Torchlight
Reviewed by Game Boy
Please note, all PC Games reviewed in this series are played by both men and women, boys and girls.
Welcome to the town known as TORCHLIGHT!
An adventurer’s paradise for both sexes, noted by the choice of characters on the box cover.
‘Break through the mines of “Torchlight” and into the buried past through a labyrinth of caverns, containing twisted creatures and ruined civilisations. Choose to face evil as one of three different heroes.’
The Destroyer is able to channel the power of his ancestors and is a master of melee combat.
The Vanquisher is an expert markswoman trained by an ancient, mysterious order.
The Alchemist relies on the power of Ember for his magical art.
Within the many floors, as they are known, below Torchlight, you will find, among others, Zombies, living skeletons, huge trolls, spiders, fire breathing dragons, creatures constructed out of rocks, along with the occasional challenge in the form of a giant creature, one of which is morphed by evil Master Alric from Syl’s brother, who your chosen character, accompanied by a helpful pet, follows into the mine of Torchlight to begin your quest, while others can be found the deeper you explore.
I initially played a trial version of this highly challenging, excitingly atmospheric game (especially with just a table lamp to see the keys), which came with my Windows 7 PC.
Because of my love of archery, and having played Age of Empires II as the Mongols, I chose and played the Vanquisher who starts the game armed with a bow despite her carrying a pistol on the cover. In a way, the cover is very much a clue as to how she should be armed in the deeper floors of Torchlight, while, and as you fight your way through a lava-like labyrinth, you will need to switch weapons to kill certain types of creatures you encounter and swap skills using ‘Tab’.
Obviously, armed with just a pistol or any one-handed weapon you should protect yourself with a shield. Weapons, armour and other items your character can be equipped with cost gold. Luckily for you, some of the creatures you kill drop items they’ve stolen from dead adventures they’ve encountered before you. As you pick up dropped items at the start, they are automatically placed on your character. Thereafter, they are placed in your pack:
From the above screenshot, you will note that your pet also has a pack. Your character will let you know when your pack becomes full. All you need do then, is left click ‘A’ (see next) the ‘apple’ icon far left of the top tier of the game interface and ‘E’ the ‘paws’ icon which is to the right of the blue half circle. With both packs open, you simply left click to pick up an item and drop it in your pet’s pack.
There is, however, a better, quicker way to move something between multiple open, let’s say compartments and that is to hold down shift and left click the item. This comes in handy when you need to purchase more than 1 of each potion and identification scrolls from the ‘General goods’ trader.
Let’s look at the interface in more detail:
A: Click to open your character’s pack. B: Opens your character’s sheet. C: Your list of skills.
D: Journal (lists your achievements to date). E: Your pet’s pack. F: Quests. G: Automap. H: The game’s menu, used for exiting the game, playing as another character or changing the settings.
The two half coloured circles represent: Health (Red) and Mana (Blue). If Health drops to zero, your character dies. Not to worry, as you can regenerate them, albeit at a cost. Mana is reduced depending on certain factors, which I will go into later. For now, you need to be aware that Mana regenerates when you rest. Torchlight, unlike other games, is not about out and out fighting, irrespective of which of the two main characters, Destroyer or Vanquisher, you chose. Indeed, take that approach and your character will die more often than they should and against lesser creatures. When faced with a mass of creatures, draw them out by retreating and picking off the faster moving ones that chase after you.
NB. The game automatically saves your current position. In that respect, there is no going back.
Health and Mana are replenished in two ways. The main one is to drink the relevant coloured potion, while fonts containing them can be found in certain floors.
