So I played Torchlight as I got it free from a friend. My first ARPG. Not sure where to share this, Diablo 3 thread would be interpreted as trolling and Gaming OT is gif-tastic, so it goes here.
On loot driven games in general, it's wearying. I feel that impulse to always-be-upgrading-gear a little, but unlike others (who are probably shoulders deep in D3), I can pull back and objectively assess how stupid the situation is. So right off the bat, the game experience was especially valuable to me. It helped me learn definitively that, yup, crawling is not my bag.
On Torchlight specifically, the story is dumb. I realize that's not the point -- it's about dungeon crawling and amassing gear with amazing DPS or +crit -- but if they would have put a little more into the throwaway story, I certainly would have played more to learn about it.
However, that's not my main gripe with Torchlight. My main problem is the stats on gear/skills, or rather the stats system in general. I've played enough RPGs to know how this shit goes down, and I'm convinced that half the stats on Torchlight gear are utter bullshit. The game *still* has typos and grammatical errors in the latest patch for player tips, and I think that lack of attention extends to how they assigned stats on gear.
I've searched online (with special emphasis on material from the official Runic forums), and I can't find anything beyond the basics. When pushed by gamers in their forums, their employees admit that they're not entirely sure how the calculations work, that they'd have to consult the lead developers who are otherwise occupied at the moment.
A big part of the problem is that the game doesn't show you a full assessment of your stats. (I'm talking about everything in aggregate, +Armor, +Def, +Elem Damage, so on, not just STR, DEX, DEF, MAG and a few resistances). Hence, for instance, there's really no way to know how or what +Armor vs. +Defense does for your character. And the stats assigned to gear constantly muddles the stat base, there's +Damage, +% Phys/Elem damage, +Elem Damage, +Ranged Damage. Or +Damage Reflected and +% Damage Reflected on X% of Missiles. The resistances are just some arbitrary number -- is it HP reduction on a specific elemental damage taken by my toon?
It's not that I want to min/max, but if I do find a nice drop, the game should allow me to assess whether or not I want to swap out a piece of equipped gear. You really can't do that honestly in this game. It's surprising to me, because it's a tonal difference from the rest of the game (as I understand it): Runic wanted the dungeon crawling experience, but simplified/streamlined. However, the stats are a clusterfrak.
(As an aside, this is not a standard. I don't know anything about Diablo, but there's no way Blizzard would let their stats get that messy -- I've played enough WoW to know that while stats were complicated, I knew exactly what my total +Armor was because the game told me explicitly, and then Blizzard told people online what the forumlas were (more or less) to understand the damage mitigation.)
Overall, it was a fun game to play for free, and Runic definitely put a lot of value into this game. However, I wouldn't recommend it as I can't get past the stats thing. I know most players just look at DPS, +crit, or +def, but that doesn't mean you build a library of gear with stats you cannot explain to the letter. I would guess if you go to the developers you would get a lot of hand waving about one stat vs. the other. In a game that is gear driven, I think it's almost unforgivable to have a flawed stats system like that.