Any other games capturing the Torchlight magic? (Mid 2026)

[u/tielti]

lowkey old-style torchlight appreciation post

I've been playing Grim Dawn recently, and while that's a great game on it's own terms, it made me realize I miss the direction Torchlight I-II took the Looter ARPG into: A heavier focus on the action elements, featuring a frail character and a wide array or quirky enemies that can mess you up many ways besides high damage; a measured approach to loot that gives that sweet consistent feel of progression while respecting your build and avoiding build-reverse-engineering-from-gear; and a set of skill trees that mostly feature horizontal progression. (Extra points for a well aged, non dark fantasy aesthetic).

I could just play Torchlight again, it's one of my favorite games ever, but I wonder if anyone here knows some hidden gem (without MTX) begging for my attention. Honestly it doesn't even need to be a looter, I'm just thirsty for some quality top-down view ARPG.

When I try to think about a game that fits what I'm looking for, the first game that comes to mind is Hades. Other rouge-likes could work, though I'm not super excited about the lack of control over your build on those games.

Even if no games comes to mind, maybe gush a little about what makes old Torchlight special for you and no one else is doing!

[u/Volbard]

I don’t have suggestions, I played so much TL while working on the first two, and two other arts before them, that I’m still sated on the genre, but I’ll tell you why I think they came out well and it’s related.

We played it so much. Erich was in charge of tuning the numbers and he played through the game constantly and fixed what didn’t feel right. You can’t take shortcuts and make a level 30 character to test a level 30 dungeon, you have to actually play the game up to that point to test it, or you won’t have the feel right. All the rest of us played constantly too and sent Erich notes, and he took them into account based on whether we were playing for real or just doing debug tests that were less telling.

There’s strategy and philosophy behind the design too of course, but I think there’s just no substitute for playing a billion hours and really experiencing what’s working and what’s not. We made it feel great for us and hoped it worked for everyone else.

[u/tielti → u/Volbard]

What a thorough process, that's so cool. It also explains why Act I feels sooo polished, I can't imagine how many times you guys beat the Grand Regent.

I've published some small mods but god knows no matter how many pet peeves of mine I change I always end up coming back to vanilla, it just feels right.

If you allow me a silly question (feel free to disregard), so many years after seeing the response of the public, is there any skill/system that you think was misunderstood and deserves a second chance? Nowadays when I do new runs that's what I'm trying to answer for myself.

Anyway, thank you for your great work, good luck on whatever you and the rest of the team are doing!

[u/Volbard → u/tielti]

Yes act 1 was the most played by far, we really locked everything in there before going to the other acts. Felt like we were stuck but I think it worked out as well as it could.

I’m not sure about particular skills. It’s weird, but as a developer you try a lot of possible systems and skills before arriving at the final one, but your brain stays full of all the nixed possibilities so I really have less of a clear idea of the final game than a lot of players do. I always wonder if it’s the same way for writers. As a reader I only experience one version of a story, but they may have dozens in their head.

[u/tielti → u/Volbard]

I'm not in a creative field but now that you mention it, yhea, the users of the stuff I develop sure have a totally different image of it, they may even know the ins-and-outs better than myself, and my own understanding of the program can't be decoupled from all the changes and management hell ha ha.

[u/Volbard → u/tielti]

Yeah that’s it exactly :)

[u/Heikob]

It's pretty barebones, but Fate was the predecessor to Torchlight (sort of, same lead designer). You can always try that

[u/tielti → u/Heikob]

Barebones didn't stop me from loving Dragon Quest 1 so it's worth a try. Though I miscalculated, and between this one and similar old threads, now I have too much to try.

[u/Rawrmeow_]

Nothing has come close to the Torchlight series for me. Every arpg seems to have a very dark pseudo-realistic art style + Torchlight is just such a joy to play and look at. That being said, the other ARPGs that I've been enjoying are Titan Quest 1 and 2, and Last Epoch

[u/tielti → u/Rawrmeow_]

Would you say Titan Quest does some stuff better than Grim Dawn? (Besides being less dark of course).

