Diablo 3 and Torchlight? Who copied who?

[vian]

Diablo was the first game in this genre.

[Mamut]

OP are you serious or just trolling? o.O

[kel]

I haven't played D2, so this may not be a fair comparison.
stopped reading there, diablo was around before torchlight, its always had this style

[Gorilla Eyes]

The sound track to D3 is near identical to D1 + D2, Town portal is pretty much identical to the previous games, as is the overall gritty/gloomy mood and dark atmosphere, the healing wells, etc. all of those are original Diablo features.... if it's also similar to Torchlight then I'm afraid D1+D2 came first so you can do the math.

I disagree strongly about the atmosphere. D3, imo, has a very boring atmosphere based on what I saw in the beta. And Torchlight was based off D1/2, but D3 was somewhat based off Torchlight.

[Deleted]

D3 was somewhat based off Torchlight.

Care to explain this hilarious statement?

[Eroginous]

I haven't played D2, so this may not be a fair comparison. However, I noticed some jarring similarities between these two games, and I'm a little worried. I want to love Diablo 3, I want to have a blast playing through the whole thing, but I need to get this off my chest. So, where to begin?

The gloomy mood: It's similar to both games, and D3 does an excellent job at it. The dark atmosphere, coupled with the lore tidbits are an excellent combination. Who doesn't like a quick lecturing on the abominations you're battling?

The music: While it's different, New Tristram's music resembles the Torchlight city soundtrack. It's just so obvious that it got me thinking: Why would a huge company such as blizzard take inspiration from a lesser game? Perhaps I'm wrong, though I ask you kindly to give this post the benefit of the doubt.

There's a couple of small things too, like the lightning sparks that appear when using an enchanted bow(I'm not sure here; all I know is that my pal played a mage and used a bow), the healing wells, and the portal you can create to get to the city. They both share that oval shape.

As other people have said, Torchlight was created and produced by people who worked directly on Diablo 2. The saving grace is that Torchlight is a much simpler game in many ways, and generally appealing to a younger audience. Diablo 3 is by far a superior title to ANYONE who values the quality that Blizzard is known for. I have Torchlight installed on my PC, and I have yet to play it past the first level. My 7 yr old loves the shit out of it though.

And no, Diablo 3 is not inspired by Torchlight.

[Scratches]

As other people have said, Torchlight was created and produced by people who worked directly on Diablo 2. The saving grace is that Torchlight is a much simpler game in many ways, and generally appealing to a younger audience. Diablo 3 is by far a superior title to ANYONE who values the quality that Blizzard is known for. I have Torchlight installed on my PC, and I have yet to play it past the first level. My 7 yr old loves the shit out of it though.

And no, Diablo 3 is not inspired by Torchlight.

Sounds like you just have a thing against bright colors...

*shrug* That's fine, but it hardly means it's inferior. In fact, I'd posit that Torchlight is still the superior title given that it was developed, from inception to release, within 11 months. How long has Diablo3 been in development? A decade?

Okay, fine, there was that whole snafu about Blizzard North being shut down due to poor workmanship/quality (*cough* irony) and Blizzard having to restart development practically from scratch. Fine. That's still... 6 years. Give Runic 6 years... I'd love to see what they're able to do that Blizzard wasn't.

[Resentful]

Oh this is just silly, Torch light is the diablo clone for sure. A few makers of diablo decided to leave and well do their own thing and well there's torchlight

It's not bad game mind you, It's pretty fun.

[Phader]

If I'm not mistaken, wasn't Torchlight made by the same people who made the original Diablo, but that later split off from Blizzard and formed their own company? So that's probably why it looks so much the same.

This. Torchlight seems alot like Diablo becasue of the fact that the people who make it were once Blizzard North employees and they parted ways with Blizzard and made their own studio.

[Deleted]

The thing about Torchlight is that it has zero plot, zero lore, zero likeability as far as the world goes, as far as the characters go... It's just a Diablo clone framework without any depth whatsoever. A few simple "quests" which might as well be kill monster X and get sword Y.

Back when I played Diablo for the first time in 1997, I fell in love with Tristram immediately. The characters were awesome. I loved their dialogue. Torchlight though...meh.

But as always this is just my opinion. Someone might actually like the Torchlight town more than Tristram.

[Deleted]

Remember the people who made torchlight is the people behind diablo 1 and 2 who isn't working for blizzard anymore, thats why its so simular to each other, both sounds and gameplay.

---------- Post added 2012-04-21 at 10:54 PM ----------

and didn't see someone wrote it on page 2, but they are right, its the once who once made d1 and d2 who made torhlight yea..

[Deleted]

looked up torchlight and i can see it looked like diablo yes

[Eroginous]

Sounds like you just have a thing against bright colors...

*shrug* That's fine, but it hardly means it's inferior. In fact, I'd posit that Torchlight is still the superior title given that it was developed, from inception to release, within 11 months. How long has Diablo3 been in development? A decade?

