Dungeon Crawling 101

I just finished Torchlight a few nights ago and the 12 hours of gameplay I sunk into it has been some of the finest I've found on XBLA.  Torchlight is my first venture into the dungeon crawler genre and the game eased me in gently letting make mistakes along the way.  It may be a more casual take on the genre but I found lots of depth to the skill tree and the loot I acquired. The game oozes charm through the art style.  Bright colors, creative creature and character design all invite me into the town and mines of Torchlight.

I think the biggest thing that sells this game for me is the controls. I'm not one who likes to spend a lot of time in menus tinkering with stats and such, so I found the console port to be easy to pick up and navigate.  Combat flows smoothly as each button is assigned a task whether it be a spell or potion.  My favorite aspect is the analog sticks giving me freedom to move about while casting or using an attack.  I feel more in control and engaged in the game than my brief time with Torchlight on the PC.

A recent patch solved most of my main grip with the game, and that's performance.  Slowdown is frequent and many times there's a slight pause before going back to normal.  Though annoying I learned to deal with it and now I hardly notice it.

If you've been interested in games like Diablo or you're a hardcore dungeon crawler I think there's something here for everyone.  For $15 this little game has delivered for me more than most blockbuster games.  Buy it and enjoy the heck out, you can thank me later.

Details:  I spent close to 12 hours to finish the campaign though there's endless content even after you beat the main story.  I chose the Alchemist class, played on Hard difficulty and received all but one achievement for a grand total of 170 gs. 

Look out for Torchlight 2 which comes out to PC later this fall which includes co-op and lets all hope it'll be ported to XBLA as well.