Torchlight, ♔for all intents and purposes, IS Diablo. Aside from a considerably different visual style, Torchlight's loot-grabbing, dungeon-crawling gameplay is almost indistinguishable from Blizzard's classic 🅘hack n' slash RPG.
That really doesn't matt🎃er though, because Diablo is excellent, and thus it stands to reason that Torchlight is 🦩excellent, too. By taking the established gameplay of Diablo but adding its own art direction and sense of character, Runic Games has really succeeded in making Torchlight not just a commercial success, but a bit of a critical darling as well.
The thing that has really helped Torchlight is the hole in the market. Very few games have truly stepped up to take Diablo's place while Blizzard has been busy with World of Warcraft. During the long wait for Diablo III, we've only had a handful of games, such as the Sacred series, attempt to catch fan attention. There was a gap for a game like Torchlight, and Runic t𒁃ook the opportunity with both hands. Now it's become the perfect dungeon crawler to scratch our looting itch while we wait for Blizzard to get its thumb out of its arse.
Yet another game that has suffered critically, you can't move for people who call Dante's Inferno a lame God of War rip-off. However, Visceral Games' Hellbound action game is actually fa💎r better than people give it credit for, and I'll admit this right now... I liked it much more than I liked God of War III, a series that has descended into self-plagiarism so much that calling Dante's Inferno a rip-off barely holds much weight as an argument.
Sure, Dante's Inferno doesn't really do anything we haven't seen in an action game before. Simple button-bashing combos, an obligatory XP system, quick-time-events, and even an incredibly stripped down "moral choice" system all make their expected appearances. And yes, even the dodge command uses the ri🍸ght analog stick, just like God of War.
Nevertheless, Dante's Inferno is a solid action game full of violence and satisfying slaughter. It makes absolute no sense that people say it's bad, since it does follow the God of War structure so intimately. Aside from a few bosses that feel somewhat cheap due to their un☂blockable, barely telegraphed attacks, there's very little wrong with Dante's Inferno at all. It's an action games that does what it set out to do. Nothing wrong with that.
Perhaps the king of derivative gameplay, Vigil's Darksiders is one of the most unoriginal, sticky-fingered games ꦓaround. However, all of its borrowing and outright theft has led to one of 2010's finest action games, so all can be forgiven.
Darksiders proves that this industry is unique, in that o🐷ne really can get away with having a dearth of original ideas provided that the culmin🃏ation of quasi-plagiarism is a fun experience. That's what Darksiders is - it's fun. That's also the only thing that matters in the world of videogames.
Structurally, Darks🥀iders is like a darker, more brooding Legend of Zelda. The Horseman War goes from dungeon to dungeon, earning familiar items such as boomerangs and hookshots, o൲pening up new paths and taking on bosses with distinctive weak points. He gets his own version of heart pieces, his own Epona, even his own version of the Water Temple.
And as if that wasn't enough, Vigil saw fit to throw an entire Por💃tal Gun into the bloody game!
꧙Darksiders is one of the most🐓 shamelessly imitative videogames created this generation, yet it has also been crafted with such competence and confidence that it has still earned the respect of many gamers. Well deserved respect, as well, since it's incredibly fun despite its overly familiar trappings. Vigil truly understood that being great meant more than simply being unique, and it paid off in spades.
So, the next t꧙ime you trash a game for not being innovative enough, just remember that some of us care more about enjoying ourselves than patting ourselves on the🅠 back for liking something that is so incredibly different.
Sep 30, 2010
Zelda meets God of War in a post apocalypt𒀰ic wasteland
God of War🗹 tumbles from Mount Olympus to the depths of Hell
The most criminal imperfections of all time
