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TORCHLIGHT: INFINITE - NEW SEASON FULL REVIEW

2K View2023-09-06

Torchlight: Infinite

8.4

Dungeon CrawlerAction RPGActionRPGAction role-playingTop-DownCharacter CustomizationAdventure

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Torchlight: Infinite (Reviewed)

Developer: XD

Publisher: XD

Released: May 9th, 2023

Price: Free To Play

Torchlight: Infinite is an ARPG that really didn't take off well with it's May release of this year. You may argue that it was due to the developers' lack of concern, or simply a lack of motivation to keep the game focused on what it needed to be despite being plagued by irate gamers who played the originals and wanted nothing to do with it.

Diablo Immortal, for example, embraced mobile gaming's worst and most unscrupulous pay-to-win methods. This alone destroys the incentive to play a game because achievements are meaningless when people can spend money to buy the best in slot weapons or bonuses to better their gameplay instead of earning it.

I'd want to state that I never fully gave this game a chance, so let's rectify that today.

Issues

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You must click or tap your way through a numerous layer of Ads the moment you log in. They really do want you to see the new banner for equipment, pacts, and other similar items. These are considered pay to win, if you're looking to get the best in slot for your builds. But what frustrates me is that you will have to deal with this every day because you can only close it for that day. It will simply reset the following day.

Battle Pass locked characters
It's not that I'm bothered by the presence of microtransactions in this game, it's a mobile game and I understand that is how they make their money.

I'm more irritated by the fact that the majority of the characters shown are quite basic and uninteresting, and the two that are intriguing can only be obtained (now) by purchasing a battle pass and unlocking them.

There's a chance they'll be released in future seasons, but it's upsetting right now because I don't want to spend $20 on a character I might not even like.

This alone made me want to avoid playing it because it irritates me as a gamer. I like Erika because she looks intriguing and is the only beast type character in the game, which seems to be the main reason she is pay to play. Profit from the lone character who has an appealing look and voice along with a animation cutscene.

Story

It's really bad
I can't stand the story, for multiple reasons. The voice acting, the drawn out terrible cutscenes and among everything else, the bugs and glitches within the story itself.

Now, while I understand that this game is designed for the mobile device, that doesn't really excuse the things I have been encountering on the PC version of the game, not even 1 minute in the starting zone, does it even show any polish with it's dialog option.

It's just straight up broken showing the command for the dialog that is suppose to appear. So even if I did want to read the story from my perspective. I can't.

The story
The general synopsis is that you are attempting to recover spark pieces that can cleanse corruption as you have been infected. You are a member of the organization Torchlight, and the first two acts revolve around you assisting the current torchlight leader Liv. You also have a soul bound companion Aria who is beyond annoying that helps you avoid becoming corrupted by the aether. If you can recover enough spark pieces, you can delay the aember's corruption long enough to find a cure, essentially.

It makes no difference who spoke or what the topic of the chat was. It was all horrible and should have been avoided because most ARPGs feature ambient story telling that does not interfere with the game's actual gameplay.

It's worth mentioning that this game was not created by the same team who created Torchlight II. It's far too story-centred compared to the prior games at every single corner. It's exhausting to constantly clicking the skip button to get to the most engaging and exciting portion. The combat.

Presentation

I have mixed feelings
Aria's (left character) physical proportions are terrible, making it difficult to look at her during cutscenes and any up closes of her. Her thighs are tumor-sized, with a big thigh gap between her legs. She is literally the embodiment of the "Hourglass Figure" I hate it and you can't help but wonder, "What the hell is wrong with her!?"

The music is good, and the combat is fantastic, especially when you are traited to deliver more damage or big AoE with special effects. The combat is where this game really excels. It definitely knows how to stimulate your senses, while disregarding everything else as you turn off your brain for mindless and satisfying carnage.

Gameplay

It's what it should be - REALLY FUN
Instead of having you wait until you're level 60-100 to deal any damage, you can do it from the start of level 10 with mindless, fast and enjoyable screen clearing AoE.

I've spent countless hours playing Path of Exile. It's literally in the thousands, however, they have slowed the power creep to a crawl in that game over the years, gutting every single build to the ground. Forcing you to suffer through the early stages of the game, regardless of your level of experience, by making monsters actually one shot you since they determined that's how people should play, especially for hardcore players, where one death ruins it all and makes it tiresome.

