You give them equipment to help you as they are your companion. In previous games, the pet helps you out by doing basic attacks and bringing your items. I haven’t seen any game do the same thing. In Torchlight, this is one aspect that made it unique. The difference here is that you can switch at any time anywhere in the game, while in Diablo 3, you can only do it in town. If you are familiar with Kanai’s Cube in Diablo 3, it is practically the same concept. You can have a maximum of 3 Legendarium skills that are not being used by an equipped weapon. At the start of the game, you are only able to use one, but you can change this at any time. There is another addition called the Legendarium, wherein all the special items you get that have this special passive skill is gained automatically. Just because of this, it did get me interested in going for another playthrough to experience something new. There are a lot of reasons to experiment with the characters and with the combined relics. Personally, I wasn’t able to fill up the 9 slots, but that is just my playstyle I suppose. This actually provides you with 24 skills that you can unlock throughout a single characters playthrough. 2 of the skill sets are provided by default, and you have to choose 1 relic skill set out of the 5 relic skills provided. Each character will have 3 sets of skills. Making a character will make you choose from a Sharpshooter (long range), Dusk Mage (magic), Forged (melee and ranged), to a Railmaster (melee, explosive). Even Magic the Gathering has their own upcoming ARPG called Legends, which introduces a Collectable Card system that randomizes your skills.With so many games out there, Torchlight 3 has a lot to prove on what makes them stand out from the rest. Path of Exile was designed with Diablo 2 fans in mind with extreme depth of their skill tree. Minecraft has simplified mechanics but with fun graphics that is welcoming for new young players. Diablo stands out with extreme customization and higher unique weapons on higher levels. If you have played Diablo, Titan Quest, Minecraft Dungeons, Path of Exile you will be at home playing this one. The general gameplay of Torchlight is very similar to most ARPGs. You can take the time to listen to Torchlight 2, and somehow that still sounds better than Torchlight 3.
While Diablo, StarCraft and World of Warcraft had this appeal that it really makes it shout out from the visuals, the music in Torchlight 3 really put itself at the back. However, even though it was from the same composer, the impact is not the same. Since it’s the same composer, Matt Uelman who also made the music for the original StarCraft and World of Warcraft. The music in the game has that same feeling from the iconic Diablo 1 and 2. It was just sad to see that there is almost nothing to see in the background. I know the game is designed as a top-down action game, but their cut-scenes really puts the camera really close to the characters and you can see a bit of the background.
Even when using the ingame graphics for some minor cut-scenes, the draw distance is pretty short.
There are a few, like the depth of field when doing a character check, and there are more details in the environment that pop out, metallic objects now shine, but that’s it. I usually have no issues with the style of the art, my issue with the game is that it barely has any improvements visually. It’s drastically different, and it did define itself that it has its own style. Torchlight instead made it look more like a 3D cartoon. Even if you look at most ARPGs today, they are in general, adapting a dark, realistic, highly detailed look (like Path of Exile, Titan Quest). Diablo’s art style is very dark, it has a feeling of being on a journey going down to hell. Torchlight made itself different from Diablo by the look and feel.