DarkPony has spent some time in the Torchlight 2 beta and has more than a couple of thoughts on his experiences in his latest entry to the The Disgruntled Pony blog.

TL2 cleverly hides its linear hack & slash roots with randomized, wide and open outdoor zones and dungeons with multiple paths branching off. Some of those zones and dungeons are satisfyingly large. But what's more; the overall design and attention to detail of all environments are impressive; the game world feels very interactive and rich. A lot of love, inspiration and skill went into this game. Dungeons feel unique, you never notice the random map generation and there's all kinds of unexpected little things going on. I couldn't help myself making a ton of screenshots. More kudos here.

Read more of DarkPony's The Disgruntled Pony: Freeloading on the Torchlight 2 beta: a long and hard look.

I've been playing the TL2 beta, and I'm enjoying a lot of things about it

the class mechanics are interesting and the exploration is fun

honestly though, the game already feels archaic compared to D3

the game will definitely fill that niche of people who want the oldschool/outdated style of dungeon crawling, but D3 is the natural evolution of the genre

Originally posted by Asamof

I've been playing the TL2 beta, and I'm enjoying a lot of things about it

the class mechanics are interesting and the exploration is fun

honestly though, the game already feels archaic compared to D3

the game will definitely fill that niche of people who want the oldschool/outdated style of dungeon crawling, but D3 is the natural evolution of the genre

Agreed completely.

Really enjoying the engineer at the moment.

Eventho the environments look cartoony, it still shows great ambience and detail and breaths atmosphere. Bit like how WoW's environments, despite their cartoony look grew on you over time, due to the detail, ambience and care that went into it.

Also lot of funny details, like the first town you run into, where you can cast out a fishing pool and catch fish that transform your pet!   Great fun!!

Well, considering 6+ years of development and infinite funding, Diablo 3's graphics look archaic to me.

All that D3 has is its name. Take that trademark, the story, and the game isn't that special. No more custom builds, character development.. If you honestly enjoyed Diablo 1/2, Torchlight and Path of Exile is much more proper for you compared to Diablo 3, if you ignore the name and the story. And let's face it, people didn't played Diablo 2 for years thanks to it's story; they played it for the gameplay.

Originally posted by Asamof

I've been playing the TL2 beta, and I'm enjoying a lot of things about it

the class mechanics are interesting and the exploration is fun

honestly though, the game already feels archaic compared to D3

the game will definitely fill that niche of people who want the oldschool/outdated style of dungeon crawling, but D3 is the natural evolution of the genre

My feeling too, D3 is definitely a cut above, but if you feel the need to relive the good old classics, TL2 is the way to go. Also I'm thrilled about the modding community if it's as good as TL1 was...TL2 will offer good things in the near future.

It's sad it's always gotta be PoE or TL2 vs D3 with a lot of noncasual gamers.  Well either way, I agree that D3 is moving the genre forward.  And what forward usually means now is go for the casual gamers and D3 certainly does that.  The hardcore nutters and oldschoolers will always have those two other games coming out to satisfy their cravings for more complexity.  I just disagree with anyone saying D3 is bad and fails the genre.

This is the game Diablo III would like to be and never will, the multiplayer features written by Runic are a clear pun. Despite of its  limitations, TL2 beta is more addictive, RNG is amazingly well done and I got 0 DCs no matter how hard I tried to push it. Downtime, DCs and bugs (mostly linked to DCs) are the reason of D3's demise and unforgiving reviews. Runic will probably shine in 2012, Bli$$ard tried but it became too obvious that their best people left the company through the years. It's hard to believe this game costs 19€.

Sorry,double post.

Originally posted by Asamof

I've been playing the TL2 beta, and I'm enjoying a lot of things about it

the class mechanics are interesting and the exploration is fun

honestly though, the game already feels archaic compared to D3

the game will definitely fill that niche of people who want the oldschool/outdated style of dungeon crawling, but D3 is the natural evolution of the genre

Havn't played TL2 yet. But atleast it is only 20 bucks compared to the 60 i paid for diablo3. Also got bored with diablo3 in a few days. After beating diablo on hardcore mode its just eh. Was also super dissapointed with diablo3's ending. Felt alot less satisfied then i was with Starcraft2.

I also feel SC-II got a lot more love and a better team.

Originally posted by Veldara

It's sad it's always gotta be PoE or TL2 vs D3 with a lot of noncasual gamers.  Well either way, I agree that D3 is moving the genre forward.  And what forward usually means now is go for the casual gamers and D3 certainly does that.  The hardcore nutters and oldschoolers will always have those two other games coming out to satisfy their cravings for more complexity.  I just disagree with anyone saying D3 is bad and fails the genre.

