Torchlight III

A hollow, shallow shell of a sequel that proves having the original creator isn't enough to save a dying vision. Torchlight III is a heartbreaking example of a game that fundamentally fundamentally fails to understand its own lineage. While it technically features the "Torchlight" name and a few familiar faces, the soul of the franchise is nowhere to be found. The game started its life as a Free-to-Play MMO called Torchlight Frontiers, and unfortunately, that DNA is baked into every single boring mechanic. From the overly simplified skill trees to the repetitive, mobile-game-style "Fort" building system, it feels less like a deep, rewarding ARPG and more like a sanitized port of a game meant for a smartphone. The new studio, Echtra Games, clearly tried to pivot toward a premium release at the last second, but you can’t fix a foundation built on shallow, grindy mechanics. The comparison to Torchlight 1 and especially the legendary Torchlight 2 is frankly embarrassing. Those games were built on a sense of discovery, incredible loot variety, and a frantic, satisfying combat loop that made you want to stay up until 4 AM. In Torchlight III, that magic is replaced by a clunky, sluggish experience where the loot feels meaningless and the world feels empty. The vibrant, "steampunk-fantasy" charm of the originals has been diluted into a generic, bright aesthetic that lacks any of the grittiness or personality that made Runic Games' work so iconic. It’s as if someone described the first two games to the developers over a bad phone connection, and they tried their best to guess what made them fun. Ultimately, this feels like a product designed by committee rather than a project born of passion. The depth that kept fans playing Torchlight 2 for a decade—the intricate character builds, the rewarding gear progression, and the sheer scale of the adventure—is completely absent here. It is a shallow treadmill that offers no reason to keep running. For long-term fans of the series, Torchlight III isn't just a disappointment; it’s a cautionary tale about what happens when a new studio inherits a masterpiece without understanding what made it a masterpiece in the first place. Save your money, save your time, and just go reinstall Torchlight 2. 3/10 — The light isn't just dim; it’s completely burnt out.

BEWARE: multiplayer is broken. The game is semi-abandonware, so it's functionally singleplayer-only. Meh. [i]Torchlight III[/i] is a serviceable but forgettable [i]Diablo[/i]-like. The story is negligible, which would be fine except the campaign is incredibly easy: none of the enemies require any more strategy then holding down the shoot button while dodging occasionally. Even the bosses add only some trivial new feature like charging or attacking an area, but with heavy telegraphing they're easy to avoid. Perhaps it was calibrated for consoles, and using a mouse makes a big difference. Having almost completed the game in 30 hours, I don't have any interest in trying again with another class or a higher difficulty. Gear isn't very interesting. Some weapons inflict electricity, fire, or poison damage instead of physical, and some armor protects from elements, but that's about it. X points of armor or Y points of evade? Collect sets for extra bonuses? It hardly matters when you can beat the game with no gear at all. You have a fort, which you can customize. However, it's almost entirely cosmetic; there are only a handful of functional buildings, and most of [i]those[/i] are used only to unlock more cosmetic buildings! Apparently there's enchanting, but it's not unlocked until the very end of the game, so I can't speak to it. About the best thing I can say is that it looks pretty. Also, the pets are cute, and the unique feature of the [i]Torchlight[/i] series - your ability to dispatch pets back to town to sell excess gear - is appreciated.

I'm pushing myself to atleast finish the campaign, but it really is quite bland.

