Diablo 3 vs Torchlight 2, which do you prefer?

[Travalanche]

I initially preferred Diablo 3 due to it's popularity and getting chosen for the beta and finding it fairly fun besides the lack of combat spells/skills early game. But after watching some videos on youtube about Torchlight and a few interviews I am convinced that it will be the better game... here are a few points I have researched for each.

Diablo 3-
-Gothic story and art direction
-Fixed character models/armor visual upgrades
-Unable to play offline in single player "which is a pretty big con for some people"
-Unable to create a game and there is no password protection thus eventually when bots show up in a few years we are screwed
-An official pay-to-win item shop in-game that costs actual money, Blizzard takes a set percentage of the profit in real money similar to a cash shop in F2P games albeit more extreme.

Torchlight 2-
-Basic character customization, mixable armor with many choices.
-Get a pet to vendor items for you.
-Not as gothic-looking but has a similar general art direction and graphics.
-ABILITY TO PLAY IN SINGLE PLAYER OFFLINE, or online... you are given the option!
-More skill choices and upgrades, more viable builds.

After finding out all of the above I honestly believe Torchlight 2 will be the better game in all aspects other than Story and playerbase, as you could see the lack of an offline Single player mode in Diablo 3 really put me off as I'm more of a soloing kind of guy and don't care to play online unless I'm feeling unusually social and feel like competing over gear rather than get 100% of all dropped items, I have a few friends in real life that used to play or still casually play Diablo 2 and after I told them that they were also kind of put off and said it didn't make sense, one of my friends even mentioned that it's probably because they want people to have to use the item shop which if true is a scary thought and makes me disrespect Blizzard even more, yes they are a company but if you paid for a game like Diablo which is a hack'n slash dungeon crawl you shouldn't need to have Micro-transactions being tempted towards you and should focus on getting the items as monster drops, that's the entire point of the game!!! If you have all of the best items for your build why even bother killing bosses other than to sell excess items on the item mall to further the issue.

I really am not biased at all for either game and am just mentioning what I experienced and/or heard/read.

[Fiar]

For now, Runic Games seems to be making a better Hack-N-Slash game. I'm not really surprised, as one of the major people at Runic used to be the Lead Designer or coordinator for Diablo 1 and 2. I'll still get Diablo 3; but the Torchlight series will probably be the future I invest in with these games.

[Dean]

What does not being able to play offline in Single player mean exactly? wouldn't that be so everyone is updated at the same time, therefore no one has the advantage of drop rates being higher in earlier patches? I think changing the loot tables in diablo 2 was worked on a lot after it's release.

I am personally not looking to go for either of these two, I want Grim Dawn which is the spiritual successor to Titan Quest. I will probably get Diablo 3 at some point because I have to admit the series was fun thus far, I just don't like it's gothic setting all that much.

[Fiar]

Advantage of drop rates is redundant in a single player game. Unless you like bragging to your hirelings, it doesn't really impact much. No, the issue with this is that if you are without internet, you can't even play your game. This is what bugs me with Diablo 3, what if my internet is screwy and I can't maintain a connection with an online room? I can't even go into single player to enjoy the game I paid for. You MUST have a working connection to play either mode.

[Travalanche]

Advantage of drop rates is redundant in a single player game. Unless you like bragging to your hirelings, it doesn't really impact much. No, the issue with this is that if you are without internet, you can't even play your game. This is what bugs me with Diablo 3, what if my internet is screwy and I can't maintain a connection with an online room? I can't even go into single player to enjoy the game I paid for. You MUST have a working connection to play either mode.

Exactly, I for one have off-and-on Internet connections and so do a few of my friends, we also live in a smaller town that has limited Internet options thus I have only Dial-up. I know many people think that everyone should have fast connections and computers in 2011 but that isn't always the case if you live in a rural setting and work on a farm as is my case. It's sickening that companies are forcing you to be connected to their program to be able to even play the game you purchased. I mean it's not just that... the program you are running in the background to even play the game eats plenty of bandwith. That is a primary reason why some more informed gamers don't use Steam and prefer to use sites like GOG and what-not or even pirate/crack their games.

The sad thing is that the anti-piracy precautions Blizzard are taking are actually causing MORE people to hack their games, also as Dean stated "What does not being able to play offline in Single player mean exactly? wouldn't that be so everyone is updated at the same time, therefore no one has the advantage of drop rates being higher in earlier patches?"... the logical answer is that is you play in Single player it shouldn't even matter, most Blizzard patches are for balancing the game/skills and drop rates, if you have a single-player only character you don't need balance as you won't be competing with others as it won't even matter.

It's just a sickening trend to be honest... There was an interview done with the man in charge of Diablo 3's development and he even said something along the lines of.... Seriously people, it's 2011 get with the program and play online, be cool!!!

I don't even know where to start with that, also when an interviewer asked "what if I want to play Diablo 3 while on a plane or taking a trip, the man replied with Well there are always other games you could play instead" So he is promoting that you play a different game and not theirs, that's professional.

