Being a big fan of dungeon crawlers and spending countless hours playing through the Diablo games, 2012 was a pretty exciting year for the genre! Diablo III definitely was the heavy hitter but it ended up having a lackluster launch with its controversial auction house and underwhelming loot system. In comes Torchlight II only a few months later boasting pets, maps filled with enemies, a wide variety of interesting loot, and cooperative multiplayer (which the first Torchlight lacked), and finally all of this came at a much lower price point than Diablo III. While Torchlight II lacked the visual polish of Diablo III, its gameplay, leveling progression, and loot systems made it a more enjoyable experience. Since then Diablo III has fixed a lot of the issues it had and pulled ahead particularly with the release of its expansion. It was enough time, however, for Torchlight II to really make a name for itself in the dungeon crawler community as a staple for fans of the genre. Both Diablo III and Torchlight II have come to console, and more particularly the Switch, but does Torchlight II handle the transition to console and handheld experience well?
A level up system where one invests points in stats and abilities invokes nostalgic feelings of old school RPGs. The class selection is fairly standard with archetypes but each with their own twist and playstyle. Torchlight II also has an endless supply of Easter Eggs and pop-culture references strewn throughout the entire game from Silence of the Lambs to Borderlands.
The biggest contribution that Torchlight II brings to the genre that helps separate it from others in the genre is the pet system. During character creation players select a pet (unicorn has been added exclusively for the Switch version) and the pet will accompany them throughout the journey. This pet can be equipped with gear, learn spells, and fight enemies. Most importantly, the pet can be sent back to town to sell extra gear and even buy supplies and bring them back. Pets will be gone for a short period of time while this happens, but you are free to continue slaying and looting to your hearts content. This helps keep the game moving forward rather than pausing to head into town to empty an inventory and go into town to stock back up on potions and other essentials.
The Switch experience of Torchlight II brings a few things that are unique to the system. The obvious one is playing in handheld mode. In this mode, the game looks and plays as expected. Though I did find myself zooming the camera in a bit further than usual to make up for the smaller screen. In handheld mode one can play multiplayer locally. Meeting up with a friend and playing together brings out the nostalgia of DS and PSP multiplayer. Online multiplayer is also available, but does require Nintendo Online. As more abilities are invested in, spells are learned, and items are acquired it can get messy when trying to remember what’s available. Thankfully, there is the option to customize all of the button mapping for everything which is a nice touch, especially compared to Diablo III’s system of only being able to select between abilities tied to a specific button.
What feels missing from the experience is couch co-op. It is hard not to compare Torchlight II to Diablo III, especially since the latter had couch co-op included in the console versions easily being one of the game’s best features. Going back further to games like Champions of Norrath, Marvel Ultimate Alliance, and X-Men Legends all were console dungeon crawlers/action RPGs with couch co-op.
Torchlight II feels incomplete without it.
For the most part, Torchlight II on the Switch is the same game as it was on the PC. Players run around randomly generated maps jam packed full of enemies and loot and progress through the story with a customized character and chosen pet. This is done with a gamepad rather than keyboard and mouse, of course, but the overall experience hasn’t changed. Short version of this review is Torchlight II continues to be Torchlight II, which is a good thing. Overall, Torchlight II is a really fun game and it continues to be on the Switch. However, it is a game from 2012 and it does show its age sometimes. Everything that was great about the original release is still present, but not much has been added to make it stand out on console, especially when compared to its biggest competitor Diablo III. Handheld mode is great, and a nice way to wind down in bed with some good old fashioned dungeon crawling. This feels like a game that should have couch co-op; the lack of it is disappointing and would have made this a must-have Switch game.
As it stands however, Torchlight II, a good game, stays a good game but some key features feel missing in the transition to console in the seven years since the initial release.
Note: If you are playing with a joy-con that suffers from drift, Torchlight 2 becomes practically unplayable. There is a target assist built into the game that becomes active if you stop inputting to the joystick, which is very helpful for ranged attacks, but the drift would cause attacks to miss and my character to move. This killed my character quite a few times. I did not experience any of these issues with my pro controller.
For more information about Torchlight II, check out the official website. A digital Switch copy of the game was provided for the purpose of review.