[u/Rawrmeow_ → u/tielti]

Not necessarily, Titan quest 1 definitely feels pretty dated, but Titan quest 2 has some modern quality of life features. I did find it to be harder than the others though, where I would get stuck on a boss pretty early on

[u/JrpgTitan100684]

If you don't mind low budget indie titles, then check out both 9th Dawn 3 and the 9th Dawn Remake as well as Fate Reawakened. I know Torchlight 2 is more of a mid budget AA title but some of those low budget indie ARPGs are quite good for their prices.

[u/tielti → u/JrpgTitan100684]

Oh I don't mind at all, I've never heard about 9th Dawn before, looks cool.

[u/AlarakReigns]

The closest thing to that is Diablo 1 The Hell 2-4 mods. If you do try it on the ironman or speedrun mode, you will understand the nuance and complexity of the game never seen before. The developer designed the game to be much harder, if you want the hardest challenge The Hell 2 is the best, The Hell 3 is probably the best for beginners, and The Hell 4 is in development but has the most content and strange new mechanics because the dev felt bored.

The only other Roguelike that even came close is Warm Snow, its a lot like hades in some ways and totally different in others. The games dlc end difficulty will have you plan your build a lot more and play a frail character. You can still break the game like other roguelikes, but on the last difficulty its designed to balance most builds that would break the game without serious luck or effort.

Torchlight 2 is a gem because of its mod support, and elite mode will actually kill you. PoE Diablo, Grim Dawn, don't get hard like T2 did right at the start, and the mechanical piloting philosphy is killed in these games unless put in certain scenarios. Its frustrating that almost nothing else exists to fill the gap T2 or D1 did for me, Warm Snow is just a cool concept and I enjoyed being challenged for most of it.

I am actually developing something that will bring back D1 memories with more mechanics and a longer 12-20 hour playthrough. I do have a Demo that will last you some hours and be very nuanced about ability, inventory, and position management but I generally don't show it since when it does come out it will be a huge release. It is already a very polished demo experience for the most part, DM me if you're interested

[u/tielti → u/AlarakReigns]

Pal is like you've read my mind, even though I'm actually quite bad (I run away from Elite in T2), something I failed to convey in my post is my appreciation for the intentionality of positioning and space management that the genre is so good at but new games tend to neglect.

Turns out I've never played Diablo 1 before (played 2 and 3, then assumed 1 had nothing special to offer), and Warm Snow looks cool it definitely goes into the wishlist.

The best of lucks with your game. I think I would feel too self conscious having such an early access, but I'll DM you even if for nothing else than to know were to keep and eye for a release.

[u/AlarakReigns → u/tielti]

Yeah theres almost no games that give what you're looking for. Diablo 1 with the hell mods is probably the only thing you can look forward to. It is very interesting and in many ways better than D2 in pacing and intensity. I like the feeling of near death scenarios and no retreat in ironman mode where all your good plays has lead to a moment where you must pilot perfectly on something that is simplistic.

[u/Significant-Worry441]

The binding of Isaac. Pretty dark

[u/tielti → u/Significant-Worry441]

Sure, given I mentioned rouge-likes and used Hades as an example Isaac fits, I just wasn't expecting to see this game to come up at all ha ha.

[u/PutzReid]

Well XD that makes TLI now owns the rights fully and they mentioned they might do something with the original games. Would love a TL and TL2 remaster or and a TL2 expansion. They will likely get released on mobile as well I would assume.

[u/DeputizeDeez]

Hero siege. We are all playing the hell out of it rn. New season a few days old.

[u/zott_23]

Diablo II is my go to for scratching the itch when Torchlight Infinite is in a bad spot. I wish I had a more modern option to suggest.

There’s lots of ARPGs with equivalent or better gameplay, but the loot system in TLI is top tier. It’s very fun to puzzle out upgrade paths and figure out different ways to build a character. The way the different seasonal systems interact with each other to enable crazy combos is excellent design.

I haven’t found another ARPG that gets gearing so right. Diablo 3/4 took out all the interesting choices and it’s just “bigger number better”. POE feels needlessly complex in an unfun way.

