VentureBeat » Torchlight II

Kingdom Conquest II primer: How to protect yourself and dominate your enemies

Giancarlo Valdes — Fri, 18 Jan 2013 00:30:32 +0000

The first Kingdom Conquest was a surprise hit in Sega’s slate of mobile games when it launched in 2011. The free-to-play massively multiplayer online role-playing game looks crude, but the average paying player spends enough money per month to buy “two new console games,” according to Sega of America’s director of online operations Ethan Einhorn.

While most of its success has come from international markets like Japan, Thailand, France, and the Philippines, Sega is hoping the sequel (released today for free on iOS and Android) will become more popular in the U.S. with its updated visuals and complex layer of systems. The developers are so confident about Kingdom Conquest II that they’re touting its release as the arrival of the “second generation” of strategy games for mobile devices.

That’s quite a lofty promise. If nothing else, Kingdom Conquest 2 is ambitious, combining three distinct genres into a cohesive gameplay experience. Before you jump in, here’s a quick glance at how you can use those different mechanics to your advantage.

Resource management

As a lord in the land of Magna, your goal is to conquer as many territories and other players as you can. A crucial part of gaining that power is building and fortifying a kingdom that’ll give you enough resources (wood, stone, and iron) for battle — the size of your army is dependent on how many resources you have. You’ll want to construct your sawmills, ironworks, and stoneworks facilities near their respective sources (including a warehouse to store it all) for an easy resource gathering bonus. You can then increase the production speed and the maximum capacity by upgrading the buildings.

When you improve your city, you also increase its health points. Other players can invade your territory and deplete that number by defeating your army. If you lose too many battles, they gain control of your kingdom entirely, absorbing you into their guild or alliance. Only your allies (if any) can save you or try to negotiate with your captors.

To keep the playing field competitive, Sega breaks up the pace into three- or four-month phases it calls “seasons.” It crowns one player as the one true king based on the total number of towers they control (found in conquered territories). Afterward, the game world is reset — you only keep your stats, monsters, and equipment. The winners from the previous seasons will have some slight advantages going into the next one, but everyone will have to start building their kingdom from scratch again.

Card battles

The only way to recruit soldiers to your cause is to collect a series of monster cards when exploring dungeons. Each card grants you the ability to produce the type of creature depicted on it (some being more rare than others). You organize them into battle-ready units, tweaking formations and selecting a commander to lead them. The fights automatically play out based on your units’ stats. If they die, you still keep the card itself.

The size and strength of your troops is all that stands between you and your rival kingdoms, so it’s important to collect as many as you can. But if you’re impatient about earning them the regular way, you can spend real money to buy more CP, a type of in-game currency, to purchase cards. One reason why some people do this is because of the ability to synthesize cards into stronger forms with enhanced skills.

Dungeon exploration

If you’ve played other RPGs like Diablo III or Torchlight 2, this will sound familiar. You pick from a handful of classes (Ninja, Warrior, Swordsman, Mage, and Saint) to raid dungeons with up to three other players by your side, diving deeper into its levels until you fight a boss. Your reward for completing them are new pieces of equipment and “clear tickets,” the latter of which you can redeem for cards.

Each dungeon has its own specific set of cards to randomly draw from. The number of tickets you receive at the end depends on the difficulty level you play on: easy will earn you two tickets, normal with four, and hard gives you six. The tougher difficulties will also give you a better chance of grabbing rare cards.

However, you can only venture into the dungeons a certain amount of times per day. If you want to go over that limit, you’ll have to spend some real money to bypass it.

Filed under: Games

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The best games of 2012 (GamesBeat staff picks)

Jason Wilson — Fri, 21 Dec 2012 18:00:40 +0000

It’s cliché to say that 2012 was “the best year ever for video games.” Some folk say this about every year. Yet it’s difficult for us not to look back at 2012 with such love and fondness.

If 2012 has shown us one thing, it’s that video game development is truly in the “crossover era.” GamesBeat’s 2012 Game of the Year, The Walking Dead, was first available as a downloadable title, not a retail release. Other downloadables, such as indie-developed darlings Journey and Faster Than Light, garnered plenty of votes as well. And in our staff’s and contributor’s top games of the year lists, we even see mobile releases — like Fieldrunners 2.

Gaming has changed, and it’s nice to see that it’s more than just big-budget console and PC titles that have earned Game of the Year attention. Here are the top games as chosen by GamesBeat staffers and contributors. Let us know what you think about our picks in the comments — especially if you feel we’ve left something off our lists!