I agree that it's sad, both games are legit. I'm already enjoying both, so it's a win-win situation for me 

though convincing my friends to coop TL2 with me might be challenge lol

Originally posted by Asamof

I've been playing the TL2 beta, and I'm enjoying a lot of things about it

the class mechanics are interesting and the exploration is fun

honestly though, the game already feels archaic compared to D3

the game will definitely fill that niche of people who want the oldschool/outdated style of dungeon crawling, but D3 is the natural evolution of the genre

I lol'd so hard at this fanboy BS. Then I started feeling sorry for you and anyone else who belived this load.

D3 is crap. Complete crap. If you like old graphics D3 is your game. If you like no skill required and basically autoleveling D3 is for you.

Originally posted by tersagun

Well, considering 6+ years of development and infinite funding, Diablo 3's graphics look archaic to me.

All that D3 has is its name. Take that trademark, the story, and the game isn't that special. No more custom builds, character development.. If you honestly enjoyed Diablo 1/2, Torchlight and Path of Exile is much more proper for you compared to Diablo 3, if you ignore the name and the story. And let's face it, people didn't played Diablo 2 for years thanks to it's story; they played it for the gameplay.

Heh, this is what I'm saying. People are in here saying TL2 already feels Archaic and old, I say the opposite. D3 looks and feels like it was made years ago, cause it was. They spent so much time on the game and it shows. They are using such a old build of the game and rather than re-work it with the technology we have now, they kept the older one.

At the end of the day though, TL2 is just so much fun. I can actually build my character the way I want. Not have a game hold my hand in case I can't think for myself.

Tried the beta, and was not impressed.  Not going to compare it to other games or do a fanboi on one of those over it. I was not impressed.  For those who like it, enjoy it.  My opinion.

to all the people saying that D3 has low tech graphics, you do realize every blizzard game releases like this right? and they've only been doing it for like what...the past 12 years? part of their success is that they don't exclude people with outdated computer builds.

also there's a really good chance that TL2 will get an official respec update like TL1 did, so really it's the same system as D3 just somewhat less convienent.

Originally posted by Yizle

Originally posted by Asamof

I've been playing the TL2 beta, and I'm enjoying a lot of things about it

the class mechanics are interesting and the exploration is fun

honestly though, the game already feels archaic compared to D3

the game will definitely fill that niche of people who want the oldschool/outdated style of dungeon crawling, but D3 is the natural evolution of the genre

I lol'd so hard at this fanboy BS. Then I started feeling sorry for you and anyone else who belived this load.

D3 is crap. Complete crap. If you like old graphics D3 is your game. If you like no skill required and basically autoleveling D3 is for you.

saying both games are great is being a fanboy now?

as opposed to you who's championing one game and spitting on its competitor?

lmao, never change mmorpg.com

I played the beta for a few hours the other day with a friend of mine on co-op. I really enjoyed the difficulty of the game. With two of us on Veteran the monsters actually would beat your face in if you werent careful. The wide variety of areas and monster types was quite nice as well. Definitely enjoying it for its old school feel.

(omfg opinion)

Best wishes

Saint

If by evolution you are refering to being less and less interactive and more left button clicker, sure, is an evolution. For me that's the arcaic thing, themeparking is not an evolved form. 

I discovered this game by someone telling me "go play TL2" while giving my opinion about internet dependance on d3. I signed for beta, why not? If that guy hate it may be good. So far I'm enjoying the game so much. TL2 gives me a lot to do while D3 don't give much besides grabing blizzard's hand through their new theme park based on diablo lore. If that's an evolution I'll stick to the other branch of the evolution, the one with TL2 on it. Customization on skills, stats, single player and LAN, different difficulty levels, rich enviroments and dungeons, etc... I rather have fun hacking and slashing that pressing levers to kill monsters conveniently waiting under a big lamp. 

The new blizzard activision's Diablo 3 have and amazing team doing cinematics and an amazing lore left behind by other talented people working now in different games, that's all. The game itself is not what a game named Diablo 3 should be. I am a Diablo fan since '96, but that's is no diablo.

Originally posted by Yizle

Originally posted by Asamof

I've been playing the TL2 beta, and I'm enjoying a lot of things about it

the class mechanics are interesting and the exploration is fun

honestly though, the game already feels archaic compared to D3

the game will definitely fill that niche of people who want the oldschool/outdated style of dungeon crawling, but D3 is the natural evolution of the genre

I lol'd so hard at this fanboy BS. Then I started feeling sorry for you and anyone else who belived this load.

D3 is crap. Complete crap. If you like old graphics D3 is your game. If you like no skill required and basically autoleveling D3 is for you.

You accuse someone of being a biased fanboy, and then you make a post like this, which has no merit whatsoever.  Please tell me about the great "skill" that is required to play PoE or Torchlight 2.  Newsflash:  It's a freakin' hack & slash game.  The genre isn't about skill, and never has been.  It's about mindless fun.  D3 has that in spades.  

Too many of you people are taking the criteria you use to judge MMOs and trying to apply it to hack and slash duneon crawlers.  It doesn't translate.