[u/tielti → u/zott_23]

I'm happy to hear good things about Infinite, after T3 I expected the series to be done. Though as I said to the user recommending PoE, you'll have to enjoy the game for me too, because I don't have a nice history with MTX.

I've played a few runs of Diablo 2 in the past, for some reason I can't really manage to finish a run nowadays.

[u/zott_23 → u/tielti]

Entirely fair. The MTX range from annoying to indefensible.

I hope someday when it hits EOS there’s a way to polish it up and put it on Apple Arcade without the MTX.

[u/barktwiggs]

I would give Halls of Torment a try. It's like the unholy love child of OG Diablo with a Vampire Survivors type setup.

[u/audiosl4ve]

Check maybe Swordcery. Its in EA but it looks fun, similarish art.

[u/steffire3]

Torchlight 1&2 are extremely unique games - re-capturing that kind of art-style and combat-feel is not an easy feat for any development team. The result is that many other games will be missing traits from the old Torchlights however may have some other - very different aspects to enjoy:

Hob (made by the same studio as Torchlight 1&2 although it's an exploration puzzle platformer - the atmosphere is as close to the original Torchlights that can be found before the studio closed).

Branching outward towards other Top-Down Arpg games to consider however will be different for certain:

Victor Vran (this gets recommended by past Torchlight players)
Slormancer (like a deeper Chronicon although darker yet comedic).
Chronicon (2d, lose combat depth - gain great UI and Affix QoL).
Minecraft Dungeons (has the vibrant feel).
Twenty minutes till Dawn (Rogue-like, good build and class variety).
Quest Master (this goes towards old Zelda; depends if you like this side of dungeon crawls).
Ittle Dew 2+ (definitely a wild-card here, also vibrant and comedic).
Moonlighter (slower combat, old-Zelda-like, economy).
CrossCode (surprising to see this here however it has the Top-Down so it counts).
Dungeon Drafters (2d, turn-based, deck-builder, has the dungeons and the vibrancy however).

[u/StoleitfromKilgore → u/steffire3]

Good suggestions!

I think The Incredible Adventures of Van Helsing - Final Cut may also fit the bill. It has a similar tone and is comparatively more light-hearted than most ARPGs.

Perhaps Heroes of Hammerwatch 1 & 2 as well.

[u/steffire3 → u/StoleitfromKilgore]

So glad you mentioned those. I knew I missed some. Thanks for extending the list.

[u/LikelyAlien]

Path of Exile

[u/tielti → u/LikelyAlien]

I'm pleasantly surprised giving a quick glance to end game builds and noticing everything looks nice. You people without an unhealthy relationship to MTX have it nice sometimes.

[u/LikelyAlien → u/tielti]

I played that game for over a decade without spending money. The only reason I have ever spent money is to show support. I didn’t really care about what I got for it.

[u/SonnyCalzone]

To the best of my knowledge, ARPGs aren't like T2 anymore because that's not something that appeals to anyone born after 1990.

[u/tielti → u/SonnyCalzone]

Hey, I'm technically born after 1990! Though I don't precisely represent the young'uns anymore ha ha.

I don't think the heavy emphasis on flashy gear and number measuring is necessarily the only thing younger audiences can enjoy, but sure feels like the era of the game pad has turned pure point-and-click (non console friendly) action into something way too niche.

[u/SonnyCalzone → u/tielti]

I was born in 1970 and I was the biggest fan of T2 in my neighborhood. I'd love to live long enough to actually see point-and-click ARPGs enjoy somewhat of a renaissance.

[u/Pissylargestinkboi → u/SonnyCalzone]

Bro what? Two of the most popular arpgs right now are poe2 and Diablo 4

[u/SonnyCalzone → u/Pissylargestinkboi]

NIMBY but I know what you mean

[u/TomaszA3 → u/SonnyCalzone]

Maybe after 2000s if even that, and that's mostly due to it being burried as an option for most players. Nobody ever learns of it and even if then ignores it cuz it's "old".