Okay, fine, there was that whole snafu about Blizzard North being shut down due to poor workmanship/quality (*cough* irony) and Blizzard having to restart development practically from scratch. Fine. That's still... 6 years. Give Runic 6 years... I'd love to see what they're able to do that Blizzard wasn't.

I don't have anything against Torchlight, it's a fun/good game. However, I'm not going to say that it's as good as Diablo 3, because that just isn't the case. The character design, art quality, and overall content of the game is just flat out better than Torchlight, as it should be. Most people who have played both would likely agree that even Diablo 1 or 2 is better than Torchlight, even though it has a better overall graphics quality than either one.

Here's a screenshot I took today of Torchlight:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v7...6-40-21-72.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v7...6-38-23-95.jpg

Here's Diablo 3:

http://media.pcgamer.com/files/2011/...02-590x332.jpg
http://media.pcgamer.com/files/2011/...01-590x332.jpg
http://media.pcgamer.com/files/2011/...00-627x323.jpg
http://media.pcgamer.com/files/2011/...07-590x332.jpg

While the games are comparable in terms of the mechanics of the game, they aren't comparable in terms of quality. Diablo 3 wins hands down, and that's why it took 10 years to come out.

[Aerts]

I don't have anything against Torchlight, it's a fun/good game. However, I'm not going to say that it's as good as Diablo 3, because that just isn't the case. The character design, art quality, and overall content of the game is just flat out better than Torchlight, as it should be. Most people who have played both would likely agree that even Diablo 1 or 2 is better than Torchlight, even though it has a better overall graphics quality than either one.

Here's a screenshot I took today of Torchlight:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v7...6-40-21-72.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v7...6-38-23-95.jpg

Here's Diablo 3:

http://media.pcgamer.com/files/2011/...02-590x332.jpg
http://media.pcgamer.com/files/2011/...01-590x332.jpg
http://media.pcgamer.com/files/2011/...00-627x323.jpg
http://media.pcgamer.com/files/2011/...07-590x332.jpg

While the games are comparable in terms of the mechanics of the game, they aren't comparable in terms of quality. Diablo 3 wins hands down, and that's why it took 10 years to come out.

Wat..

You're comparing a three year old game with one that's not even out yet, made by a company with a much higher budget, nice.

Torchlight 2 is a better comparison.

[Eroginous]

Wat..

You're comparing a three year old game with one that's not even out yet, made by a company with a much higher budget, nice.

Torchlight 2 is a better comparison.

You're right, I should be linking Torchlight 2 screenshots:
http://static.cms.runicgames.com//as.../1_path012.png
http://static.cms.runicgames.com//as...honored011.png
http://static.cms.runicgames.com//as.../3_crow012.png


Still no comparison.

[Vulpei]

Torchlight does look like a game I could play in my browser...

[Bigbazz]

Torchlight is fun but you can't compare it to Diablo 3, yes diablo has taken longer but you have to realise the massive ammount of artwork and just getting the ingredients right that Blizzard have done for D3, they are trying to get it just perfectly balanced, with each small element very carefully thought through. On the opposite of that Torchlight is a quickly thrown together game with a lot of whacky ideas, very basic graphics/artwork and a much more simple progression, everything about the game is about easily and quickly thought up solutions that work. If you think that Diablo3's development would have had them carefully going through each and every one of those systems and fine tuning them over and over and redoing them until everything was just right, where as Torchlight settled for whatever they came up with first.

Torchlight is a fun game, but when you say it was developed in just 11 months, that much is very apparent when you play the game. Blizzard are thinking about all the dynamics of a games shelflife, the way players will play it and the way they will progress, how the players will react a few months down the road, and how each element will effect another element. They are trying to make a game that will last and that has a quality of balance in all aspects of gameplay.

About a year back I played Torchlight, and then played Diablo 2, and I still ended up getting more interested in Diablo 2, while Torchlight ended up gathering dust after a few quick blasts, even if in many ways it had aspects that had improved apon Diablo 2, the game was missing that shine, the polish and that special something that was able to pull me back into playing Diablo 2.

A game of this genre I did love though.... Titan Quest, that game was/is amazing.

[Kalesh]

Wow, you can clearly see some people stroking themselves while they think about Blizzard/Diablo 3.

Torchlight is obviously better than Diablo and Diablo 2 but inferior to D3. We'll have to wait and see what Torchlight 2 is like, but given it's already been delayed by about 5 months I have faith that they're giving it a decent amount of polish.

[Deleted]

This discussion is basically along the same lines of Obsidian making(another) post apocalyptic/"fallout clone" game.

In other words it is pretty much pointless, if most of the development team responsible for the key ideas move to another company they still can't steal ideas from themselves.

[Maester]

Diablo 1 was not created by Blizzard, but was created by a different company. Blizzard was the publisher/producer.

Near the end of its development time, Blizzard liked what they saw and decided to actually buy the company. Some people from that company moved over to Blizzard, whilst others decided to make their own company. Out of that company came Torchlight.

So, now the similarities are justifiable.