Online game "Torchlight Infinite"

Born from the single-player action/RPG Torchlight, Torchlight Infinite is now a popular MMO competing for the same audience as Diablo Immortal and Path of Exile 2. What arguments does it have, what are its main strengths and weaknesses? We tell you in detail in our review.

The first Torchlight came out back in 2009 – it was worked on by many former Blizzard employees, first and foremost Max and Eric Schaefer, who played a major role in creating Diablo and Diablo 2. It was a partly ironic action/RPG where, in addition to destroying monsters, we went fishing and sent our pet, a dog or cat, to the shop to sell unwanted “loot”. Many liked the game, including for its humor and cartoonish graphics, and a sequel came out 3 years later.

The third installment had to wait a full 8 years – largely because the studio Runic Games was developing the free-to-play Torchlight Frontiers. In the end it turned into Torchlight 3, released in 2020 and including some MMO elements. However, most players disliked the third part, and a few years later the authors offered a new free-to-play game in the Torchlight world, subtitled Infinite.

Interestingly, it was the “free-to-play” game that turned out to be the most dramatic and least humorous of the entire series. At the center of each part’s plot is the magical and very powerful mineral Ember. As always in such cases, everyone hunts for the valuable resource, but the mineral has a number of side effects – namely, it can negatively affect the mind: with prolonged contact with ember people become possessed or even turn into monsters. The legendary Alchemist fell under its influence, becoming obsessed with the dangers emanating from ember and the emberite plague it caused. In the second part we were just dealing with the chaos caused by his actions.

And by the events of Torchlight Infinite the mineral has mutated into aember and become the cause not of individual disasters, but of endless wars and strife. Largely this is because many people under the influence of aember have become embittered and aggressive – mysterious voices call them into the “aember family” and promise “infinite power”. Those who were able to resist and keep their sanity decided to save the world from this mineral scourge – to do this they must restore the First Flame by collecting its four fragments scattered across the world.

But this is not just another heroic story – the cut-scenes and cinematics play out real drama; one of the main villains, it turns out, did everything because of unhappy love. And our companion Aria, who accompanies the hero (or heroine) the whole way, is constantly ready to sacrifice herself and at some point even asks – if, under the influence of aember, I mutate, promise to stop me. Even the rare side quests here are quite sad and dramatic. In one of them we search for a sister at the request of her wounded brother, and when we find her and bring her back, we find only his corpse – the scene turned out very emotional. Still, there was room for funny characters, which the Torchlight universe has always been rich in.

As in all “diabloids”, that is, action/RPGs created in the image and likeness of Diablo, Torchlight Infinite puts first not the story (although it is really well-developed for the genre), but the actual gameplay. And in it, naturally, everything is tuned for combat and leveling. There are 12 base classes to choose from, plus almost every one has alternative versions that differ slightly in skills – in total the game has more than two dozen specializations.

And these are not only and not so much traditional mages, archers and warriors (although they are present too!). For example, there is a class called “Space-Time Witness Yuga”, which “when meeting enemies releases distorted space-time and deals damage to them over time”. There is also the dwarf “Commander Moto”, who calls an army of robots to fight on his side and makes enemies self-destruct. In addition, several classes rely on explosives and bombs, and the Berserker in the alternative version can summon a special spirit to help.

In any case, there is a huge number of opportunities for leveling and fine-tuning a build. As we gain new levels we learn various talents sorted into more than twenty tabs, manually assign, change and upgrade two hundred skills. Pets, the so-called “contract spirits”, play an important role – they both help in battles themselves and give stat boosts, and can even change the very principle of this mechanic. Likewise, traits and character stats periodically open up, able to change the playstyle of the character.

Add to this the relic system, the ability to craft equipment (it, as usual, differs in rarity) and enchant weapons and armor, which allows changing stats and even properties of gear, creatively experimenting with it. Moreover, equipment can and should be subjected to “corrosion” – the procedure applies random stat bonuses to an item, but creating such “spoiled” items requires twice as many resources. The result is a fairly advanced and detailed action/RPG in terms of progression.

Improving gear and leveling characters is needed primarily for completing side challenges and endgame content – the main story campaign, as is customary in such games, does not pose much difficulty. If you just run along the story rails, enemies will rarely cause serious problems – even bosses here do not restore health after we die, so you can quickly return and finish off the bastard.

But if you don’t rush forward and explore the world, you can stumble upon, for example, god trials, which are done in the format of “tower defense” or a duel. In addition, you can get into special zones that appear randomly and offer battles with stronger opponents – but the rewards there are better.

But the most difficult challenges await in the endgame – namely, in the Netherworld and in the world of illusions, which consists of five dimensions. Even their names speak of how hard it is to survive there – for example, there is the Frozen Abyss, the Sea of Boiling Flame and the Land of Darkness. There we fight in turn with the strongest bosses, each next one many times stronger than the previous.

Passing each dimension is divided into stages, after which we receive observation points. When we collect them all, we get the opportunity to fight the guardian boss, whose victory opens a higher difficulty level in this world. And when we defeat all four bosses in each location, we get into the final fifth dimension called “Ruler of the World”.

Special mechanics in the Netherworld allow, with the help of Chaos cards and decks, to change the conditions of trials, making them even more difficult, but also increasing rewards or raising the chances of valuable items dropping. Naturally, it is better to go through such trials in co-op, which allows grouping up in pairs – they get bonuses to trophy drop and experience points, but monster health also increases. There is no PvP, that is, player-versus-player combat in Torchlight: Infinite, but there are other social functions, including trade, auction and free market.

Naturally, players can also use the built-in store – the game has micro-transactions and battle passes, but mostly various “cosmetics” for character customization are sold here. And, by the way, it looks very impressive – as does the graphics and art in general.

Torchlight: Infinite is unlikely to match Path of Exile 2 in popularity, but it has definitely found its audience. Bright, beautiful, with co-op, lots of unusual characters and rich opportunities for leveling and build tuning, it can also captivate with its dramatic story. At the same time the game continues to actively develop – quite recently, in October, the new, already 12th season came out, introducing a number of new features and mechanics.

Zarium. November 2025.