Echtra Games' Torchlight III is finally coming out of Early Access, but it still doesn't feel like enough was done to set the game apart from previous entries in the genre or even the Torchlight franchise itself. There are several interesting mechanics like fort-building added to Torchlight III, but ultimately these don't feel consequential to the game as a whole. Despite Torchlight III being a fun game to mess around in, it just doesn't feel as deep or interesting as other ARPGs.
It's important to give credit where it's due, though, and the graphics of Torchlight III are a massive improvement over the previous entries in the franchise. Torchlight has always been much goofier and brighter when compared to ARPGs like Path of Exile or Diablo, and Torchlight III leans heavily into this aesthetic. Each area that players explore is well-rendered and character designs are a joy to look at. Goblin enemies in particular are some of the best designs in the game, which is especially notable because players will be fighting them often.
Mechanically, Torchlight III operates similarly to other popular ARPGs. On consoles, players are able to move their character around using the left stick while they use each of the face buttons to attack. As new skills are acquired, either of the triggers can be held down to reveal an extra set of attacks to be used. There are four separate classes to choose from in Torchlight III, and each one brings their own special skills to the game. These classes are the hammer-wielding Railmaster, who can control a combat-oriented train, a robotic creature called The Forged that can deal damage with its Heat attacks, the light and dark magic wielding Dusk Mage, and the gun-toting Sharpshooter.
Each class in Torchlight III is good at a specific type of combat, which means that those who are playing online will want to assemble their party with caution. Each class has two separate skill trees and players have the choice of adding in an additional third with the Relic subclasses. Four of these relics add different skills related to an element, while the fourth adds skills that cause bleeding damage that also heal players. This adds an additional level of class customization, which was sorely needed.
The main problem with classes in Torchlight III is that players don't have many options for skills, and the trees don't branch out enough for players to choose character builds. It instead feels like players are stuck going on the specific skill path that character were designed for. Another flawed aspect of picking a class is that there are minimal cosmetic customization options, which doesn't seem like a big deal but can lead to different classes looking pretty similar to each other at times.
Combat in Torchlight III feels fine, but many of the skills don't feel impactful. This means that players are mostly just running around clicking on enemies repeatedly without the ability to use any worthwhile skills against them. What makes this even worse is that the environments are difficult to navigate, comprised of linear paths as they are, and the game typically doesn't give players any indication of which direction their objective is. This forces players to aimlessly wander their location until they find what they are looking for while being attacked by dozens of mindless mobs - which can be a strength in some ARPGs, but isn't anything more than frustrating here.
By far the biggest problem in Torchlight III is the loot, however. ARPGs are built around collecting new and more impressive loot, but Torchlight III's feels very lackluster. Players may go 30 minutes or an hour at a time without collecting something interesting or more useful than the current items they have, which makes progress in the game feel very slow. Upgrading and enhancing armor and weapons has become more difficult than it was in previous games, which stagnates progress even further.
Torchlight III is by no means a bad game. It is obvious that the team at Echtra Games put a lot of time and work into it, but there are a lot of problems that need fixing before Torchlight III meets or exceeds its current potential. The largest offender is the lack of interesting loot and the lack of places to upgrade weapons and armor, but bland class differentiation and puzzling map layouts contribute to an experience that will likely leave fans wondering what could have been in Torchlight III.
Torchlight III is available on PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch, Xbox One, and PC. A PlayStation 4 code was provided for the purposes of this review.