Parents' Guide to Torchlight: Infinite

In the wake of games like Diablo Immortal, this action role-playing game series has finally made the inevitable jump to a free-to-play model on mobile devices. The question is: "just how well does Torchlight: Infinite translate the action role-playing lootfest to the mobile landscape?" The answer depends a lot on what you're expecting out of the game. In a lot of ways, it feels more like a heavily abridged chapter in the series. It's more "Torchlite" than "Torchlight." From a gameplay perspective, Torchlight: Infinite is put together relatively well. The main controls are intuitive, the presentation is sharp and vibrant, and the core mechanics that Torchlight is known for, mainly the cycle of collecting and equipping ever higher levels of loot, are still present.

On the flip side, managing that loot, as well as your characters' progression, is a slog through layers of menus. More frustrating, especially for newcomers, is that those menus aren't very informative. And the more loot you collect, the more confusing the inventory gets to manage. Meanwhile, the combat just feels off, Different classes have different abilities, but it can take a while to understand just how they work in practice. Oftentimes, the fighting feels like little more than filler between collecting more and more items. On the upside, the game's microtransactions are limited more to boosts and cosmetic items. This means the loot players receive is the loot they've earned. The exception to this is the game's Season Pass, which unlocks new items for players through additional quest challenges. While Torchlight: Infinite might not feel like an epic drop, for fans of the series, it's at least a way to scratch their loot gathering itch while on the go.