When contrasted to Diablo 4, suffering from the same issue that Path of Exile has been experiencing from the past couple of updates before they began to repair things. When it comes to getting to the good rewarding screen clearing damage, they are both far too slow and really lack any real reason to continue, unless you have the patience to go through literally hours of your day, falling asleep until you can finally press one button to erase the entire screen, it's a simple stimulate we desire.

Features

A really comprehensible system
When compared to games like Path of Exile which are beyond confusing with how the game functions and works for crafting, talents and skills. It's not difficult to use and provides a wide range of build augmentation. Anything you can conceive of can be developed, even if your character isn't supposed to have that talent tree since it's better on someone else. It's a beautiful sight to behold giving the player full control.

Inventory management is good
After fighting monsters, you can pick up stuff and equip new gear while also recycling old gear that can come in handy later if you wish to create some better equipment.

You also have the option of creating your own loot filter, which simplifies farming by eliminating the need to sift through your drops for better equipment and stats that you are looking for, while ignoring everything else in the meantime.

Current & Past seasons
I've always liked the concept of being able to play some of the earlier game content when they integrate it into future seasons and really improve the gameplay. It enables for more varied gameplay in terms of things to do, rather than being repetitive and uninteresting, which is especially useful if the current season isn't all that appealing.

In the final days of Cube of Rapacity, I managed to pull a Legendary starter weapon for Rehan, which immediately propelled me from measly damage, struggling to kill monsters, to a massive 325% damage increase, prompting me to quickly re-trait and try out new builds. After which I was flying through the the story as early as level 12.

At first, augmenting skills can be perplexing
You gain skills as you level up. Completing tasks also unlocks specific skills and talents, allowing you to construct and personalize your character to your preference.

These skills include sub-skills that let you to apply more effects to them, using Path of Exiles as an example. You're not fumbling about attempting to match colors on equipment or linking things together, nor are you farming for those late game setups. It's all here; all you have to do is unlock the skills and continue from there.

Quick and easy, the only real thing you need to actually struggle and farm for would be all of the helpful character specific Legendary gear that will grant you ever increasingly powerful effects that will make clearing maps all the more satisfying.

Achievements
It provides extra incentive to accomplish gameplay-specific things or other features within the game, whether they be pay-to-win or free-to-play alternatives that improve your general capacity to make new gear or summon pact spirits.

Pact Spirits
You don't really need these, but if you do manage to obtain a pact spirit that provides game-changing boosts to your individual character, such as large attack speed or damage. You'd have a much better build than someone using the default settings.

All they do is supplement the Pact you place them in with effects that differ from their original options. As a result of the Lizard, instead of elemental resistances, I would gain mana regeneration speed. You do get free pulls every so often, but again. It's really not mandatory for you to go out of your way to spend money on this feature.

Season Preview

The City of Aeterna
What we've seen in the previews for this expansion has been fantastic. I'm looking forward to playing through things they've mentioned on their livestream and in their community. Every improvement seems to be a step in the right direction to keeping it fun an engaging, even more than what Path of Exiles has come out with recently.

New game modes with roguelike and board game-inspired content, new characters, traits, crafting re-haul, end game and more! Let's hope it stays fun!

They appear to be entering the greatest season they could have imagined in order to fix every issue while also integrating new features that will undoubtedly inspire new builds and combinations of things and equipment to meet your demands.

Conclusion

I could have been too severe
Throughout its development, this game encountered numerous challenges, the most significant of which was a lack of concentration. Once they had that focus, they had to deal with Covid and its consequences. The story is still shallow, the game isn't as well balanced as it could be currently, and two of the franchise's most important features the ability to play your offline character online and mods are both missing.

I can see new players getting into it and enjoying it for the gameplay, but I can also see folks who have grown up with the franchise hating it. They may have a lot more issues to cope with while digesting all that has been included and left out here.

Everyone agrees that Torchlight III is the worst of the series and that I and II are the greatest. But I don't think Torchlight: Infinite deserves the criticism it's received.

This concludes my views of this game; while my opinions may be met with criticism, that is what distinguishes gamers; you don't have to like the same things as others, nor do you have to agree with them.

If you want to catch me on one of my streams or locate me on social media, you may do so at the following locations, I'm always playing something new.

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- Pawkt