Torchlight: Infinite First Impressions: No Diablo Immortal? No Problem!
Many gamers are understandably hyped about the recent announcement of a release date—finally!—for Diablo Immortal, Blizzard’s much-hyped hack-n-slash mobile spin-off. Unfortunately, that release date is still months away, so I was left in search of something else to scratch the itch.
Enter Torchlight: Infinite, which has just entered its latest round of closed beta testing. Though never quite as big of a behemoth as Diablo, the Torchlight series has been around for over a decade and has built up a fan base with a more colorful approach to killing legions of monsters and gathering piles of loot. The franchise has gone through a rough patch in recent years, but I’m happy to report that so far, Torchlight: Infinite feels like a compelling return to form.
Like most action RPGs, Torchlight: Infinite begins by creating your character, starting with class selection. The game features five classes in total right now, but they have a little more flavor than the average fantasy title. Spacetime Witness and Frostfire are the two magic-focused choices, Divineshot lets you wield some heavy weaponry in the form of pistols and other ranged options, the Berserker is the traditional giant sword- or axe-wielding warrior, and the Commander drops combat prowess altogether in favor of ordering around legions of robotic helpers.
So far in the beta I have tested both the Berserker and the Commander. I love the unique feel of tossing down spiderbots to do my killing for me as the Commander, but I have to admit that I eventually opted to stick with the Berserker. What can I say? I just love the feeling of swinging a big sword down into a pack of enemies and watching them all melt away.
Once your character has been created, Torchlight: Infinite follows a recognizable formula. I fought through an opening area, was introduced to the first hub area of Ember’s Rest, and began a linear series of quests sending me out into the dangerous wider world, exploring goblin villages, abandoned mines, and a wide range of other locations.
If there’s one obvious concession that Torchlight: Infinite has made in the transition to mobile devices, it’s in the size of these areas. The levels aren’t so short as to be unsatisfying, but they’re far from sprawling. The plus side is that these more bite-sized maps are easy to burn through when you’re on the go. I found myself pulling out my phone whenever I had ten or fifteen minutes to spare and easily being able to go from starting a new level to defeating the boss at the end in that time frame.
Oh, and one other great mobile-minded addition to Torchlight: Infinite? Let’s say you’re in the middle of a really intense level but you suddenly have to put down the phone and focus on something else. By the time you get back to it, you find you’ve been disconnected from the server. In some games, that could lead to great frustration, as you’d be forced to play back through everything in the current level from the beginning. Thankfully, Torchlight: Infinite saves exactly where you were in the current map, including which enemies you’ve already defeated and any loot that has been dropped that you hadn’t yet picked up. You can get right back into the gameplay without worrying.
Most importantly, that moment-to-moment gameplay feels great. Torchlight: Infinite is one of the slickest and most polished action RPGs I’ve ever played on my phone. Movement is handled via a virtual joystick, and a selection of combat abilities can be used at any moment by tapping buttons in the right-hand corner of the screen.
The developers have clearly given a lot of thought to how the user interface is placed on the screen. For example, there are multiple options for changing the size and location of the chat box, and the player character’s health bar is presented as a tiny bar floating directly above his head rather than at the bottom of the screen where it could be covered up by a player’s thumbs. I found it very easy to keep track of the action, even as I was pulling off flashy attack combos at lightning speed.
Those attacks are so much fun, by the way. From dramatic leaps to explosive area-of-effect abilities to teleportation spells, Torchlight: Infinite provides tons of options that keep combat moving quickly and keep players engaged. Don’t think that means it’s all a cakewalk, either; regular enemies die fast, but I found myself perishing at some of the boss encounters. Bosses come equipped with much bigger health bars and attack patterns that require thoughtfully moving around the arena instead of just spamming attacks over and over. That’s a lesson I learned the hard way. Multiple times.
While I was only able to get a brief glimpse at what progression will be like during my time with the beta, what I saw was promising. In addition to a slow drip of new abilities to swap in and out of your active ability slots, Torchlight: Infinite also lets players unlock modifiers that can be equipped onto active abilities, talent slots that increase your characters stats, passive abilities, and more. It feels like there’s plenty here to keep me playing for months to come—even after Diablo Immortal comes out!
And I haven’t even mentioned the gear. Torchlight: Infinite’s baddies dole out gear in satisfying stacks. Higher rarity gear must be identified, which then reveals a bevy of stat bonuses that often made me feel noticeably more powerful after equipping.
If there’s any complaint I have about the game’s gear, it’s storage-related. You have very limited space in your bags, and increasing the capacity requires spending in-game currency that will presumably be purchased using real money once the game is out of beta. Beta testers are provided with some of the in-game currency, and I happily went through a good chunk of mine just upgrading my bag slots so I could carry more armor without having to run back to town all the time to sell everything.
It’s worth noting, of course, that Torchlight is a franchise known for the innovation of giving players a pet that can run back to town and sell off unneeded gear while they keep adventuring. Torchlight: Infinite has collectible minions that will do this, but it takes longer than I’d like to unlock them, and they’re also tied into a gacha system that could be a frustrating source of monetization for some players.
Those are minor complaints in the grand scheme of things, however. So far, my time with Torchlight: Infinite has been like an exhilarating return to a place I once loved but haven’t visited in years. The old Torchlight magic is still going strong here, and if it stays that way for the dozens of hours to come, I expect I’ll be sticking with it for a long time.
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