Torchmuffin

Torchlight is a game that literally defines the Dungeon Crawling Genre. Seriously, that is all you do in this game, aside from the clusterfuck of killing on each floor to get to the next one.

 The game starts off with character selection, giving you the choice to be either the brute force Warrior, the long range specialist Rogue, or the magical, but not very athletic, Alchemist. I personally chose the Alchemist, because he's the one that allows you to break the game later on. No joke, he'll break the game for you.

Along with the character selection, they ask you to chose whether you want a dog or a cat as your pet/familiar, though the dog is really a wolf and the cat looks like a bobcat or a lynx. You give them a name and name yourself as well, then you get thrown into the town of Torchlight.

 You meet the merchants and chat it up with the townsfolk that never move, never talk unless talked to, and always say basically the same thing. You can accept a few quests before beginning, and then you get to actually get to the dungeon. It's the same dungeon throughout the entire game, somehow (except for when you go through some crazy portal for a side quest), and you simply go into lower and lower floors as you progress.

 Taking out the factor of the wonderfully large amount of items you get from each floor, the task of earning money to buy items isn't as hard as you would think. When you do add in the mind-blowingly huge number of items you don't need that you do get in the dungeons, money turns into something that is no longer a necessity, but merely a trifle that kinda limps its way along beside you.

Speaking of "beside you", that brings me to your near-ever-present companion, your pet. Your pet is one of the greatest allies you don't have to summon in the game, because for most of your adventure, it's your only ally that you don't have to summon in the game. Not that it does amazing help in battle, or will find all the best treasure for you, but it does have an extra full inventory and can take items to the shop for you while you continue to roam around underground (somehow avoiding all the monsters that respawn whenever you leave a floor). This bugged me a little, seeing as how the merchants in town don't seem to speak animal, so how would they know what the beast is trying to say to sell the items to them, unless your character sets a type of pact up with them before hand, which seems a bit unlikely seeing as how he never talks. Everyone who speaks to you just seems to understand the unblinking stare of your character as well as any respectable (coughcough) character in the Legend of Zelda understands Link.

All in all, I found that this game was totally worth the money that I paid to get it. It's available on Steam, and I'd recommend buying it. Though repetitive, it is thoroughly entertaining to play and can whittle down the hours of your free time like most games can.

>Ryft