Finished T2 recently as im going through the series and decided to see the next game in the line.. Reading the reviews i was skeptical as people praise T1 highly while it was mediocre compared to its competition at the time.. Turdlight 3 is a complete disgrace to the series, and should never been a mainline game for the series The more i played, the more i got disgusted by it and you can see that i couldnt play for a long time. Hell ill try the F2P "Torchlight: Infinite" thing to see if its any better than this pile of garbage EDIT: Its actually pretty decent even if its filled to the brim with currencies and some gacha mechanics Gameplay is rather solid and i rather play it than this mess Game looks and feels like mobile game that would been heavily monetized It was developed as an F2P MMO called "Torchlight Frontiers" at first but clearly that project fell through and was forced to change direction quick Not the miracle story of "We realized this is better suited as successor to Torchlight 2 during development" which is just coping of a dude that couldnt make MMO he was dreaming about since T1 days without hes brother being there to save him Game contains multiple mechanics like single player "battlepasses" with actual legendary item rolls relatively early or "manage" your own fort to just make you play more / waste your time Riddled with low effort dopamine drops like: - Tons of destructible items including explosive barrels just put next to bunch of crates and normal barrels at rate you'd think there is gunpowder factory nearby, but no its there just to give you that lil dopamine kick when it all blows up - "Bosses" that are closer to minibosses with minimal mechanics that just create loot fountain - Rate of Legendary items that makes them more like uncommon drop (I have 4 legendary items with 2.3h played...) - Pet collecting that is essentially just a lil lootbox after boss kill as you get to open a chest that contains random new pet with some passive / active ability unlock for all of them when you get it - Hell even the gear gambler npc has infinite stock now - "Lootbox" mechanic sacks you can find by breaking / killing stuff for your fort furniture Pet is now not a permanent partner choice You can change them to whatever one you "tamed" in your fort or right after you get one from boss pet lootbox UX is bad, UI was made for elderly people but then they decided to make it look complex by splitting up everything into bunch of submenus There are 4 tabs for different parts of the inventory that could be easy 2 tabs for god sakes... 2020 game with settings panel that is worse than T2... Torchlight 2 costs 19Euro while this costs 34Euro for an downgrade at every possible aspect, in other words: Dont waste your time or money on this slop If anything charging 34Euro without discount is straight up daylight robbery for what essentially is a mobile game I wouldnt play this slop even if it was free, i wish i could refund this but i bought the bundle XD Entertainment please make a worthy sequel to T2 compared to this slop ( 2025 December "XD" acquired Torchlight IP assets ) But for the love of god keep Max Schaefer as far as you can from it as this was hes vision what successor to Torchlight 2 was supposed to be during Frontiers development and bro turned good meal into charcoal trying to reheat it Dude was obsessed to make Torchlight MMO since before T1 happened Idk how someone that was co founder and worked on the games of: Blizzard North (Diablo 1, Diablo2 and LoD expansion) Flagship Studios (Hellgate: London) Runic Games (Torchlight, Torchlight 2) Make this abomination I bet the guy was put on some minor role in Torchlight 2 development like he was put to background team on Diablo 2 so the game came out really good He was probably just getting in the way of hes passionate brother Erich that currently is working on "Darkhaven" ARPG which if anything looks closer to a proper ARPG than whatever this slop is (This guy by some sources was extremely hyped up to work on Diablo 2 compared to rest of the team by a mile) I hope Max Schaefer never works in pc/console game industry after this mess The current team under his lead are only fit for one thing at this point - Mobile Slop games

It's enjoyable, but it took going back to Torchlight 2 to realize what wasn't sitting right. They went to sand off the rough edges, but they kept sanding and kept sanding, until what's left is pretty mindless and railroaded. The world is small, NPC interactions are minimal, the character builds are overly simplified, and the game just tells you the next thing to do without any character having indicated it. Plus, the game is short enough that the large step-ups in loot quality drive how you play more than the other way around. Damage for all abilities are calculated based off your weapon's damage, so chasing that raw number is practically unavoidable, even if there's specific weapon types or abilities you need to support the gameplay you want.

Its okay, but not worth the full price. Im pretty happy I got it for 5 bucks. Being only online and not having the ability to pause is super strange, especially while playing in single player mode. The gameplay is ok and classes feel decent, however there is barely any endgame loop. Overall a modernized TL2, but with less depth and gameplay.

Awful

Go for Torchlight II. Much better!! This one is terrible.

Drops are pathetic even at highest level of difficulty, monsters spawn rates are high but drops are pathetic when scaled to their hps, Fazeer Dun'djinn (higher levels don't even drop good items enough to keep up to lower level drops) checkpoint is ridiculous for pushing you backwards whenever you lost a stage (many times due to teleporting away from being surrounded doesn't register the fugging key), also too much long ass loading. No reason to limit level to 60 when endgame challenge is 251 levels, skill trees could've been maxed out (though majority of skills are useless too)

Interesting! Quote: "Remember that Jesus Christ is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. Probably worth a google?"