To clarify terminology. Some games have progressive levels. Levels in Torchlight relate to your character’s level, while the various depths of Torchlight are floors (see top right corner of the pack screenprint where you will also find the floor’s map showing you and your pet’s position). Potions come in 5 sizes (so far) and can be added to the interface. All you then do is press the number on your keyboard that relates to the number on the interface (1 to 0) below any item to activate it:
1 & 2 are more of the smallest size potions you start the game with. 3 is a skill. 4 & 5 are the next size potions. Alt: pressing the Alt key shows and names dropped items etc. ‘II’ is the pause game key (you can also pause the game by pressing the ‘Enter’ key on your keyboard). Right of the Mana level indicator: ‘Left mouse attack’ (see ‘Mana, moving and fighting’ below). Repeat of the skill assigned to 3. ‘Tab’. By pressing Tab on the keyboard you can switch skills to 6: Stampede. 7 & 8 unassigned segments (useful for triggering learned spells). 9: Identification scroll. 0: Town portal scroll. Opens a portal back to Torchlight. Although a section of your pack can hold 20 of each scroll and potion, always make sure you have at least three Town Portal scrolls (blue ribbon) in your or your pet’s pack. To add something to the lower tier of the interface, simply left click one of the numbered cells and select it from the pop-up menu.
If you are wondering what the horizontal tan line at the bottom of the interface signifies, it is a current measure of your Experience. Once the line reaches the far right you level up.
Note, there are far more important things to take your attention, so do not allow yourself to be distracted by it.
Identification Scroll: Some items you pick up will have a ‘?’ over them. To find out what their attributes etc are, right click an Identification scroll in your pet’s or your pack and left click the item. As you make your way through the first zone, only use them on items that are of use to your character(s).
Items with a red background can only be used once you achieve a certain level or meet an attribute level:
The left side shows your Character’s attributes while the right is one section of your Skills. Each time you level up in the game, a plus sign appears at both sides of the screen. If you also ‘Gain Fame’ the plus sign appears on the right side. Since you gain both through combat, levelling up will certainly occur in the heat of battle. Simply retreat from the melee and left click one of the plus signs to open up both and allocate the points you receive as you see fit. You get 5 points to distribute amongst your character’s 4 attributes (left side). As the destroyer, there is little point in adding them to dexterity (the Vanquisher’s attribute) or Magic (the Alchemist’s), unless needed for an item you wish to use.
Items that your characters pick up, armour and trinkets, mostly, may have one or more attribute bonuses. In doing so, the bonus may allow you to wear something that is otherwise out of your range for that attribute. If you then come across something of greater value, usually an item with + health points, exchanging the item will cause the restricted item to leave your character and move to your pack. Therefore, if you do decide to exchange new for old, note the bonus and be sure to add enough points to the attribute when your character reaches the next level.
Resistance, at the bottom of your character’s attributes, relates to: Poison (42), Fire (66). Electricity (112) and Ice (27). More on that later.
You only receive 1 skill point, while the maximum level a skill can be set to is 10.
Let’s look at the Destroyer’s skills in more detail. When you gain your first Fame point, add it to ‘Dual wielding’. That lets him carry and fight with two weapons. The skill set at ‘7’ in the first column (see above) increases the rate at which Fame and Experience are accumulated. The one in the middle column is your main skill while the one set at ‘9’ in the third column is dual wielding. Some skills, like DW, are always active while there are two more skill sections: Titan and Spectral (the Alchemist’s):
Note. As you add more points to a skill, its level and effect increases.
Spells: Among the items you come across as you venture through the floors of Torchlight are spells. They are held in a different section of your pack. To learn a spell, simply right click it, then add it to a vacant cell on the interface (6 to 8 being vacant). To un-learn a spell, hold the ctrl button and click it.
Your pet: As well as fighting by your side, if their health becomes low (see top left of screen) they will run away. Not too far, though. Feeding your pet fish will change them into something else for a limited period. Different types of fish cause different things.
People of Torchlight. The town is full of various characters that are of help to you. From left to right: Blacksmith. Buys and sells weapons, armour and miscellaneous. General goods. The same as the blacksmith plus potions and scrolls. Gem seller. Despite their name, they mainly sell spells plus rings and gems, which they also buy. Gems can be placed into socketable items (see ‘Tactics of the game’ at the very end). Enchant items. No guarantee of a success. Transmuter. Transmutes two gems etc of the same type to create a single gem etc of the next level. If nothing happens, that is because the gems etc are at their peak level. The items need to be in your pack, though. Destroy item to keep gem etc. Destroy gem etc to keep item.
