Torchlight is doing nothing new, but that doesn't mean it isn't fun. It feels like Diablo in many ways, thanks to some of the developer team actually being former Diablo designers, but again that doesn't mean it is poorly done or will not widdle away many many hours from your week.

35 floors of dungeon-y goodness await you, and even though you will start to recognize familiar patterns and styles, the floors are changed up enough to make it always seem like you are visiting somewhere new. You might even come across a void-beast, which upon it's death will release a portal that will transport you to a sub-dungeon and will provide you with more loot and more blood on your hands.

There are the three standard classes: the rogue, the mage and the warrior, but Torchlight has taken this chance to take the genre somewhere fresh and to avoid feeling like just another copy. You gain skills and can specialize in three distinct skill trees (if you are familiar withWoW , then you are familiar with these) and your equipment and extra spell (learned from looted scrolls) always give you options. This is the type of game that you might want to play all the way through on one character, then go back and play it with another to see the difference in game-play. There is even aperma -death option, for those crazy enough to risk it all! You can also retire a character, and will be allowed to "pass on" a cherished piece of loot. I hadn't tried this yet, being that I am still obsessively collecting loot and exploring every nook and cranny on mymage character.

We couldn't help think of how fun this game would be with at least one other friend along with you, but Torchlight offers no multi-player. It's a great title for 20 bucks, but the online play would have driven it to the "amazing value" bracket. I have heard rumors of an upcoming MMO based on the game, but we have not verified them. After all, all of our time is spent killing mobs and collecting loot. Scouting our rumors is for the weak!

The game looks good, too, but not revolutionary. I (Beau) am playing it very successfully on my older PC, and in the options there is even a "netbook" mode. I will have to try that out. The colors are bright and varied, and we only noticed one area of the game that might affect a color-blind player.

And being an animal lover myself, I was happy to see a pet cat or dog included in the team! You can actually put a few rings and a necklace on your best friend (though I wonder where exactly they might go) and while he cannot destroy bosses single-handed like your main character can, hedefinitely provides you with companionship, back-up, and will even tote your goods back to town and sell them, so you don't have to!

It is great to know that Runic Games took the time to make this game accessible to as many gamers as possible and should be commended for their effort. Although, it could be a coincidence on their part but we really hope that it isn't.

* Playable entirely by mouse. This is great for those with a physical disability because it takes less effort on their part than in most games.

* There are shortcut keys to make using spells and other items easier to activate but they are not needed to play at all.

* When you mouse over an enemy they get a red glowing tint to them but does not cover the entire body, which might be a problem for some. We didn’t see this as a too much of a problem and will most definitely not affect attacking since all you do is click on an enemy and your character attacks. The lamps put off a yellow glow but it won’t affectgame play in any way.

* There are four levels of difficulty with an option for hardcore for each. We believe that everyone, despite their disability, will have no problem playing this game.

In a word, the game is fun. In two words, the game is easy fun. This does not mean that the game is not challenging at all, but between the small download, (500mb's ) the click-for-everything play, and the automatic saves you can just jump into the game and start killing monsters. It makes you think that maybe games that were screamed at for unoriginality would have benefited greatly from having a smoother application. After all, Torchlight in all it's areas, is nothing new. There are a few innovations, like your pet going back to town for you or theperma -death modes, but that's not the point. There are many games set in genres that are not original and that might be over-saturated. But Torchlightdoesn't try to blow you away with amazing story or state-of-the-art graphics that require a powerful machine to play.

It simply wants to be fun, and that's what it is.

It's 20 dollars, and definitely worth a download.