Unanticipated Joy

Go back in time 3 weeks, track me down and ask me if I plan on picking up Torchlight. I will look at you with the kind of expression you’d expect from a Labrador Retriever that’s just been told a dirty joke.

Today, on the other hand, Torchlight dominates me like a leather clad Amazon.

This game is a prime example of why I can still be passionate about video games. Not just because it is an outstanding Diablo clone that bests more than half the $60 games I played this year at a third of the price, but because it came out of nowhere.

It’s the equivalent of having the video game industry throw a dodgeball at my head and shout “Heads Up!” in that breath of an instant before the plastic cauliflowers my ear — except in an awesome way.

Even though I spend too many hours every week surfing the ever cresting wave of game news, an addict without restraint, games that barely register on the periphery of my consciousness can occasionally break through and knock down my well-tempered cynicism. In the moment of playing a game like Torchlight, untempered by expectation, I am a child again.

This has been a good autumn for that kind of game. Torchlight has been sharing time for the past week with the equally-out-of-left-field Panzer General: Allied Assault. Not only are these not the games I’d have been expecting to play at the end of October, but up until very recently I had no idea they even existed.

Julian’s thoughts on Panzer General may easily be mistaken for my own, and I’d accuse him of plagiarism is such a crime were possible for unspoken opinions. It is a product that can only share my plane of existence through the gateway of overwhelming peer opinion—a card-based, World War II, strategy board game. Are you serious with this?

Dead serious.

And so, I am awash in unanticipated gaming joy. The purest distilled form of such a thing.

This is not my veiled manifesto against hype. I’m not winding my way toward the inevitable beat down of the overwhelming PR machine that feeds my head and populates my fevered dreams. On the contrary, I’ve played hundreds of games where the best part of the experience is the innocent joy of anticipation. Frankly, I love hype.

There’s great joy in circling a day on a calendar, planning subversive ways to credibly sound sick when you call in to work. I love the moment of purchase, when the transaction is made and this thing you have pined for is within your grasp. I even love the part where you buy the game halfway through the work day and then have to wait four more hours til you can rush home, ignore your wife and kids and plug the damn thing in.

The downside, of course, is that sometimes what you’ve got is a Hellgate: London, Too Human or Spore. But, even that is ok, because in the long run I probably got at least part of my money’s worth in the sheer anticipation. I mean, I don’t really spend a dollar on a lottery ticket because I think I’m going to win. I spend the money because for an hour or a day I get to dream of what I will do with my multi-millions of dollars.

If I may paraphrase that sage of wisdom, Alan Thicke: You take the good, you take the bad, you take them both and there you have the facts of life.

You can thank me later for putting that song in your head all day.

But a game like Torchlight is something different entirely. It is the unexpected happiness of a surprise birthday party instead of the desperate longing for just the right birthday gift. It is the blind date that blossoms into a perfect evening as opposed to finally getting up the nerve to hit-it-off with that brunette vixen in Chemistry class. It is turning on the radio just as your favorite song begins instead of buying a long awaited album from your favorite band.

Somehow, the unexpected game is easier to love, because you have so little to expect from it. It isn’t burdened by preconceived notions, and so the warts aren’t so big and the barriers not so challenging. It is a pure love, brief and fiery like the spark of a match.

I know that in the coming year, after Torchlight has lost its burn and Panzer General has become just another game in my XBLA toychest, some new game I’ve never heard of will dominate my thoughts for a while. I can’t wait.

Comments

I played the demo yesterday night for about 20 minutes and was impressed with the overall experience, but also somewhat ambivalent about the notion of purchasing it as I ground bat-goblins into chum... "This sounds and feels very, very much like Diablo 1..." I thought- "It's very streamlined and accessible. Some nice work, especially for eleven months." (I had just finished listening to the Idle Thumbs talk with Max Schafer about the game) But it wasn't until later that the full desire to possess Torchlight would strike!

At work today I couldn't stop thinking about the game. I realized that while I was in-game, I was simply very comfortable and at home with my dungeon crawl; soothed as opposed to "meh". At my desk, I was mentally building out my skills and thinking about where I would slot them on my bars when it became clear that it was being SEPARATED from this warm and welcoming familiar blanket of a dungeon crawl that was going to hit me, as opposed to actually clicking through it.

At one point I got so bent about it that I had to take a break to head over to David Brevik's bullpen area, chattering at him about my experiences with it and confirming one of the stories about the naming of Diablo that I had heard yesterday on the podcast. (It turned out to be a lot less shower-oriented and a lot more landmark-based in reality!)

So here I sit, enjoying Torchlight- A game that I have decided I love with a steady and soft glow that resembles its very apt title, as opposed to the blazing furnace of some recent game purchases. I have a feeling that a little of this will be just the way to relax after getting home, before jumping into more intense games... or maybe even just before bedtime.

Amoebic wrote:

Looking very much forward to making this game the nightcap of a particularly fantastic evening.

Wow, what a terrible plan. Unless you like your nightcaps to last until the stupid hours of the morning...

Coldstream wrote:
Duoae wrote:

You, sir, are a liar. I took far too many years of chemistry to know that there are "no hotties" who take chemistry.

You, sir, took chemistry at the wrong school then. I was fortunate enough to proceed through general, organic, and biochemistry with some stunning hotties, a number of whom I'm still friends with. There are few things hotter than a beautiful girl with a beautiful mind.

I put it to you, sir, that you were in fact witness to the "medic/biology" effect. Whereby there are a disproportionate number of hot girls on medic and biology courses and they of course take some chemistry classes which are given by the school of chemistry.... but they are not chemists any more than you are.

Duoae wrote:
Coldstream wrote:
Duoae wrote:

You, sir, are a liar. I took far too many years of chemistry to know that there are "no hotties" who take chemistry.

You, sir, took chemistry at the wrong school then. I was fortunate enough to proceed through general, organic, and biochemistry with some stunning hotties, a number of whom I'm still friends with. There are few things hotter than a beautiful girl with a beautiful mind.

I put it to you, sir, that you were in fact witness to the "medic/biology" effect. Whereby there are a disproportionate number of hot girls on medic and biology courses and they of course take some chemistry classes which are given by the school of chemistry.... but they are not chemists any more than you are.

Your point is well-taken, sir, and I concede that you are correct for the vast majority of such girls. However, I know that at least two of the aforementioned hotties are pursuing PhDs in chemistry. One of them I just got off the phone with (hadn't talked to her in a while, so thanks for the reminder!) is such a smoking hot redhead that she almost defies reality. You know how girls look at anime characters with the tiny waists and big boobs and talk about how unrealistic they are? This girl looks like that (and it's all natural, I can confirm). Of course, she's also completely nuts in a lot of ways, which is fun but tiring.

So I put it to you, sir, that while hotties in chemistry are a rare breed, they do indeed exist. I further posit that if the guys in chemistry hit the gym and combined rugged good looks with alchemical acumen, they'd find themselves in the presence of the cuties far more often.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to return to my institution of higher learning, wherein I am surrounded both the bright and the beautiful.

Okay Elysium;

I just bought this game on the strength of your review alone. My family's under the weather and I needed something to do on Halloween so I plan to play it all night. I'll be back tomorrow.

-Jaya

Coldstream wrote:

So I put it to you, sir, that while hotties in chemistry are a rare breed, they do indeed exist. I further posit that if the guys in chemistry hit the gym and combined rugged good looks with alchemical acumen, they'd find themselves in the presence of the cuties far more often.

I think we can both agree on this point. Jolly good!

Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to return to my institution of higher learning, wherein I am surrounded both the bright and the beautiful. ;)

You barsteward... you just had to rub it in, didn't you?

Duoae wrote:
Coldstream wrote:

Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to return to my institution of higher learning, wherein I am surrounded both the bright and the beautiful. ;)

You barsteward... you just had to rub it in, didn't you?

I believe an apology consisting of pictures of the aforementioned redhead chemist is required.

Stengah wrote:
Duoae wrote:
Coldstream wrote:

Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to return to my institution of higher learning, wherein I am surrounded both the bright and the beautiful. ;)

You barsteward... you just had to rub it in, didn't you?

I believe an apology consisting of pictures of the aforementioned redhead chemist is required.

Seconded, all in favour say, 'Aye.'

Stengah wrote:
Duoae wrote:
Coldstream wrote:

Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to return to my institution of higher learning, wherein I am surrounded both the bright and the beautiful. ;)

You barsteward... you just had to rub it in, didn't you?

I believe an apology consisting of pictures of the aforementioned redhead chemist is required.

You know, I was actually looking around to see if I had a picture of her. She had some stuff up on Facebook, but periodically deletes her account when she goes off the deep end and decides that the world hates her. I'll keep looking, and will post if I find one.

Coldstream wrote:

she goes off the deep end and decides that the world hates her.

"All this has happened before, and all this will happen again."

Is it just me, or does this game seem like hack (rogue, nethack, etc. ...) but with a nicer interface?

-Jaya

Chumpy_McChump wrote:
Amoebic wrote:

Looking very much forward to making this game the nightcap of a particularly fantastic evening.

Wow, what a terrible plan. Unless you like your nightcaps to last until the stupid hours of the morning... :)

All my nights last until the stupid hours of the morning! At least on my days off, they can be had playing Torchlight instead of soul-sucking work : D

Jayavarman wrote:

Is it just me, or does this game seem like hack (rogue, nethack, etc. ...) but with a nicer interface?

Sort of. All dungeon crawlers are going to have that oh-so-familiar formula. it's the same guys who played a heavy hand in the first two Diablos, I think. They took everything good about those dungeon crawls and put it together in a pretty package of win. My only complaint is the click-heaviness of Torchlight. I've got a pavlovian habit of hitting WASD at the worst times when I'm needing to move in a pinch. However, that's more a fault of my own personal hangups and not a fault of the game design.

Hmm i know the developer of Fate is also one of the devs for Torchlight. What i do not get is Fate came out years ago, and Torchlight really takes alot of Fates ideas and plays very simmilar, why wasn't Fate just as popular ?

dradiinmmo wrote:

Hmm i know the developer of Fate is also one of the devs for Torchlight. What i do not get is Fate came out years ago, and Torchlight really takes alot of Fates ideas and plays very simmilar, why wasn't Fate just as popular ?

Travis Baldree didn't create Diablo.

Well, now we have Fate + Diablo, kind of equalling Torchlight....

Even if I'm not entirely accurate here, I just got it, and I'm really digging it.

garion333 wrote:
dradiinmmo wrote:

Hmm i know the developer of Fate is also one of the devs for Torchlight. What i do not get is Fate came out years ago, and Torchlight really takes alot of Fates ideas and plays very simmilar, why wasn't Fate just as popular ?

Travis Baldree didn't create Diablo.

Also, Fate came from Wildtangent, which meant it practically had malware attached to it, at least at release.

It was a great game, though, and Torchlight is an excellent refinement of all the ideas Travis had for Fate.