Editor-in-chief Dan “Shoe” Hsu

XCOM: Enemy Unknown
Platforms: PC, Xbox 360, PS3
Publisher: 2K Games
Developer: Firaxis Games

Little green men — yesteryear’s poster boys for mysterious invaders from outer space — are about as menacing as Oompa Loompas armed with toy guns. XCOM’s little gray men, however, are scary as hell. It’s not the ashen skin, bulbous eyes, or creepy-crawly walk. It’s what these Sectoids represent: a greater threat that we are simply not equipped to handle.

In the strategy game XCOM: Enemy Unknown, we mere humans bring dull knives to plasma gunfights. And just when we start to catch up in weapon technology, the bug-eyed bastards bring bigger guns and meaner friends. These jerks even cheat with mysterious mind-control powers. Meanwhile, we’re barely keeping the checkbook balanced between research, manufacturing, facility construction, aircraft, and an ever-decreasing budget due to world nations pulling out of the program if you can’t keep them safe (and you can never keep them all safe).

It all adds up to an incredibly exciting and stressful experience. Each decision — whether it’s which tree to hide your assault trooper behind or which whiny country gets your last airspace-monitoring satellite — feels monumental and permanent. Humanity’s existence is at stake, and we just want to make it to the next month, when a few more pennies come rolling in and a few more traumatized soldiers get out of sick bay.

It’s a desperate fight. And boy will we celebrate when those little gray men are dead.

Shoe’s other picks for best games of 2012: Fieldrunners 2, Dishonored, Journey, Fez

Lead writer Dean Takahasi

The Unfinished Swan
Platform: PlayStation 3 (PlayStation Network)
Publisher: Sony Computer Entertainment America
Developer: Giant Sparrow

The Unfinished Swan is one of the most creative titles yet for the PlayStation Network. It’s an interactive fairy tale where you lob blobs of black paint at a white screen. As you do so, you uncover part of a 3D space hidden within the white scene. Uncovering each scene is a mind-bending task, as you have to navigate perplexing puzzles. You explore the unknown, and as you do so, you uncover a new segment in a fairy tale about a boy who loses his mother. It is a touching story that will remind of you of the zany Alice in Wonderland. Ian Dallas, the game creator, feels that a child who is abandoned is like an unfinished work of art. But just when you think that the game has become predictable, it changes. In some ways, the story seems unfinished. But the title is a wonderful first effort for Giant Sparrow, a new studio bankrolled by Sony.

Dean’s other picks for the best games of 2012: Halo 4, Far Cry 3, Journey, Call of Duty: Black Ops II

Culture editor Sebastian Haley

Hotline Miami
Platform: PC
Publisher: Developer Digital
Developer: Dennaton Games

Indie sensation Hotline Miami is best described as the film Drive, but in a retro, pixelated and somehow even more violent form, with subtle hints of Rockstar’s Manhunt sprinkled on top. The short-but-sickeningly sweet levels allow you to carefully orchestrate your symphony of murder and mayhem, filling the floors with maimed corpses and spraying the walls with crimson, all while its surreal, Miami Vice-inspired soundtrack beats in the back of your mind. Basically, if you own a Wii or like looking at livestreams of kittens, this is not your kind of game.

Sebastian’s other picks for best games of 2012: Trials Evolution, Far Cry 3, The Darkness II, Final Fantasy XIII-2

Staff writer Jeff Grubb

Mark of the Ninja
Platform: Xbox 360 (Xbox Live Arcade), PC
Publisher: Microsoft Studios
Developer: Klei Entertainment

For these Game of the Year summaries, we’re supposed to look above and beyond the individual parts of a game. We’re supposed to write about why it is important, but in the case of Mark of the Ninja, it’s those parts that make it so special. Developer Klei’s 2D stealth action game for Xbox Live Arcade and PC is a master class in well-executed gameplay mechanics. Whether it’s a soundwave that ripples off your ninja’s feet to indicate how much noise he’s making or a vision cone that indicates where an enemy is looking, Mark of the Ninja is constantly communicating with the player. It then provides the player with a great controlling character to poke and prod the world with.

It’s not rare that a game makes you feel like a badass, but with Klei’s game it’s not about how powerful you are — it’s about how in tune with the environment your character is. You have so much visual and aural information that every moment is an opportunity for experimentation. You can spend 10 minutes laying out a detailed plan that involves deadly traps, or you can play the entire game without a sword.

In video games, we don’t usually get a lot of new ideas, we just get different takes on old ideas. Stealth is an old idea at this point, but Mark of the Ninja distinguishes itself by executing the concept better than any other game before it.

