At Gamescom 2018, we had the chance to play the upcoming Diablo-like MMO Torchlight Frontiers. Find out here how the action MMORPG feels.
The latest installment in the Torchlight series is set to be an MMO. You run through randomly generated areas and click on monsters in a Diablo-like fashion to kill them. This allows you to collect loot and level up your heroes.
Torchlight Frontiers is also an MMO. You will encounter other players in the cities, whom you can invite to join your group if you wish. Then you can go on monster hunts together.
In the dungeons and adventure instances, you will see only the players who are in your group. There are no hordes of players all wandering around in the zones at the same time.
We played Torchlight Frontiers
This is how Torchlight Frontiers plays: At Gamescom 2018, we could play Torchlight Frontiers live. Initially, there were only two classes available, a magician and a type of steam-powered robot.
We chose the magician and went on the hunt for goblins. It went as follows:
- With the left mouse button, you hit monsters with your weapon, while the right button was set to an attack spell.
- Like in Diablo, you click on the monsters and beat them up. It is pleasantly intuitive.
- A range of skills, such as particularly strong attacks, a buff, or an invisibility spell, completed the selection.
- As support, a pet constantly followed us. In our case, it was a dog, but there was also an owl and even a llama!
- The pet was a pleasant addition, helping in combat and acting as a tank. Later, the animals are supposed to learn their own skills.
This is how boss fights go
Final battle against the goblin boss: This is how we effortlessly slaughtered through goblin hordes. In the end, there was a cave with a particularly huge goblin named “Wideload the Mancrusher.” He was exceptionally large and had a huge life bar as well as special abilities.
Wideload could knock down our heroes if he hit them. Additionally, new goblins constantly streamed in to support the boss. In the end, the big goblin fell into the dust and dropped a lot of loot. That was also the end of the play session at the fair.
Our first conclusion about Torchlight Frontiers
Ideal for fans of colorful fun worlds: Anyone who knows and likes action RPGs will feel at home in Torchlight Frontiers right away. The gameplay is intuitive and quick to learn. The skills can be used effectively, and the adorable pets are also a joy.
However, if you expect a dark, serious world like Diablo, then Torchlight is not for you. The game relies on colorful graphics and humor. Even in the caves, everything is colorful, and the goblins are grotesquely funny.
They tumble around, chatter in their strange language, and when they appear as gunners, they first have to aim at us panicked for seconds before their primitive flintlock rifles go off.
What about the MMO elements? Unfortunately, the demo session at Gamescom was not online. We did not encounter other players. Therefore, we cannot say how the MMO features feel in Torchlight Frontiers. But in the following article, you can read what they look like:
