A perfect combination of Diablo + Fate and the best game of 2009 in terms of Value. Diablo Fans: DO NOT miss thi
From the new inventory system and the smallest details about the equipments to skills, game environment which is exactly like the first demo of Diablo 3, enemies (like the walking trees) and even the gory battles which lots of actions and spells happening on the screen is unbelievably reminds us of Diablo 3.
It's possible to say that Torchlight has imitated from Diablo 3 but it might sound weird because Diablo 3 is not done yet and also Torchlight has been finished long ago and it's been released! but something is obvious: it has gotten some of it's ideas from Diablo 3.
In terms of gameplay Torchlight is a combination of Fate + Diablo. some of Fate's special features like pet are also exist in Torchlight but the pet has a remarkable advance and thanks to the new special features like spell casting, it has become an extremely helpful companion and one of the main parts of the game. Fishing was another interesting part of Fate which is also in this game too but with better mechanism and unlike fate which many people entirely avoided it because of it's troublesome problems, in Torchlight there is no fishing punishment mechanism and players will only be rewarded.
Unlike Fate which had no class, Torchlight represents 3 classes which are very similar to Diablo 1's(actually the same) but with different names.
The Leveling up system is also very similar to Diablo 2 and the only important point is that the skills system, just like Diablo 3; has much more flexibility. In spite of this Torchlight doesn't use the random stages system of Fate and the game's stages are fixed so the player can save the game where ever they want and when they return it's gonna start from exactly where they saved it(not in the town).
As for the other differences between Fate and Torchlight you can look at the Torchlight's complete story with In Game demos. Aside from the main mission you'll also have 3 kinds of secondary objectives to increase the variety of missions.
The first two objectives are consists of finding special embers and killing random special creatures(Boss type) in your way through mines to gain rewards and most important Fame(increases you're Hero's reputation).
The third kind of secondary missions doesn't occur in the main stages of the game; the player uses a portal summoned by an NPC in Torchlight and travels to random stages and environments to find special treasures and unfortunately since these stages take a long time to complete environments and maps will soon get repetitive and you may hesitate to complete them.
Biggest problem: and unfortunately this getting repetitive is exactly the biggest problem of Torchlight. even in the most different stages of Torchlight the gameplay is the same and the biggest difference is only visually so getting repetitive comes to eyes in almost every place of the game.
Technically the graphic is not great but artistically it's beautiful; the art design and colors really play with your eyes.
Torchlight's extremely beautiful music is a combination of Diablo and Warcraft. many of the game's first pieces of musics are very similar to the dark music of Diablo and after a time the pieces change into the musics of Warcraft and WOW but the most similarity in music is in the town which is almost like the music in Diablo 2's first stage called Rouge Encampment.
At the end Torchlight is an Extremely entertaining and joyful Game and undoubtedly it can entertain every single player specially the Hardcore RPG fans and SPECIALLY the Diablo fans.
MORE IMPORTANT: if you are a Diablo fan then you SHOULD NOT miss this.