middle of nowhere, New Zealand, or at least nowhere when in relation to the rest of the world, most new games get released at the horrible price of 100NZD. While in the states I am told most new games come out at 60, feel free to correct me.

So for these three reasons, the previous two plus the fact its by the ex Blizzard-North team, I was sold on trying this game and I have to tell you although these three may have been the main reasons but after 3 hours playing and a few emails to Runic, another five pushed through to make me smile.

1. The game includes a optional Hardcore tick-box, this creates a Perma-Death. In which, if you die the end is the end, there is no save point, there is no restoration from this style of play and for the the kind of gamer who wants a real sense of danger.
2. The Music, oh wow the music, for a low budget game on a tight deadline the music is perfect. However that isn’t surprising seeing as it was written by Blizzard legend Matt Uleman, the man behind the Diablo, Diablo 2 and Starcraft soundtracks.
3. The game looks beautiful and runs beautifully, and I don’t just mean in loading times. The item dragging is smooth and the user interface looks pretty and the character moves so swiftly.
4. The story isn’t bad! The characters are all voiced! Its very easy to get into the story and for 20 dollars, its quiet decent!
5. Although there are only 3 classes and only 4 “stat” types, there’s enough variation to result in some amazing and interesting choices! And lets not begin on the topic of gear modification!

But as great as all this is, that’s not why I am talking about Torchlight, I don’t even consider this a review but more a giant red arrow to the rest of the development world, this is the way PC Gaming should be done, developed and executed.

Runic is embracing the Mod community, by the time you have read this a free tool has probably been launched that will allow members of the community to create levels for Torchlight giving the community power to continue the game while Runic focus’ on other projects (But not abandoning Torchlight! By any means). I can’t wait to see what the community comes up with. Remember that counter-strike was originally a Mod.

The size is small, the overall requirements are small.

Brock Jones, Producer of Runic infact believe the game is to large, at 650 MB, and replied to Nidzumi when a question was posed to Wonder of the Community/PR team on the question of why its larger than the stated size in the Q and A

It’s going to change, the installer size and the size of the expanded game will both be 450MBs.

Currently the compressed installer is about 350 megs and the expanded game is like 650 or so. For all of you without steam and really want to try Torchlight before you buy, there’s a bit of hope for you all also.

We wanted to have a demo done, but we’ve pushed that back in favor of a patch. Hopefully we’ll have one next week!

Looks like Demo love is reaching you all next week! Fingers crossed!