Now, I’m a huge fan of Torchlight so the confirmation at CES that we are getting an Xbox Live Arcade version had me pretty excited. Then I started reading all the details about the changes that have been made to the interface and now I’m even more pumped. I was a little worried that it would not be quite as fun with a controller, but Runic Games has taken that into consideration.
“The User Interface has received a complete overhauled from the ground up. There is all new art and navigation. The concept of item ’slots’ is done away with – you now can hold up to 50 items. You can have 4 active mapped skills at a time, and a secondary set that you can swap between (using the dpad) for 8 mapped skills.
The control is direct now with no virtual cursors ever. Combat is a little different because you move forward slightly with melee attacks but all the attack animations are redone to support this. You don’t ‘target’ enemies wither. Insterad you’ll get a red highlight for a ‘primary’ target that is in range, but for melee attacks you hit everything in your damage cone (secondary targets get secondary damage ).
Ranged combat is actually in many ways easier – kiting and dodging are significantly more viable with a controller and the autotargeting for ranged attacks works pretty well. ‘Lobbed’ skills mapped to the triggers have a default distance, but you can finesse them for longer or shorter throws by holding the trigger at a given depth. Combat pace feels ‘faster’ and more maneuverable. If you’ve played classics like Dark Alliance or Champions of Norrath, you have the general idea ( but no jumping ). Movement speed is analog – you can move slower by easing on the stick, something you can’t do at all on PC.”
Published by Microsoft, the console version of Torchlight will be available for download on XBLA beginning Spring 2011 as part of Microsoft’s House Party lineup.
“We couldn’t be happier to bring Torchlight to Xbox LIVE Arcade,” says CEO Max Schaefer. “This is what the fans have been asking for. Torchlight for the Xbox 360 is a new way to experience a great game, and we’re thrilled to work with Microsoft to bring it to fruition.”
Torchlight sales are estimated at over 750,000 worldwide and continue strong. Development of the multi-player sequel, Torchlight II, is underway.