[Fiar]

Blizz is really depressing me, they were such a community based company years back. Now their morales are clearly degrading.I love Diablo 1 and 2 to death, I replay them at least once a year. I especially loved playing them when I got into a new house with no internet yet, cause i could kill loads of time tinkering with my single-player toon, and before I knew it I had my internet back.Can't do this with Diablo 3, I can do this with SC2 though, oddly enough. I don't give a damn what year it is, I will play my game offline if I want to, the developer/publisher has no real right to determine this, it's absurd.

It just makes me want Torchlight 2 even more. Runic is impressing me, and I think they went from a "No, we don't want to fight Diiablo 3" stance to, "Yeah, we'll show Blizz how it used to be done. Move aside Diablo, Torchlight is here.". I'll support them, so long as they don't adapt these traits I see from Blizz.

[azuarc]

This is what bugs me with Diablo 3, what if my internet is screwy and I can't maintain a connection with an online room? I can't even go into single player to enjoy the game I paid for. You MUST have a working connection to play either mode.

This whole mentality bugged me immensely about the thought of getting anything on Steam. I couldn't bear the notion to download anything from that craphole, because c'mon, they make you run everything through the Steam client. Not only is that extra junk running in the background doing who knows what, but it requires an Internet connection.

Close to a year later, I have a decent-sized library of indie games on Steam. My issues have rarely been issues.


Do I like that Blizzard requires an internet connection even for single player? No. IMO there should be an offline mode you can play as strictly a first-person mode. They took away TCP/IP games, so it's not like anyone could ever be affected by that character. But if there isn't, there isn't. After all the hacking crap that Blizzard has dealt with, I understand why they want to keep a tight hand on the reins.

[Fiar]

You are right, the same thing was iffy with me and Steam. I am thankful in my time with Steam, I have only had two incidents where my internet prevented me from playing my games on Steam. You do bring up a good point though, people do pirate and hack games...It happens with everything though, it tends to happen more when you tighten the reins on something; or introduce something in a profoundly stupid way.

In the end, I will be getting Torchlight 2 and Diablo 3. I'm sure my experience with Diablo 3 will be enjoyable enough anyway, so it won't bother me as much if it happens.

[azuarc]

people do pirate and hack games...It happens with everything though, it tends to happen more when you tighten the reins on something

Well, that's a bit of a catch-22. If you don't do anything to preventing pirating or hacking, you get run over by the people who do that kind of stuff no matter what. One steam game I like is a tower defense game called Defense Grid, but the scoreboards are ridiculous because the top 50 scores for each level are absolutely ridiculous impossible scores. Takes quite a bit of the luster away.

OTOH, if you take measures that would somewhat effectively stop the tamperers, it because annoying for the genuine consumers, who get annoyed and start to look for ways around it. And the hackers always find a way, so you're potentially just creating a challenge for them, which they will always rise to meet.


Pirating? Well, pirating is unfortunate, but it's more severe when you do things against it. However, anti-hacking measures to at least keep the game feeling fair for the people playing it legit, I think that's worth whatever trouble you can go through, even if it requires some pretty ridiculous levels of policing.

[Frogmander]

I tried torchlight 1, I honestly didn't like it that much

[Fiar]

people do pirate and hack games...It happens with everything though, it tends to happen more when you tighten the reins on something

Well, that's a bit of a catch-22. If you don't do anything to preventing pirating or hacking, you get run over by the people who do that kind of stuff no matter what. One steam game I like is a tower defense game called Defense Grid, but the scoreboards are ridiculous because the top 50 scores for each level are absolutely ridiculous impossible scores. Takes quite a bit of the luster away.

OTOH, if you take measures that would somewhat effectively stop the tamperers, it because annoying for the genuine consumers, who get annoyed and start to look for ways around it. And the hackers always find a way, so you're potentially just creating a challenge for them, which they will always rise to meet.


Pirating? Well, pirating is unfortunate, but it's more severe when you do things against it. However, anti-hacking measures to at least keep the game feeling fair for the people playing it legit, I think that's worth whatever trouble you can go through, even if it requires some pretty ridiculous levels of policing.

Yeah...it's hard to balance. How much precaution is too much? And how little is too little? It's a hard question to answer, it also depends on how respectful you are to you're playerbase...Even when you do find that nice middle, you will still be pirated and such. It can't be fully stopped, but it can be marginalized with enough thought.

I do feel Blizzard isn't respecting their community nearly as much as they used to. As such, I think people will purposefully try to screw them out of a profit by any means. That and they are becoming VERY controlling with B.Net 2.0.

[The Number None]

I'm really looking forward to Torchlight 2. D3 - not so much, but I'll probably get it anyway.

[Fiar]

I was sad this game got pushed back to 2012 for release. = (

Why must I wait? I want it now!

[Mekorosi]

I was sad this game got pushed back to 2012 for release. = (

Why must I wait? I want it now!

They pushed back AGAIN?! Damn you, Blizzard! And to Niflheim with Activision!

[Fiar]

Not sure why it was delayed (Haven't read up recently), all I know is last time I heard December seemed certain. However, if it means more stable LAN and online, and a smoother game in general; then I can't really argue..As much as I wanna.