Jeff’s other picks for best games of 2012: The Walking Dead, XCOM: Enemy Unknown, Trials Evolution, FTL: Faster Than Light

Copy editor Jason Wilson

FTL: Faster Than Light
Platform: PC, Mac, Linux
Publisher: Subset Games
Developer: Subset Games

I’m low on fuel. My crew raced around my starship like a colony of ants, hastily putting out fires as doors opened to the cold vacuum of space. The Rebels are closing in on me. Do I take a chance and see if I can gain more fuel in the next nebular cloud, or do I make a mad dash for the next sector and hope to find friendly forces instead of angry adversaries? These are just some of the choices the player faces in FTL: Faster Than Light, the indie roguelike that’s swept upon a number of Game of the Year lists in 2012 (including ours!). What makes FTL so compelling to players is that a take on Civilization’s “one more turn” addictive nature — but instead of furthering your game, you’re driven to see if your next attempt takes you closer to escaping the pursuing Rebel forces. And it’s this that makes FTL one of the most interesting, fascinating, and, yes, best games of 2012.

Jason’s other picks for best games of 2012: The Walking Dead, Crusader Kings II, Torchlight II, Dragon’s Dogma

Contributor Rus McLaughlin

Far Cry 3
Platforms: Xbox 360, PS3, PC
Publisher: Ubisoft
Developer: Ubisoft Montreal

Something visceral. Something primal. Most shooters don’t have these. They settle you into a safe, comfortable role. Veteran soldier. Seasoned cop. Career criminal. A hero … or an antihero. But Far Cry 3 makes you run blind through the jungle while murderous pirates hunt you like a piece of prey. You’re just a terrified kid. Never held a gun before. Never seen anyone die before. Now you’re covered in your own brother’s blood and getting high off the giddy thrill of mere survival. Then you’re turned lose to roam two amazingly rich, open-world islands where you can really start enjoying yourself, slowly and cautiously picking your tormentors apart. Before you know it, the elation you get from destroying a criminal empire hardens into a different kind of drug: revenge.

That’s when Far Cry 3 surpasses the standard shooter fare. An aimless twentysomething becomes a killer of killers, as feared as the insane warlords he wants dead. Between coolly tense stealth play and straight-up gunfights, you become the predator, stalking intruders in your jungle and murdering them at will. It all culminates in a moment where you must decide just how much you enjoy that particular power fantasy. Enough to abandon your humanity? Maybe.

Far Cry 3 goes there. Solid gameplay — minus a weak-tea multiplayer — and incredibly detailed environments lift it far enough, but its secret weapon lies in how it takes you into that dark, primal place. And then it dares you to ignore your basic animal instincts.

Rus’s other picks for best games of 2012: The Walking Dead, Fez, Halo 4, Journey

Contributing editor Rob Savillo

Lone Survivor
Platform: PS3, PlayStation Vita, PC, Mac, Linux
Publisher: Superflat Games
Developer: Superflat Games, Curve Studios

Jasper Byrne’s psychological thriller clearly owes a debt to the Silent Hill series’ mysterious and surrealist approach to narrative, among other things. Lone Survivor weaves a tale of intrigue, always making you second guess your choices while silently tracking your every decision. The latter shows an appreciation for an Eastern European take on storytelling (as seen in The Witcher 2 and Metro 2033) that flows more naturally than Western developers’ tendencies to employ contrived morality systems.

Lone Survivor also smartly reinvents the survival-horror genre by undermining the common trope of item scarcity, which games such as Resident Evil and the aforementioned Silent Hill have used in the past to create tension. Instead, Lone Survivor relies on its narrative sleight-of-hand to keep you on the edge of your seat.

For these reasons, Lone Survivor moves storytelling forward in the medium without falling back on “gamey” concepts such as light/dark paths. At once affecting and engaging, the narrative blends almost seamlessly (aside from an archaic death mechanic) with the interactive elements of the work, elevating the game above its peers in the big-budget, triple-A space.

Rob’s other picks for best games of 2012: XCOM: Enemy Unknown, Tokyo Jungle, Armored Core V, Dragon’s Dogma

Contributor Rob LeFebvre

Gravity Rush
Platform: PlayStation Vita
Publisher: Sony Computer Entertainment America
Developer: Sony Computer Entertainment Japan Studio

Gravity Rush is the superhero game I’ve always wanted to play. Even without the traditional Western comic book tropes like spandex and capes, Kat functions like any other neophyte comic-book character, only gradually coming into her full power as the story progresses. Her ability to control gravity is disorienting in the best way, as it echoes resonantly with the thematic elements of the story. Kat is as off balance as we are, as we move her about from place to place, finding ever odder, more unlikely spots to land on.

