There was never an ‘AHA!’ moment during the 60 levels of grinding that made things move faster: I felt no more powerful at level 60 than I did at level 10.
It’s all a good idea that would have been a blast to play if the gameplay wasn’t so lackluster. In addition you’ll be shown three “cards” that add additional challenges like decreased relic energy generation or spike traps being littered throughout the level. For example, during challenge number four, monsters move and attack at 50% extra speed. Each challenge level consists of different boons and ailments.
Dubbed Fazeer’s Dun’djinn, endgame consists of completing a series of increasingly difficult challenges in more randomized dungeons. I’ll be honest - the endgame in Torchlight 3 never really grabbed me. It did little to fix the non-excitement of items in the game. The recipes themselves aren’t that exciting either - mostly modifiers to stats like defense or health and percent increases to block chance or procs. Did I mention that it costs gold to disenchant? 1,000 coins deep if you’re doing a legendary item and half that for the lowest magic quality gear. If you’re like me and don’t get what you were hoping for you now get to disenchant the gear and try again. You’ll pick the item you want to enchant, select from an array of enchanting recipes that have the potential stats you want, and click that button and pray. From there you’ll use enchanting resources (Magic, Rare and Legendary essences) to enchant your gear. Like all the other features in Torchlight 3 enchanting leads you to your fort where you’ll build an Enchanter’s Altar. Hardly exciting or game changing behavior. There doesn’t seem to be any stats that make significant improvements in your power level, either. Legendaries are powerful, sure, but the most I’ve seen any item do is add a few skill points to various abilities in my skill tree. When you compare other games like Path of Exile and Diablo 3 where items can change the entire way you play, that feeling and mechanic just isn’t present in Torchlight 3. Items just don’t feel exciting or impactful. If there’s any game that needed a good enchanting system it was Torchlight 3.
A quick read of patch notes revealed that while before release you could learn enchanting earlier on it was ultimately moved to an end-game feature. Initially I was confused when I first started playing through the game because I was receiving enchanting rewards but couldn’t figure out how I was supposed to enchant anything. The aspect I was most looking forward to seeing at level 60 was enchanting - if anything would change the player experience it would be this, I thought. This problem, however, seems to be more of a result of forgettable item drops, flat skills, and level normalization that happens when you outlevel the story. I never reached a moment where I felt powerful - the pace I cleared mobs and content as I reached level cap was virtually the same as when I started the game. Sure maybe some of the levels towards the end can take longer than the beginning but the overall pace of the game as you reach level cap is drastically different than when you start.
Take Diablo 3, for example, where the beginning of the game is fairly tedious as you unlock abilities, the modifiers for them, and start synergizing skill sets that allow you to plow through mobs in a gleeful display of unapologetic carnage. In previous ARPGs I’ve experienced the pace of the game has never felt as linear as Torchlight 3 feels. Gun to my head I would have to say my key gripe with Torchlight 3 can be boiled down to a pacing problem.