So I'm in the Beta for Torchlight II and I played for an hour or two last night; enough to complete all the quests for the first dungeon on Normal. I'm not a dungeon-delver kind of player; I've never touched Diablo. The closest I've come to with randomly generated dungeons is probably Persona 3 FES (and I liked the dating sim side of the game much more than the dungeon side). So I'm not sure how to react to the gameplay.
Has anyone played Torchlight, the original one? How does it compare to other dungeon-delving games? From what I've read of Diablo III so far, Torchlight II will be a viable alternative; you can play it offline, it focuses a lot more on RPG mechanics (like the ability to choose your own stat increases, equipment types, and ability upgrades) than straight action, and it will only cost $20. I've also heard the original game is considered one of the best in the genre since D2 (until D3 just came out, of course).
As is, I'm having a somewhat tough time with it. AFAIK there was no tutorial whatsoever... but it might be because I'm on Normal, not Casual. Perhaps there's an introduction there. But it meant I had to guess at what buttons did what action; it took me a while to figure out the differences between weapon types, to look at what I could equip, and even what my basic, non-magical attack is. In the start I was just spamming the right-click button... which drained all my mana within 10 casts. Now I've found that double-clicking the right button does a basic attack, but it feels very clunky... I have a feeling I must be doing something wrong.
I'll be putting in several more hours over the weekend and there will be a review up next week; I'm just curious if anyone else is playing the Beta, or played the original (and what their feelings on it were).