Still burning strong.
Torchlight III has endured a rather rocky journey to its initial release. The project originally began as a free-to-play title called Torchlight Frontiers, which was all set to finally deliver on the grandiose MMO plans that Runic Games has been building towards since the first Torchlight. Alas, it wasn’t meant to be, as early reception to Frontiers was lukewarm and the game design wasn’t coming together quite how the team wanted it to. After nearly two years of development, Frontiers went through a big shift in January of this year, in which it was officially rebranded as Torchlight III and changed into an experience more in line with the previous two entries. The final product, then, proves to be worthy of the Torchlight name, but it also highlights that the series is in desperate need of a refresh.
The story picks up a few centuries after the events of Torchlight II, in a world where the empire is in decline. The Netherim are trying to take advantage of this weakness by attempting a take-over of Novastraia, so it’s up to you and your friends to repel the threat and save the day. As is typical for an ARPG, the story proves to be virtually nonexistent for most of Torchlight III, merely serving as a light means of giving context to your endless dungeon crawls. While it would be nice to see a little more effort put into telling a compelling narrative, the lack of emphasis on storytelling here actually proves to be a move in the game’s favour. Torchlight III is all about balancing stats, comparing gearsets, and offing goblins by the truckload, and frequent stops of exposition or cutscenes would only serve to get in the way of the main draw of gameplay.
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