Torchlight
(Runic; Mac, PC, Xbox 360; rated teen)

Torchlight may be limited in scope and repetitive in design, but of all the games that have been released in the past month, it’s the one I keep wanting to play.

It’s a dungeon crawler with minor RPG elements, and I’m a sucker for them right back to the days of Diablo and Baldur’s Gate. In Torchlight, you play a fighter, a thief, or a magic user, prowling the levels beneath the mining town of Torchlight, fighting all manner of creatures both living and undead and collecting treasure. There’s a phrase for this that is oft-repeated by fans of the genre: kill things, take their stuff.

And despite the aforementioned repetitiveness, fans of the genre will be quite happy with what Torchlight gives them: hours and hours of hacking and slashing, or firing arrows, or casting spells.

There are so many variations in weapons, armour, and accoutrements that it becomes difficult to manage it all, and I found myself longing for the kind of auto-equip function that Hothead brought to DeathSpank, another fun and enjoyable action adventure.

But in Torchlight you get a pet to fight alongside you and you can send your pet back to town to sell unwanted gear, a brilliant addition to the game that means you can clear your pack and earn a bit of gold without having to stop exploring and return to the surface.

If you like playing games like Torchlight, this is a definite pick-up. And don’t worry what character to choose because you’ll want to play the game again anyway.

Cross-posted at the Georgia Straight