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| | Genre: Adventure & RPG | | Min OS X: 10.4  CPU: Intel |
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Requirements: Mac OS X: 10.5.8 | CPU: Intel Processor | RAM: 1 GB | Graphics: OpenGL 2.0 compatible video card with 256MB dedicated RAM (ATI Radeon X1600 or nVidia equivalent)Review: Torchlight, by Runic Games, is a light hearted sword & sorcery first person smacker that can truly satisfy one’s need to delve into dark caverns, search for treasure, destroy monsters, find gold, and acquire better gear. It is easy to spend hours in the caverns of Torchlight and it’s a lot of fun as well. Torchlight is a little town positioned near the entrance of an extensive range of caverns. Within these caverns are veins of a very special material called Ember. This magical mineral can be used to infuse weapons and armor with magical abilities that greatly enhance their value and effectiveness. Trade went well for Torchlight until the day someone delved too deep and exposed something very evil. Now unusual creatures roam the mines, attacking and scaring away the miners. And so the people of Torchlight looked toward heroes to enter the mines and try to stop the madness. You start the game in the town of Torchlight, where you can meet the various people of the town, the vendors and the quest givers. Once you begin the journey, you walk into the cavern entrance. Almost immediately you are assaulted by the evil forces within. At the start of Torchlight you choose one of three character types to play. The choices are the Destroyer, a melee hand to hand weapons master; the Vanquisher, whose special abilities are with her use of ranged weapons; and the Alchemist, whose abilities lie in the realm of magic. Each hero chooses a pet that has a number of valuable uses in the game. In the MacOS X version you get to choose either a Dog, a Cat, or Ferret as a pet. Pets are your hero’s companion and friend, but go well beyond that. They have bags, so they can carry extra loot. They can fight, and can be enhanced with magical gear. They can even be taught to cast spells! For instance, there are some spells that call up things to fight for you. With my Vanquisher I gave those spells to the pet, who automatically casts them whenever there is a battle of some size, leaving me to stand back and use my impressive pistol to deal damage. Pets can also be enhanced in various ways. Besides being able to wear magical rings, a necklace, and learn spells, you can fish for pet food that temporarily adds abilities to the pet by turning them into some type of monster. As you are adventuring, you will find “fishing holes”. Spend some time fishing and you will catch various types of “fish”. Feed the fish to your pet to see the changes. Most important, to the dedicated adventurer, pets can be sent back to town on their own to sell off the loot you have found but don’t need, while the adventurer continues onward. Teleporting to town isn’t a big deal, but there is a computer related delay as the town data is loaded, and again when the cavern data is reloaded when you return. Sending the pet back alone sells the junk and avoids the loading pauses!
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