In Torchlight 3, the colorful fantasy world of Novastraia must once again be saved from an invasion by the Netherim. As a freshly embarked hero, you start a liberation tour alone or with up to four players in an online co-op. A couch co-op function (local co-op) has been unnecessarily omitted, even on consoles.
The story, characters, and quests only play a very subordinate role and are designed so that the action-packed story can continue as quickly as possible. The story is an only unadorned accessory, which is either pushed forward in sparse quest texts or barely animated comic interludes. As with its predecessors, you don't play Torchlight for the story, but for the fast-paced combat, the well-hit gameplay pacing, and the constant character improvement through items and skills. Two of these aspects are also true for the third part, namely combat and game speed. Unfortunately, the character expansion is a mess and seems like it was cobbled together quickly in a time crunch.
With your character, you can beat up and destroy hordes of enemies in caves, dungeons, and on the surface. However, you should be prepared for the fact that many locations are narrow and the level building blocks of the randomly thrown together areas repeat themselves quite quickly. At least it's nice that the enemies don't stand on the map merely waiting for the player, but often appear as you pass through the area.
Standard enemies, elite groups, unique representatives, and boss opponents are dealt with at a very well-hit pace. Only somehow the possibility to increase the overview with "life bars" above the enemies' heads is missing. In return, the hit feedback is decent when you turn on the damage numbers, and handy color warnings help you recognize when you're in stuff you'd better not be in. Overall, the battles feel good.
Conclusion
You can notice Torchlight 3's turbulent development process. A lot of things don't fit: The own fort hardly offers any meaningful added value, the social elements (fort visits and towns as meeting points) seem forced and in the tubular levels the building blocks are visibly repeating themselves. While the basic class design is really good and the action-packed enemy/loot hunt is solidly entertaining, the immensely important character progression feels hectically cobbled together. In the first few minutes of the game, you're inundated with development opportunities, until the big void comes and you realize that character expansion is too limited in the frayed mini-systems. Much better things could have been done with the relic weapon alone, instead of using it up as a mere subclass. Despite the shallow difficulty level and many limitations, Torchlight 3 still manages to stage satisfying slashing excursions into colorful dungeons. But much more could have been done here.
