Torchlight Coming to XBLA

06 Jan 2011 at 11:45:05 by Paul Younger

Last night Microsoft and Runic Games announced that Torchlight, the action RPG which received critical acclaim on the PC, is coming to XBLA.

This will be Runic Games' first title on a console platform and the game will be an XBLA exclusive. When asked whether the game would come to the PS3, Runic's Travis Baldtree responded:

"No PS3 plans to speak of. Microsoft is acting as the publisher on this one. And given how much work it was to get one console game done, I'm a little relieved we didn't attempt both platforms at once anyway"

Baldtree also went on to explain how the game will work on Microsoft's platform as the controls are obviously very different to that of the PC version.

To head off the speculative questions that will almost certainly arise about the port -

Control is direct - no virtual cursors ever. Combat is a little different - you move forward slightly with melee attacks and all the attack animations are redone to support this. You don't 'target' enemies - you'll get a red highlight for a 'primary' target that is in range, but for melee attacks you hit everything in your damage cone (secondary targets get secondary damage ). Feels natural and does what you expect. Ranged combat is actually in many ways easier - kiting and dodging are significantly more viable with a controller and the autotargeting for ranged attacks works pretty well. 'lobbed' skills mapped to the triggers have a default distance, but you can finesse them for longer or shorter throws by holding the trigger at a given depth. Combat pace feels 'faster' and more maneuverable. If you've played classics like Dark Alliance or Champions of Norrath, you have the general idea. ( but no jumping ) Movement speed is analog - you can move slower by easing on the stick, something you can't do at all on PC.

No skills have been omitted. Some skills have had alterations to their functionality to make them feel better ( i.e. you don't select corpses to summon a Nether Imp - you just cast it and if there's a corpse around, there you go )

Pretty much everything from the PC version is here. We didn't remove any features, with the exception of secondary weapon sets, because there was no way we could find that didn't feel horrible in inventory management. Socketing, enchanting, fishing, the infinite dungeon, item combination, are all represented.

The UI is COMPLETELY overhauled from the ground up. Nothing works the same. All new art and navigation. The concept of item 'slots' is done away with - you just have a number of items you can hold ( 50 - ignores stack counts ). Potions and scrolls stack up to 99. Potions 'auto pick' the best potion to heal you or regen mana. You don't have to think about it or map it. We iterated on the UI a ridiculous amount.

 You can have 4 active mapped skills at a time, and a secondary set that you can swap between (using the dpad) for 8 mapped skills. Most of us actually find it easier to use a variety of skills on the console vs. PC, oddly enough.

5) Force feedback is in for quakes, strikes, low health heartbeats, and tugs on the fishing line  Feels nice.

 Miscellanea - we brought over some goodies from TL2 to the console version. Loading times are much reduced. Better animation blending makes combat snappier ( hard to describe, but you'll probably feel it ). Automaps are brought over from TL2's new automap system ( They are rendered out and much more readable, and icons cleave to the borders of the ring )

 3 new armor sets ( one for each class )

 Some new random quests for one of the miners in town

 Chakawary pet

 Download size is nice and small - ~200 MB.

We thoroughly enjoyed Torchlight on the PC and this new title will sell extremely well on XBLA.

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