Gems etc, as with rings etc, carry bonuses. When added to a socketable item, your character gains the bonuses (yellow on the following screenshot):
The particular item of armour is part of a set, denoted by the pinkish colour, while the information relating to each of the sets is shown in a different colour. Finding and using something with a + health increases your health by that amount, making it harder for your character to be killed. The same also applies to + Mana.
In between the two axes, Thor is carrying, is the weapons option icon. It lets you have two choices of switchable weapon sets, while, and as mentioned, I only tend to use it for the Vanquisher. The best and fastest way to swap weapon sets is to press the space bar on your keyboard. That also brings up your Character’s information. Press the space bar again to close them.
The town of Torchlight has two storage chests. The first, level with the various traders, is for your current character’s personal use only. The chest directly north of it is a shared chest; one that can be used by all of your characters. If, as the Vanquisher, I happen upon an item that will benefit Thor, I simply place it in the shared chest.
Mana, moving and fighting. You move with a forward motion of the mouse or a press of the left mouse button. You also use the left button to pick up dropped items. Attacks with the left mouse button as the destroyer are tame compared to those using the right mouse button; however, use of the right button drains Mana. Likewise, using spells or certain skills may also drain Mana. If Mana becomes too low your character cannot fight. Time to take a Mana potion. Personally, I would advise against clicking the ‘Left hand attack’ icon, as I’ve not found a way of reverting back to the right.
Since producing this article, I ran into a problem with Windows 10 (see end of article), which will no longer allow me to play or install the game. I now play it on XP.
In doing so, I discovered that, having used certain spells, my weapons are inactive. If that happens, simply press the number on your keyboard associated with that of your primary skill on the interface. So, if your primary skill on the interface is above the number 3 (see interface screenprint above) all you then do is press the number ‘3’ on your keyboard to re-activate it.
As you’ll discover when ghosting your mouse pointer over the icon’s on the interface, a hotkey appears on the screen (I = your pack, P = your pet’s, while pressing ‘C’ brings up your character’s information).
Runes. One of the tasks you have to complete is that of retrieving 3 different coloured runes, each one from a portal the same colour as its rune. You store/keep each of the 3 runes in you or your pet’s pack and deliver them to Syl who will use them to open a final, fourth portal.
Talking of portals. Occasionally, you may happen upon a ‘phase portal’, one that is not a portal back to Torchlight, but, instead, offers you an additional arena to fight the denizens within. Ultimately, the aim of the game is to find the stairs down to the next floor and its many challenges.
If, however, you decide to enter a ‘phase portal’, and your or your pet’s pack contain items you’d like to sell, you need to return to Torchlight and sell them first, that’s because, the only way out of a phase portal is to find the exit. You cannot, therefore, use a Town portal scroll.
On another note about portals. If your character is killed, you have 3 options to regenerate them. The first is where you are (dangerous to say the least. It costs both Fame and Experience points, though), the second at the entrance to the floor and costs gold.
Option three is in ‘Torchlight’ itself and costs no loss whatsoever. As to how you get back? Situated in the town is a large portal (see next set of screenprints) known as a waypoint. It lists the last floor of each zone you’ve successfully completed in order. By selecting the last one on the list and clicking ‘travel’, you will find yourself at or near the stairs down into the next zone, in effect, the zone you were just in. You will, though, have to make your way back through each of the floors you completed (if any) before you were killed, and unchallenged, save any monsters you may have evaded or didn’t explore where they are.
More on ‘zones’ below.
NB. If you take option 3 before completing the first zone (‘Orden mines’) you will find yourself having to start the game from ‘Torchlight’, that’s because, the town’s waypoint is only active once you complete a zone.