The world breathes with delightfully artistic colors; the environments are a treat to look at while playing. Gravity Rush encourages exploration of every gorgeous spot, with hidden power gems located all around, on top of buildings, under bridges, and the like. Characters pop off the screen with cel-shaded goodness, and fairly glow within the expository comicbook-style sections.

Touch and motion controls are subtle and make sense within the world, but what really makes Gravity Rush sing is the power of flight. Soaring across the various city sections, landing on floating urban debris, flinging objects and even Kat’s own body at the odd-looking creatures during fights is just thrilling, and never once loses its charm.

For me, Gravity Rush is the best title for the PlayStation Vita, showcasing the power and tech of the handheld gaming device to the highest degree I’ve seen yet.

Rob’s other best games of 2012: Guild Wars 2, Dishonored, Journey, Borderlands 2

Contributor Stefanie Fogel

Mass Effect 3
Platforms: Xbox 360, PC
Publisher: Electronic Arts
Developer: BioWare

So much sound and fury was made over Mass Effect 3’s controversial ending that it’s easy to forget the final installment of BioWare’s space opera really is a damn fine game. It told a grim tale of galactic war, yet found time in between the dire exposition and bombastic action set pieces to bid fond farewell to characters Mass Effect fans have come to know and love over the last five years. It’s those quieter moments — the shooting match with Garrus, Mordin humming the Major-General’s song as he sacrifices himself, your final conversation with Captain Anderson — that stick with you months after putting down the controller. Mass Effect 3 also (mostly) fulfilled the series’ promise that in-game decisions would matter, paving the way for other morality-based titles like Spec Ops: The Line and our Game of the Year, The Walking Dead. By the time the credits rolled, I had completed every side mission I possibly could during my playthrough because I hated the thought of leaving that world behind, which I believe is one of the highest compliments you can pay to a game developer.

Stefanie’s other best games of 2012: The Walking Dead, Persona 4 Golden, XCOM: Enemy Unknown, Dishonored

Contributor Kat Bailey

Halo 4
Platform: Xbox 360
Publisher: Microsoft Studios

Developer: 343 Industries

Even compared to the normally high stakes world of triple-A publishing, Microsoft and 343 Industries had plenty on the line with Halo 4. If it ended up being mediocre — or worse, an outright flop — the brand as a whole would have a hard time recovering. With that in mind, the sighs of relief throughout Redmond, Wash. must have been deafening when the top scores started coming in, with even diehard Halo fans giving their emphatic thumbs up.

Halo may not be the be-all, end-all shooter anymore, but it remains quite relevant in the world of online gaming. A lot of that has to do with the distinctive blend of action the series brings to the table — shield management, tagging foes with grenades, and properly using the small but multidimensional maps. 343 Industries seems to have a keen understanding of this action, and it’s perfectly replicated it for Halo 4, throwing in a few of their own twists along the way (the Starhawk-like Dominion Mode is a favorite).

That 343 Industries understands the “recipe” for a good Halo game is only part of the story though. With new modes like Spartan Ops — a series of free downloadable microcontent — they are putting their own stamp on the beloved series. For that reason, the air of skepticism surrounding 343 Industries has largely been replaced with one of legitimacy. Now we’ll see if they have the wherewithal to use that currency to make something truly special.

Kat’s other best games of 2012: Xenoblade Chronicles, The Walking Dead, XCOM: Enemy Unknown, Persona 4 Golden

Intern Mike Minotti

Guild Wars 2
Platform: PC, Mac
Publisher: NCSoft
Developer: ArenaNet

World of Warcraft is king of the massively multiplayer role-playing game. It’s probably going to sit comfortably on that throne for years to come. But 2012 brought us Guild Wars 2, the first MMO I played since 2004 that I actually preferred to Blizzard’s take on questing on adventuring.

Guild Wars 2 doesn’t reinvent online adventuring, but it’s littered with smart design choices that make you smack your head and yell, “Duh! Why hasn’t it always been like this?” Turning in quests? The hell with that! Guild War 2′s adventures happen organically and painlessly, without having to talk to multiple townspeople with exclamation marks hovering over their heads. Want to visit an unexplored zone that’s designed for players at a lower level than your own? Guild Wars 2 scales your character down so that you can still have a challenging time tackling each area’s trials.

