Torchlight 2 I'd say. T1 is a lot simpler and less depth. T3 was made by other devs, misses a lot of features from T1/2, lacks polish in general and is generally mediocre. Haven't played Infinite but I believe it's a mobile game.

Originally posted by chris.ferrantegerard:

Torchlight 2 I'd say. T1 is a lot simpler and less depth. T3 was made by other devs, misses a lot of features from T1/2, lacks polish in general and is generally mediocre. Haven't played Infinite but I believe it's a mobile game.

Ok thx. Yeah I checked out the Infinite page only after asking, but really should have read up on it. Didn't realize it was F2P. Too bad about 3 tho, looks kinda nice.

Torchlight 2 is the zenith of the series, yes.

Torchlight 2 has more variety and is more enjoyable.

Torchlight 2 is the most complete and most complex, so ... yeah, as Vivisector 9999 said, it's the zenith of the series.

Originally posted by chris.ferrantegerard:

T3 was made by other devs,

That's ... not really fair. TL1 and TL2 were made by Runic Games. The Three lead devs were the brothers, Max and Eric Schaefer (who were two of the lead devs on Diablo 1 and 2 as well) and Travis Baldree.

Max Schaefer wanted to make an MMO version of Torchlight, but needed a corporate parent with deep pockets, so he sold the company to Perfect World. Runic built TL1 and TL2 and then Hob, but Hob took too long to build and wasn't really a smash success and Perfect World shuttered Runic Games after Hob's release.

At that point, Eric Schaefer and Travis Baldree decided they'd had enough of big corporations and went off together to form Double Damage Games (which is/was just the two of them).

Max Schaefer however still wanted to make the Torchlight MMO, so he set up Echtra Studios. So ... you're correct that Runic and Echtra aren't the same, but there's still a considerable amount of overlap in terms of staffing.

Regardless, Perfect World wanted a Torchlight Game-as-a-Service model. and Max Schaefer tried to build that. However, when he showed the Alpha version to fans they were disappointed. Acting on the suggestions of fans, Max tried to adjust the existing TL3 to be more in line with their expectations. And there really wasn't enough money in the budget to do that, so ... the simplistic (relative to TL2), unfinished TL3 is the result.

Echtra was then sold off to Zynga and now works on mobile games (as far as I know).



Torchlight: Infinite was made by XD Inc, who licensed the rights from Perfect World. No one who worked on TL1, TL2 or TL3 was involved (as far as I know).

Curiously however, David Brevik was a consultant on TL: Infinite. Brevik had nothing to do with TL1, TL2 or TL3, but he was the lead Dev at Condor Games (later Blizzard North) and did work with Max and Eric Schaefer to build Diablo 1 and 2. (And really should be consider the father of the entire genre of games).

TL1 is really cool. TL2 is TL1 with a lot more features, which makes it even cooler. And TL2 has native mod support!! Even to this day, new mods are being created.

TL3 development was challenging, I believe they aimed too high for a brand new team. The resulting game is still fun, but pales in comparison to TL2.

TL2 is definitely the best. There are also a ton of mods in the Steam Workshop for it that will give you plenty of new ways to play the game.

Thx peeps. Got 1 & 2 on GOG for under $9.

As to TL2 how would I mod it tho since it's the GOG version? And what mods should I get?

Originally posted by Devil Dog:

Thx peeps. Got 1 & 2 on GOG for under $9.

As to TL2 how would I mod it tho since it's the GOG version? And what mods should I get?

Any non-console (non-nintendo, non-playstation, non-xbox) version of TL2 (windows, mac, linux from any distributor like Steam, GoG, and others) can use mods if placed in the correct folder (usually in Documents > My Games > Runic Games > Torchlight 2 > Mod folder).

For TL1 mods; there's the Torchlight Fansite:
https://www.torchlightfansite.com/mod_downloads/42-torchlight-1-mods/
TL1 needs it's mods placed in a different hidden folder; somewhere in the Appdata folder.

For TL2; use the instructions I mentioned above regarding the Documents folder and here's a Guide I wrote that can help you decide on what mods you'd like to consider:
https://steamhost.cn/steamcommunity_com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2418154311

TL2 Inventory mods tend to not work well with each other.

For new TL2 players - the Essentials mod by itself is a good first mod to begin with if in doubt regarding on how to choose a 10-mod load order.

Appreciate the mod suggestions. I downloaded Haknslash Essentials - let me know if that's the wrong Essentials file - from that fan site.

Originally posted by Devil Dog:

Appreciate the mod suggestions. I downloaded Haknslash Essentials - let me know if that's the wrong Essentials file - from that fan site.

I forgot that TL2_Essentials wasn't on the Fansite however Haknslash will work well too.

Too bad about that other Essentials mod, I uninstalled Haknslash because it almost destroyed my enthusiasm to play - pet was disintegrating everything within seconds and drops increased xp and money gains like 10 fold.

Originally posted by Devil Dog:

Too bad about that other Essentials mod, I uninstalled Haknslash because it almost destroyed my enthusiasm to play - pet was disintegrating everything within seconds and drops increased xp and money gains like 10 fold.

Thanks for the info on the pets being too powerful from Haknslash. I looked for another option and found Mamba's mod pack that is the closest to the TL2-Essentials mod that I can find on the Fansite. It may not be the game changes you seek yet it's an option:

https://www.torchlightfansite.com/mod_downloads/compilations-tl2/download-523-mambas-core-mod-merge.html

Originally posted by steffire3:

Thanks for the info on the pets being too powerful from Haknslash. I looked for another option and found Mamba's mod pack that is the closest to the TL2-Essentials mod that I can find on the Fansite. It may not be the game changes you seek yet it's an option:

https://www.torchlightfansite.com/mod_downloads/compilations-tl2/download-523-mambas-core-mod-merge.html

I was able to get TL2 Essentials using the Steam downloader site tho and it works a lot better so huge props for that.

Originally posted by Devil Dog:

I was able to get TL2 Essentials using the Steam downloader site tho and it works a lot better so huge props for that.

Glad to hear! You'll be able to access more of the mods for TL2 with that option.