Torchlight II (with mods!)

So... Finally got around to finishing Torchlight and naturally gave Torchlight II a go.

I decided to install one of those compilation mods

It includes a lot of shit:

I'm not sure I like everything it does, so some expert opinion would be welcome. I don't plan on doing multiple runs with different characters/builds, I just want to run through the game once, with good loot and sane level of challenge.

Am I missing something? Is there some mod that'll fuck my game up?

 

No SynergiesMOD? It's the only one to need. Mo' everything, pretty much plus difficulty rebalance.

 

Just play the game unmodded on veteran (starts easy but ramps up to an acceptable difficulty in later acts). Elite shortly becomes one-shot territory so unless you're a masochist or just really love a 'dancing' challenge I'd avoid it.

 

I have to say that I don't find myself liking TL2 as much as I did the first one.

Pretty clear case of D > D2 here again.

 

This.

 

Only thing that arguably isn't better is the color palatte. The classes, abilities, skill trees, loot, map (now with overworld), bosses, etc. are all superior. As charming as Torchlight 1 was, it was very limited in terms of design.

 

Torchlight 2 is pretty inconsistent in terms of delivering the same, but pretty much a watered down version of the first one. The whole experience of leading your character through 3 episodes is not cohesive enough to make you believe in it. Still a decent game though, worth of 1-2 playthroughs for the sake of skill progression and some great character customizations via different loot.

The class mod in this compilation, requires a synergies mod by default anyway, so yeah.
As for the rest of it. It amplifies some of specific loot drops like from the racks, golden chests, boss spell drops and generaly useless quest rewards. Somewhat dubious improvement since there's already too much loot in the game and with very diverse prefixes. Most of the time it's a butthurt to decide which thing to equip.
Also some stupid pets that don't fit in the setting and respec potions for whiny kids. I'd go with careful picking some of those, not the whole compilation at once for sure.

 

How on earth is 2 'watered down' from 1?

 

It's inferior in terms of the atmosphere. But this is to be expected. Pretty much that happened to D2. If you are making a co-op focused arpg with vast overworld areas and extensive tables of loot - you're bound to lose something in the process.

 

Atmosphere = codeword for "I don't have a fucking clue what I'm talking about, zero arguments but it feels so good having an edgy opinion".

 

Not really, it's a valid complaint. I don't agree with it, though: TL1 didn't really HAVE much in the way of atmosphere, so I wouldn't say that TL2's atmosphere is worse. And in fact, I think TL2's "alchemist from first game becomes drunk with power, turns heel!" is pretty effective, even though that plot point TOO is ripped off from D2.

Never got around to finishing TL2, because that shit is massive and becomes kind of repetitive after a while, but I didn't regret playing it. Recently tried replaying with the Synergies mod, but I find the difficulty settings a bit borked: on normal it's a bit too easy and on veteran it's still easy but stuff just takes too fucking long to die, which coupled with the massively increased spawn size of synergies makes it an exercise in tedium to slog through the ginormous levels.

Some of the new classes are quite neat, though. Unfortunately, the basic game design is simply less appealing than D2s.

 

Torchlight was a cartoony game with borderline World of Warcraft art style, and you're talking about atmosphere?

 

Yeah, riiight. Good luck arguing about atmosphere and all.

 

The first screen you see in Torchlight 2 has more atmosphere than whole TL1 put together and bended 10 times over. Not to mention the custom made mini dungeons spread all over the game.
TL2 is a huge improvement over TL1 in every possible department and it still wasn't enough. So shove your edginess wherever you may please.

 

Wow, how rude
Actually I can state the opposite. First couple of dungeons in TL1 is much more engaging than the whole TL2. So much for subjectiveness, right? I'm not bashing TL2 here, I agree it's a huge improvement in making the game more vast and varied in all aspects, but... Let's sum it up. While I play TL1 - I actually enjoy it. While I play TL2 - I kind of struggle with it.

The first one was a straightforward, simple hack'n'slash. You're running through levels, spamming spells and getting your equipment and skills better and better. Second - is kind of cumbersome and unfocused piece of the same formula. By that I mean that you have to track too many things in your disposal - inventory is overloaded with heaps of futile items, skill tree is like too many options at once, and now add to that that all the time you have to track charge meter, catch tiny rat enemies on the screen and spend stat points in no less unfocused char system where there's not much of min-maxing, cause you still have to invest in almost all of stats. All of the chars are quite a blend of common classes, so you not sure at what they really good at.

 

Both games are fairly mediocre, just go ahead and play Diablo 3.

No one will know.

 

Yes.

 

Grim Dawn is shit and a downgrade from TQ.

 

But but... it was supposed to be the chosen one!


Did you just try the initial alpha, then?

 

Yes. I'll probably end up buying the final version anyway but aside from atmosphere (which I think would suit a more traditional RPG anyway) I was fairly disappointed.

 

Like they couldn't make up their mind on what they wanted each class to specialize in, so every one has summoning, Engineer has an effective ranged build, the Outlander has all kinds of different ranged attacks that have nothing to do with the weapon in her hand. This lack of focus extends to the art direction and setting, and that's why there is no atmosphere. They wanted steampunk, and dark fantasy, and high fantasy, and gothic, and cartoon, and etc.

 

You're thinking of TL1 where skills/talents were shared across the classes. Every class in TL2 has fairly distinct talents. Yes, you can make different builds with each class (ranged Engineer, melee engineer, ranged berserker, melee berserker, caster berserker, etc.) but I'd consider that a strength. As noted directly above me there are some flaws with classes and synergies with itemization/weapons but that's not really a failing of class design.

 

Why didn't you start with that, could have ignored you without thinking twice. TL 2 too complex for you. GOTCHA!
Btw, just a little hint to help with your mental strain while you decide stat allocation. All stats doing something useful does not imply you have to invest in all of them.

 

Keep in mind, Synergies mod also has randomized dungeons to level through if the Acts become too boring for you. I'd at least give it a look before you shelve TL2 completely.

 

Is TL2 with synergies at all a fun loot-run single player game like D1 and 2 could be? I didn't like the original, and TL2 seemed kinda... meh. The only thing that made D2 enjoyable to me was being able to find my own loot upgrades along the way. Don't give a shit about endless mindless grinding with a maxed out character.