With that in mind, if you should decided to take the lesser option, you would do well to write down the names of the zones. The same portal can be used to exercise the game’s ‘Tactics’ for your benefit (see ‘Tactics of the game’ at the very end).
The floors, as they are known in the game, are separated into zones. Each zone features several floors with the exact same imagery. Generally speaking, at the end of most zones, you will find yourself up against one or more goliaths.
From left to right: At the end of the first zone, Syl makes an appearance, inviting you to join her in Torchlight. Rather than waste a town portal scroll, there is a waypoint back to torchlight. The second screenprint shows you where the waypoint is, while the third shows the list of zones. All you now do is left click ‘Dank Chamber’ and you’ll find yourself back where you were, ready to take the stairs down into the ‘Tomb of the awakened’ zone, which is next.
Tactics of the game
It may come as a surprise to you, but, nevertheless, there are tactics to the game, none of which have anything to do with fighting monsters. For that, you are pretty much on your own, as you would expect.
Multi-characters are the main tactic, in pairs (vanquisher and destroyer) and at a degree of say 10 levels apart.
As you already know from what’s thus far been mentioned, objects are either dropped or can be found in various concealments: Barrels, chests and urns, armour racks, lecterns, even dead adventurers. The more characters you have, the more items you’ll find. Also, visiting the first three trades-people in the town (left to right), in particular, the gem seller for gems, can prove beneficial.
Gems are notably cheap, and the type you need to look out for are ‘Core ember’ ones. Adding a ‘Core ember’ gem to a socketable weapon recovers a certain amount of health per second. I currently have a ‘Core ember’ gem in my lower level Vanquisher’s pistol. As a result of recovering 8 health points per second, I have an abundance of un-used health potions.
The other benefit is, your advanced characters will have collected more gold in their travels, thereby allowing them to purchase useful items, generally weapons, which, along with items they’ve picked up, can then be added to the shared chest for your lower level characters to use.
Now this is weird. Having recently started a new character and passed down items with no or level 1 & 2 requirements, the requirements increased in level. When I put them back in the players’ chests, however, they reverted back to their original requirement(s).
It is imperative, especially the deeper you venture, to seek out and hold onto armour and trinkets with +health points.
Be advised, do not pass down items that your advanced characters need until you clear the first zone. That’s because, and it recently happened to me, your character can get stuck in the crag of a rock. The only way out is to delete the character and start all over again.
TNT barrels. When exploded, they kill nearby monsters. The vanquisher is the best character to use for that, as you don’t want the explosion to harm the destroyer.
Beyond that, you will also come across ballista. Those that are active (not all of them are) can be used to fire at monsters ahead of them.
Elements: Poison is green, usually generated by zombies. Fire is breathed by dragons and shot in balls from a hooded denizen. Electricity is shot by bright blue balls that are first encountered in the ‘Estherian’ portals. With my advanced characters at level 23+, I’ve yet to notice a distinction in Ice (which monsters generate them).
A clever way to increase your level and fame, especially when you find yourself loosing health points and possibly dying, is to make a note of any floor in a zone that offers a ‘Phase portal’ and return to the zone via the town’s Waypoint.
Webs shot from spiders from the ‘Estherian zone’ onwards will momentarily slow down your movement and retreat.
That is basically all you need to know about playing the wonderful game of Torchlight, while in -game advice is given at the bottom of the screen when you move between floors – stairs down. How you fight etc, is for each individual player to discover. Good adventuring. Game Boy.
System requirements: Windows XP or later (2010 compatible), x-86 compatible 800MHz processor, 512MB of RAM, 400MB Hard Drive space, DirectX-compatible 3D graphics with at least 64MB of addressable memory (such as an ATI Radeon 7200, NVIDIA GeForce 2, or Intel GMA 950). An internet connection is required to activate your installation. DVD IO.
Update for Windows 10 users. It came to my knowledge in December 2020 that, a recent Windows 10 update has prevented me from both continuing to play this game and install it on my other, more expensive, Windows 10 PC. I have, though, managed to install and play it ok on my ever reliable Windows XP PC.
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