It doesn’t hurt that its world, Tyria, is a beautiful land that’s fun and rewarding to explore. Oh, and the lack of a subscription fee? Yeah, I like that, too.

Guild Wars 2 is not only more accessible than a lot of its competitors, but it’s frankly a lot more fun than just about any other MMO out there.

Mike’s other best games of 2012: Gravity Rush, Borderlands 2, Assassin’s Creed III, PlayStation All Stars Battle Royale.

Intern Evan Killham

Slender: The Eight Pages
Platform: PC, Mac
Publisher: Parsec Productions
Developer: Parsec Productions

Technically, I’ve never lost a game of Slender … because I’ve never actually finished one. I’ve always quit when the cold sweat broke out.

Developer Parsec Productions’ free horror game is one of this year’s most surprising titles (in every sense of the word). Starting with a simple premise — collect the eight manuscript pages hidden in these spooky woods before eponymous monster Slender Man catches you — Slender uses its too-long arms to yank players into a hell of panic attacks and abject terror.

This game is relentless. Everything you see and hear is designed specifically to unnerve you, and it gets worse with every page you pick up. Even more spectacular is the disconnect between playing this beast and watching someone play it. If you do a YouTube search for “Let’s play Slender,” you risk losing an entire evening in the grips of sweet, sweet, schadenfreude. Boot it up yourself and you will regret ever laughing at those videos.

In a year that gave us two Silent Hill titles and three additions to the Resident Evil series, gaming’s horror genre was desperately in need of some new ideas. And then Slender showed up and made us afraid of the dark again.

Evan’s other best games of 2012: Max Payne 3, The Walking Dead, Borderlands 2, Silent Hill: Downpour

Intern Jason Lomberg

Dishonored
Platforms: Xbox 360, PS3, PC
Publisher: Bethesda Softworks
Developer: Arkane Studios

Stealth games have never been my cup of tea. Metal Gear Solid 2’s brain-dead guards annoyed the piss out of me, and I usually ended up going “Rambo” in Metal Gear Solid 3, running through danger rather than sneaking stealthily past it. But Dishonored nails it – the sense of danger, the thrill of the hunt, and the exhilaration that comes from successfully pulling off one of Corvo’s many gruesome kills.

As GamesBeat writer Rus McLaughlin points out, Dishonored plays exactly the way you want to play it. You can tear through the City Watch like a Steampunk version of Chuck Norris (minus the roundhouse kicks); you can destroy every living thing in your path with merciless impunity. Of course being a one-man army with a thirst for cold steel and magical spells of destruction makes the game that much harder. But it’s one option.

You can also play the pacifist and refuse to take a life. Or you can utilize the cover system and take out the guards like a silent assassin. Near the beginning, a pack of man-eating rats block your path, and the solution involves drawing them away with a dead body — that’s about the time I realized I was playing something unique and special. The ways to get from point A to point B are endless and never less than thrilling.

Jason’s other best games of 2012: Sleeping Dogs, Alan Wake’s American Nightmare, Journey, Mass Effect 3

Intern Giancarlo Valdes

Journey
Platform: PlayStation 3 (PlayStation Network)
Publisher: Sony Computer Entertainment America
Developer: thatgamecompany

Journey is a game that doesn’t feel like it’s made out of textures, wireframes, or lines of code. The glistening sand dunes, the subterranean fortress, and the snow-covered mountaintops feel like real places, inspiring a magical sense of wonder and fear as you explore the unknown. That’s why the bond you form with your anonymous online companion is so powerful: It’s the two of you against the world, a nonverbal pact that is implicitly forged the moment you meet each other.

I didn’t realize this until I saw my partner collapse from the harsh winds during Journey’s climax. I desperately tried to nurse them back to life, but it was no use. I felt a slight pang of sadness as their body perished seamlessly with the natural elements, timidly coming to terms with the fact that I had to face the rest of the game alone. I only lingered on this for perhaps a minute or two, but just the idea of a game making me feel and think this way is a testament to how expertly crafted Journey really is.

By the end, I had experienced an entire range of emotions in a medium where most games have a hard time just trying to invoke one.

Giancarlo’s other best games of 2012: The Walking Dead, Tokyo Jungle, DayZ, Spec Ops: The Line

Intern Jasmine Rea

Persona 4 Golden
Platform: PlayStation Vita
Publisher: Atlus
Developer: Atlus

Few Japanese role-playing games in the last few years have made me want to replay them quite like Persona 4. When developer Atlus announced Persona 4 Golden for the Vita, I knew not buying Sony’s new handheld was completely out of the question.

