Torchlight III

Torchlight III is a loot-driven, hack-and-slash action RPG that returns to the colorful, semi-steampunk universe of Torchlight I and II. The formula is old-school: pick a class, dive in to mow down hordes, and scoop up every drop, in snappy runs built to jump into and out of without ceremony.

The game took a winding road. It began as Torchlight Frontiers, an always-online free-to-play MMO, but after closed-test feedback Echtra reversed course: it rebuilt the game as a one-time purchase, more linear and fully playable offline, and relaunched it as Torchlight III. That course change explains a lot of what it is today —and what it never quite became.

There are four classes —Forged, Sharpshooter, Railmaster and Dusk Mage—, each with two skill trees and a Relic that acts as a second subclass and completely reshapes how it plays. The class-plus-Relic pairing is where most of the customization lives: it decides whether your character brawls up close, shoots from range, or leans hard on a single element.

As in the rest of the series, a combat pet tags along: it fights at your side, hauls items, and trots back to town on its own to sell your junk while you keep playing. The campaign runs across three acts of pure smashing and looting, with the direct pace of a dungeon crawler that never stops to over-explain itself.

Outside the campaign you build and decorate a personal Fort, a space of your own that fills up with what you unlock. Once the story is done, the endgame revolves around Fazeer Shan's Dun-Djinn: a stack of procedural levels that escalate in difficulty and exist to keep you farming gear when there's no campaign left to run.

Torchlight III is a one-time purchase: you pay once, with no subscription and no microtransactions. On Steam it's listed at $39.99, though it drops steeply on sale (it's dipped to around $4-5). The Contracts season pass has no paid tiers: it works as a free progress bar that hands out gold, gear and cosmetics as you go. It's also on PS4, Xbox One and Nintendo Switch, and there's no free trial.

It launched on October 13, 2020, after an Early Access that started that June, and it's still available and playable, with an offline mode for solo or local co-op alongside online play. One thing to know going in: development is frozen. Echtra Games —bought by Zynga in 2021— was shut down in 2025 with no new projects, so don't expect content patches or a roadmap; publishing has since passed to XD Inc. On Steam the reviews sit at 'Mixed', around 51% positive.

It's a direct, snappy and approachable ARPG, ideal for short sessions and casual co-op with friends. If you're after deep systems, an endless skill tree and the bottomless endgame of a Path of Exile, this isn't that game —and it isn't trying to be. But if you want satisfying loot, bright colors and a pet that handles your inventory, it delivers without asking much of you in return.