Broken Oath vs Torchlight Infinite — Premium vs F2P

Broken Oath (Steam app 5452900) is a single-player ARPG from Crater Studios, set in the Dwarven Realms universe. It has no release date and no price. A request-access playtest (app 5461470) has run since 30 October 2026, and the store lists Early Access at an estimated six to twelve months. What exists is an alpha build: on 5 November the online realm went down for a rebuild, and online heroes were reset. Offline characters were left untouched.

The confirmed pitch is checkable: six classes; skill gems with support gems that change behaviour, such as a Cyclone that fires Ember Bolts while channelling; a passive tree with notables and keystones; Blessings and Curses; Ruptures, randomised maps with weather and eight danger bands, ending in Guardians; and a Forge built on rune stones and learned recipes.

Torchlight: Infinite (Steam app 1974050) is the opposite: a free-to-play, online seasonal ARPG from XD, fully released in May 2023 after an October 2022 Early Access start. It runs on Windows, iOS and Android, with cross-platform multiplayer and a shared Trade House. Seasons are the delivery model; SS14, Tartarus, has been live since 15 October 2026.

The store's standing numbers are 12 heroes, 240+ skills, 24 talent tabs and 200+ legendaries.

Torchlight's build starts with a hero and a Hero Trait. The official site lists twelve heroes; the community database counts twenty-eight traits. SS14 added Youga's third, built around a Clockwork Core with three development paths. Below that sit 240+ skills: active skills plus support skills that modify the supported skill. Twenty-four talent tabs are official; the community database counts six deity trees, with prisms, slates and memories on top.

The philosophy is accumulation: add a layer each season, keep the old one. A new player meets heroes, traits, skills, supports, talents, prisms, slates, memories and followers, and none is optional if the build is to be finished. The payoff is depth; the cost is onboarding.

Broken Oath is gem-first, and the unit is the skill. Support gems link to a skill and change how it behaves, so the question is not which class you pick but which support package a skill can carry. Six classes set the start; a passive tree with notables and keystones handles the rest, and Blessings and Curses add Vows for power, Woe on a pack, a mark for the strong. The alpha's tree lets you plan, apply, and refund at a gold cost per node. Node, support and skill counts are unpublished.

Crafting is where the comparison gets concrete. Torchlight layers affix systems rather than one bench: Corrosion, Blending Rituals, Memory Revival, Graft, the TOWER Sequence, and Divinity Slates as separate progression. Some steps target an affix; some roll, though SS14 made Memory Revival rerollable. Broken Oath's Forge is recipe-driven: Heartblood teaches a maximum Life prefix for free, Ox Brand adds Strength for one Ember and one Heartwood. The player chooses the mod; materials and recipes are the constraint. What a craft cannot do is undocumented.

Torchlight's endgame is Netherrealm maps with Timemark tiers, bossed by Plane Watchers, with Trials and the timed Divine Ascent ladder alongside. Each season adds a board: Tartarus has you run a prison, stage inmate fights and end with a riot. Seasonal characters have historically moved to a Permanent server at season end, and passes have expired; the 2022–2023 posts are the only official wording, and current notes do not restate it.

The time ask is seasonal participation. Entry costs nothing, but the game is always online: no offline mode is listed, and the Trade House, co-op and seasonal servers assume a connection. A season asks for a new character, a new pass, and a mechanic that will be replaced. Solo Self Found drops the trade economy, not the season.

The base game is free; the store sells a Season Pass, cosmetics, premium currency and Pactspirit packs — draws that grant companions with combat and drop bonuses — and Google Play discloses that purchases include random items. That is not a cosmetic-only shop, and calling it pay-to-win is an opinion, not a fact.

Broken Oath's endgame is Ruptures: randomised maps across forests, deserts, snow peaks, swamps and the Underrealm, with weather, time of day, eight danger bands and Guardians that gain attacks and phases. The alpha pushed past Rupture Level 150, then reset online heroes. No season, trade or wipe policy is announced; Early Access promises a deeper endgame and an expanded Forge, a plan rather than a schedule.

The asks differ. Torchlight wants a season's attention and tolerance for its store. Broken Oath wants tolerance of alpha wipes, and patience on price and date.

Torchlight is not a soft target: it has shipped, costs nothing to start, and carries fourteen seasons of systems. Broken Oath must clear an existing floor:

• Content cadence. Torchlight shipped four seasons in 2026; Broken Oath must show it can add skills, uniques and Rupture themes on a rhythm players can plan around.
• Build breadth. Twelve heroes, twenty-eight traits, 240+ skills and 24 tabs is a large space; six classes and linked gems compete only if supports change behaviour, not just damage.
• An endgame summit. Torchlight has maps, Trials, Divine Ascent and a seasonal board; Ruptures need a top worth climbing twice.
• Offline terms in writing. The playtest keeps offline characters separate; retail terms are unannounced.
• A price and a date. A zero entry price makes unknown price a disadvantage.
• Controller and Deck at launch, not during Early Access.

None of this predicts failure. It is the checklist the next public build has to answer, against a game that asks for no money up front.

Torchlight: Infinite is the finished, free, live option, and the comparison should start there. It has a price you can verify, a season you can play now, and a build space large enough that the next season has something to reset. Its costs are equally concrete: always online, a store that sells random combat bonuses, and a seasonal rhythm that replaces the mechanic you learned.

Broken Oath is a pitch and an alpha. Six classes, linked gems, a recipe Forge and Rupture maps are a coherent design, and the offline/online split in the playtest is the most promising thing on its side. Everything that would settle the comparison — price, date, skill count, endgame ceiling, retail offline terms — is unannounced.

If you want a free ARPG tonight with co-op, trade and a current season, choose Torchlight: Infinite. If you want a single-player, offline-friendly ARPG with gem links and a Forge where you name the mod, wishlist Broken Oath and wait for a date and a price. If you want to see it before launch, request playtest access and expect resets.