While it is by far my favorite Vita release this year (and arguably the best game on the platform), Persona 4 Golden is a shining example of how much Japanese RPGs have evolved in the last 10 years. It mixes an intense, emotional story about a group of high school friends with an ongoing murder mystery so well that you sometimes forget about all the supernatural happenings.

Persona 4 Golden’s most powerful element is that shows how everyone has a part of themselves they don’t want to admit exists, and the only way to live freely is to accept that fact. Even though you can’t summon your “true self” to fight for you in the real world, we can all learn a thing or two about accepting ourselves. Persona 4’s relatable characters will show you how.

Jasmine’s other best games of 2012: Resident Evil: Revelations, The Testament of Sherlock Holmes, Tales of Graces F, Lollipop Chainsaw

Intern Sam Barsanti

Borderlands 2
Platforms: Xbox 360, PS3, PC
Publisher: 2K Games
Developer: Gearbox Software

It would be easy to explain the appeal of Borderlands 2 by describing it as a cheap way to satiate your hunger for constant rewards. It may be obvious, but the best part of every firefight in the game isn’t the moment-to-moment excitement of rampaging through a horde of bandits, it’s the few seconds after when you get to pick over the loot. The combat is just a means to an end. What really drives you to do anything in Borderlands 2 is the hope that with the next enemy you take down you’ll find a new weapon that is more interesting than your current one. I mean, who can resist an experience that treats every five minutes like a combination of Christmas, your birthday, and a Steam sale all in one?

Of course, to only talk about loot would be too reductive and dismissive of everything else that Borderlands 2 does well. The combat and millions of guns make it a good game, but the cleverness of the world and all of the things in it are what make it one of the best of the year. I won’t remember every bad guy I killed, but I won’t forget being openly mocked by the antagonist or helping one of the characters think of stupid names for local creatures, because those moments were unique (and well written). See, the appeal of Borderlands 2 isn’t the combat or the loot — it’s the gleeful, wacky fun of the whole package.

Sam’s other best games of 2012: The Walking Dead, Transformers: Fall of Cybertron, Max Payne 3, Mass Effect 3

Filed under: Games

Justin Bieber, Minecraft’s Creeper, and other cameos in modern games (gallery)

Samir Torres — Sat, 15 Dec 2012 18:00:48 +0000

Guest appearances and surprise crossovers in video games usually distract the player and end immersion. But well-placed cameos are amusing — especially if you have to dig around to find them.

Check out the gallery below to see the cool (and bizarre) cameos we gathered from 13 recent games.

Filed under: Games

GamesBeat weekly roundup: Dragon Age III, Borderlands 2, and the BioWare doctors retire

Jasmine Maleficent Rea — Fri, 21 Sep 2012 18:24:24 +0000

If you follow VentureBeat but don’t regularly check our GamesBeat site, here’s a list of the best video game stories we ran over the last seven days that you may have missed.

This week, Zynga lost three more executives, Sony revealed a new slim PlayStation 3, and BioWare founders Ray Muzyka and Greg Zeschuk retire.

We also have reviews for the action-role-playing games Borderlands 2, and Torchlight II.

News:

Mobile News:

Zynga troubles:

Reviews:

Interviews:

Features:

Pieces of Flair:

Filed under: Games

Torchlight II is a poor man’s Diablo that’s rich in content but not originality (review)

Stephanie Carmichael — Thu, 20 Sep 2012 15:53:35 +0000

It’s been a crazy year for action role-playing games. First Diablo III released in May, and then Borderlands 2 came out earlier this week. And now Torchlight II. So, which one is best? The answer isn’t easy — they’re big-name and quality games. The little design choices are what might sway you to pick one over the other.

WHAT YOU’LL LIKE

A consistent and polished experience
In terms of gameplay, Torchlight II (out today on Steam for PC) is exactly what you’d expect from the genre. You fight near-endless hordes of enemies and bosses as you explore different territories and collect loot, upgrading your gear and distributing your stats however you please. It’s not an original concept, but it takes more effort on the developer’s part to deliver consistent and fair gameplay. Torchlight II pulls it off.

For this review, I played for 22 hours (the time it took me to save the world on Normal difficulty) as a female Engineer — a steampunk-styled character who uses Ember-powered weapons and armor (Ember is the magical mineral that powers many items and abilities). For my pet, I chose a lizard-like Chakawary called Indy, thanks to a little help from the name generator. Together, we mastered forests, deserts, and swamps — the three main but not exclusive locales you explore throughout the game. While the difficulty increased with each act, the game never presented a bigger challenge than I could handle. The tougher spots took determination and strategy, but they didn’t keep me from progressing for long.

