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I Only Like Two Things About Torchlight Infinite
The Torchlight series started as a simple great Diablo clone, made by some of the folks who originated that game, after their other Diablo clone Mythos got taken away from them after the nightmarish development of its sister project Hellgate: London. It was produced in just under a year, and remains one of the most enjoyable action RPGs ever made, with a no-nonsense focused design and vibrant well-animated visuals.
Torchlight’s creators had grand ambitions to produce a follow-up MMO, but then kept scaling those back and releasing more standard sequels instead. Torchlight II is arguably the peak of the series, with the expanded scope and multiplayer you’d expect from a big follow-up, and fast gameplay that still works well in a modern context.
After some development team shakeups and corporate restructuring, Torchlight III started its life as a reduced free-to-play version of the long-running MMO concept, before pivoting mid-development into once again being a normal paid Torchlight game. When it finally released it was a very weird thing. If you play it, you can totally tell that it was supposed to be a large game that then had its scope cut down for the sake of shoving it out the door, and it has enough lingering weird…
