Recent reviews by Edisu

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tl:dr

Score 7.2/10

Pros:
- Smooth animations
- environment is nice to look at
- a nice amount of builds to try out
- doesn't feel like a grind

Cons:
- barely any end game
- items are not impactful
- story is generic and bland during some areas


Torchlight 2 is a fast-paced action multiplayer role playing game, similar to diablo 3. It has a colourful art style with smooth animations and 'click to move' movement. Torchlight 2 greatly improves on its predecessor Torchlight 1 through more gameplay options and content however still has some problems such as the lack of endgame due to the improved but still few build paths.

In Torchlight 2, the aim is to stop 'the alchemist' from taking over the land in which you must complete a series of 'acts' which all include a large amount of dungeons and maps which are randomnly generated. The story however will only take a few hours to complete on easy difficulty but will be increasingly challenging the higher the difficulty. After you complete the story you are given the option to replay it at a higher difficulty or enter the 'clockwork' which is like a HUB where you choose various dungeons to clear and recieve rarer and stronger loot to upgrade your character. Overall the story is interesting and gives a sense of urgency to the player and will provide entertainment for a couple of hours until you complete it.

However in Torchlight 2 the story is not its main focus, but rather its combat and rewards for completing dungeons. Torchlights combat is smooth, flashy and makes grinding fun due to its fast-paces and simple design. 3 Skills builds exist for all classes in which you can only undo up to your 5th choice making choosing your skills an important decision. Stat build also exist which improve your general strength. Rewards are recieved by killing monsters which will drop gold, potions and items. Items come in various rarities with rarer items being stronger which you can upgrade by inserting gems (also dropped by monsters). The mentioned drops can also be found in chests found across the maps. In total the combat system is great and but lacks variety and the items dropped dont have much of a power up feel.

Overall Torchlight 2 is a fun game to play while it lasts due to its great combat and beautiful artstyle. This is also supported by its multiplayer compatability and various skill options allowing for customisation of your character. This however does not last long due to its lacklustre end game which grows full and boring relatively quickly (yes, there are mods available but even they dont last very long and gameplay is in all intents and purposes the same). This leads to the final score for this game which is a 7.2/10 and can improve by increase end game content, more variety in skills and classes and more impactful drops

tl:dr

Score: 7/10

Pros:
- smooth and colourful
- easy to learn but challenging to master
- cheap
- still being improved
- quick matches make sit easy to fit in schedules

Cons:
- lacks content still
- will start to get repetitive
- no real reason to play ranked

Speed runners is an indie developed, 2D sidescrolling, racing game that is fit for all ages due to its unique appearance, availability and 'quick to pick-up' controls. This combined with its fast paced gameplay and short game length allows it to be played anywhere and anytime (i myself am guilty of sneaking it in and about while doing homework and assignments,"just 1 more match!") which can explain its overwhelmingly positive feedback even while it is still in 'Beta' development. Included with this gameplay is the intergration of the ranking system which involves the use of the leaderboard which tracks players in you league and how many points they have which allows the player to check their standings compared to others which allows for a competitive environment that increase the games longegevity and also seperates casual players to more serious ones.

Speed runners appearance is fit for all ages due to its bright and bold colour palette which distinguishes the background from the runners that the players control, giving the game a 'quirky' and fun feeling. Its availability comes from its low price of 10 dollars while not on sale and 2 dollars while on sale which is a cheap price compared to most other games in the market that usually range from 15 to 25 dollars. Speed runners is also a 'quick to pick-up' game letting players get into the game faster and also making it less daunting for newer players to the genre. This combined with its cheap price and colourful appearance sets this game up for long-term success due to its wide target market and the fact that cartoons are better than realism long-term due to realism always being outdated while cartoons itself are a unique and personalize genre of presentation.

Its rank system involves the use of leagues which are different groups that players are placed in due to their skill. Its uses a point system which is the way you rank up to a higher league in Speed Runners in which points are earned according to you succes in matches. However you may ask how they balance out the points lost or gained if you in a match with higher ranked people? Speed Runners makes it so that if your vsing a higher ranked person, the points you lose in the match are decreased and if you vsing a lower rank person, the points you lose are increased. This, combined with the quick matches that speed runners offer makes the ranking environment, friendly and less daunting for any player.

There are the reasons why Speed Runners in my opinion is worthy of a 7/10 rating which can be improved through increased content, different styles of gameplay e.g. new gamemodes, perhaps a unique character customisation (might be going a bit too far xD) and general bug fixes which i strongly believe will be achieved when this game is out on full release (maybe not the character customization).