A smart, user-friendly interface
Whether you’re a veteran action-RPG player or a newcomer, Torchlight II makes it easy to just jump in and play. That simplicity goes beyond point-and-click controls and keyboard shortcuts. Everything about the game’s design facilitates navigation, quest completion, and basic comprehension of how the game works.

The minimap shows clear indicators of quest givers (a symbol that lights up when you’re able to return for more directions or a reward), the quests themselves, special locked chests, your current objectives, Waypoint portals (teleporters that take you from one place to another), and other important locations. The loading screen cycles through an abundance of helpful hints about different classes or convenient controls, so even when you’re not playing, you’re becoming an expert on the mechanics. This screen also serves as a handy reminder for when you have unused skill and stat points to redeem, which happens more often than you might think.

What could be a cluttered interface during play actually seems clean and well organized. Learning how to operate the system is easy — things like quick-mapping skills and items, examining your inventory and your pet’s, transferring or exchanging goods, or equipping weapons and armor aren’t troublesome at all. Most important, the interface is not a hindrance to use in the middle of a dungeon, and you can still attack and move with the menus open.

The extra little details
Torchlight II is all around a solid game, and it’s the attention to details that make it even better. The scenery isn’t a problem when enemies and allies are visible as red and blue transparent figures behind it, allowing you to know whom you’re attacking even when you’re hidden behind a rock. And the specifics of combat are intuitive during play: Enemies with auras spawn minions or signify minibosses.

Fishing for loot and food for your pet is a nice diversion, and having a pet at all helps minimize the loneliness of playing an action-RPG solo. Mine was a worthy partner, too — aiding in battle, knowing when to go around obstacles, and only rarely getting stuck … and then easily getting unstuck. But pets are certainly no substitute for multiplayer, which is available in the game either via Internet or local area network (LAN) connection. You don’t have to rely on servers alone.

For those who struggle with the limited inventory, the game keeps your throwaway loot on the map, so you can recollect it later (and you can always send your pet to town to sell unwanted clutter). It offers a lot of convenience and looks and sounds great, too — things like overgrown cobwebs and the creaking of lanterns give this game style. In fact, some of the most fun quests are those that are highly stylized. One of my favorites was the sand-buried ruins of a fleet of pirate ships. It had all the gold you could want, but the more you took, the more undead pirates would emerge to reclaim it — crawling up the sides of their sunken vessels and out from underneath the wreckage.

More content to discover
Players looking for replay value beyond playing co-op or experimenting with different classes can join the modding community, unlock new quest maps after the main game, or venture out a second time with New Game-Plus.

WHAT YOU WON’T LIKE

A raw story
Your goal in the game is simple: Stop the Alchemist from permanently upsetting the balance of the world. But the rest of the story is an afterthought. It’s hard to feel immersed in the world’s troubles or care about the different races. The cutscenes exacerbate this issue. Klei Entertainment (makers of Shank and Mark of the Ninja) provided stylish animations, but Runic skimped on the substance. They’re too short, few, and insignificant to make any real impact on the game.

Some bad interactions
Torchlight II works well on most levels, but a few oversights do mar its quality. Try concentrating on what a nonplayable character has to say when an enemy interrupts, mauling you in the middle of a conversation. It deals damage, too, when the action around you should be paused.

And while it’s a shame that you can’t admire your character’s cool outfits more closely in the menu (that should be a standard by now), what’s really needed is a stronger bond between hero and animal. You can temporarily transform your pet into different creatures by feeding it fish, but other than that, it’s easy to forget about your loyal partner during gameplay. I rarely ever had to worry about my pet’s health or equipment; the game requires minimal maintenance — and emotional investment — when it comes to your animal companion.

The occasional case of boredom
As entertaining and varied as the game is, it’s not immune to dull spots. The open areas are perfect for players who love to explore, but they’re largely repetitive. Runic hasn’t done enough to make each nook and cranny feel distinct, even though many regions of each main land do vary slightly in architecture. It’s just so … big.

You can get tired of fighting the same enemies, too — even if this is the nature of a dungeon-crawling action-RPG like this one. Sometimes you just want more to look at than Warbeasts and Deathflingers. This was more of an issue in the beginning of the game than in subsequent acts, but you’ll come to recognize enemy types on sight for more reasons than strategy: They’re everywhere you turn.

CONCLUSION

Torchlight II is undoubtedly worth the $20 price, and it’s high on replay value with new classes to discover. The problems it does have are mostly minor, but it’s not for gamers looking for an involved story. And in some places, it could use a little more depth.

Two big draws are definitely the affordable price and flexible multiplayer options, and the game also earns its place among the other top action-RPGs of the year. It’s well made and fun…just not revolutionary.

Score: 85/100

Torchlight II was released for PC on September 20, 2012. The publisher provided GamesBeat with a download code of the game for the purpose of this review.

Filed under: Games

Facing down the giants: CEO Max Schaefer talks Torchlight II and its competition

Stephanie Carmichael — Wed, 19 Sep 2012 16:00:04 +0000

The release of Torchlight II is only a day away, but from spring to fall, the game has faced competition with Diablo III and now another action role-playing game, Borderlands 2.

Runic Games might be caught in between Blizzard and Gearbox Software, but chief executive officer Max Schaefer doesn’t sound worried about handing Torchlight II to the masses while in those companies’ shadows.

“Our shipping date is not determined by strategic thinking about when other games are coming out,” Schaefer told GamesBeat in a phone interview. “It’s really when we’re done with the game. And we took all that extra time to polish the heck out of the game and make sure that it’s exactly what we want it to be. So that’s why I’m confident now — I’m confident in our game. And where we fall in respect to other games is kind of random, and you can’t control that.”

Schaefer said that the nearly side-by-side release with Borderlands 2 doesn’t make “as big of a difference as people think.” He credited Blizzard with driving millions of new people into the action-RPG market, which wouldn’t have been possible otherwise.

“I think it’s a good time for action-RPGs because we got Path of Exile coming in, Borderlands 2, and Grim Dawn,” he said. “It’s good. I think there’s a symbiotic relationship between action-RPGs rather than a competition. So the more good ones there are, the more people get into the genre and check out the other ones. … I actually think it’s even done good for us just by bringing more people in and getting them enthusiastic about action-RPGs. And obviously, we offer some different things than they all do, so we’re happy to have the crowds.”

Runic hopes its design decisions with Torchlight II will interest more people even with Diablo III and Borderlands II as alternatives. “Instead of trying to have a secure economy, which is 100 percent cheat-free and makes you be online all the time, we decided to be more open with our architecture,” said Schaefer. “We let you play offline single-player. We let you use the same character between single-player and Internet-playing, and we also have local area network play, so you don’t even have to have the Internet to play with your friends. And we’re releasing our development tools with the game to encourage the modding community to come up with cool new variants. The other thing we offer is the $20 price tag. It makes it kind of a no-brainer purchase because the risk is so low. And because our game runs on pretty much anyone’s machines — it’s got very low min specs — I think we’ve got a lot of things lined up to attract a lot of people.”

The developer has used the past four months to make the game even better. “We’ve basically been content-complete for a couple months now,” said Schaefer, “What we’ve done is gone to the beginning of the game, went to each boss battle and champion battle, and made sure they were really fun and unique. [We] made sure all the areas were spawned correctly with the right variety of monsters, that skills were all interesting, and that it was playing up to what we wanted it to be like.”

Runic also implemented feedback from the community and beta participants from the spring — revamping the skill system based on players’ preferences. “It’s all this time at the end of the project where you put the extra polish into it that makes all the difference,” said Schaefer.

But the kind of criticism that comes postlaunch is going to be the hardest to swallow. “I know we’re gonna get people who love our game, and that’s gonna feel awesome, and there’s gonna be people who are critical of it, and that’s gonna hurt,” he said.

Schaefer joked that he’d deal with the onslaught “by drinking heavily,” but in relation to Torchlight II, he said, “You take seriously what people are saying about your game, and you try to look back at what you’ve done and see if there’s something [where] you can put out a patch and fix it. But one of the cool things about our game is that we are releasing our mod tools with the game, so if people don’t like something about it, it’s something that can be fixed pretty easily.”

Torchlight II releases tomorrow on Steam for PC.

Filed under: Games

Runic Games presents the pets of Torchlight II (video)

Sebastian Haley — Sun, 01 Apr 2012 19:03:05 +0000

Unlike Diablo III, Runic Games’ long-awaited Torchlight II still doesn’t have a release date. What is does have, however, is pets, and lots of them — something that you can no longer say about Blizzard Entertainment’s upcoming dungeon crawler.

As you can see, Runic has notably increased the options for a furry (or scaly) companion since the original Torchlight:

You can find a more detailed look at each of the pets at the official Torchlight II site.

Filed under: Games, Video