Torchlight II Announced

[Bolty]

Runic Entertainment - you know, the guys from Flagship Studios who are the guys from Blizzard North, who are the guys that made the game this website was originally created for and stuff - announced that Torchlight II is coming.

I'm pretty stoked about this one. I enjoyed Torchlight a lot, but like many others, found that its lack of multiplayer gave it a short lifespan in terms of playing time. Here's the marketing hype:

Torchlight II ignites the franchise created and developed by Runic Games in this exciting sequel to the award-winning Action RPG Torchlight. Runic Games, located in Seattle, is a veteran team composed of the designers and leads of projects like Diablo, Diablo II, Mythos, Fate, and Torchlight, which won the Game Developer’s Choice Award for Best Debut of 2009.

Torchlight II is richly textured with our unique art style, drawing from traditional animation influences and expanding on the whimsical and quirky world captured in the original Torchlight. We aim for that broad appeal that’s appropriate for older kids, but is really intended for the kid in every adult.

CO-OP ACTION

The most exciting new feature of Torchlight II is the multiplayer element. Play with your friends, and use the free peer-to-peer matchmaking service to meet new players of a similar level and interest. Together players will discover expansive randomized outdoor areas and deep ominous caverns; random instanced and persistent dungeons, a huge variety of all new monsters and villains, endless variations of loot to find, and quests to complete. Players journey through the perilous Overworld, enjoying all new weather features, time of day events, and a rich and cunning story to drive gameplay.

BACKSTORY

Beyond the town of Torchlight lies a world shrouded in adventure and mystery. Guardian-warrior Syl appears in a prophetic dream, summoning the player to the Estherian Steppes. There, you meet with the Destroyer and soon venture across the continent of Vilderan, an exotic frontier besieged by forces of evil. A discovery unfolds, that the Alchemist, following his conquest of dark ember, disappeared on his quest to defeat the unknown corrupted force responsible for destroying the mystical race of Estherians. Aided by Syl, the remaining Estherian Guardians, and clues left behind by the missing Alchemist, you will find yourself battling a powerful enemy that threatens to unravel the elements of the entire world.

Runic Games will release Torchlight II initially as a digital download in Spring of 2011.

KEY FEATURES

• Multi-player – Play with your friends over a local area network, or over the Internet. A free matchmaking peer-to-peer service lets you make new friends for exciting co-op play.
  
• Customizable Characters – Players create and customize a character from one of four classes available and choose an animal companion. Through cosmetic, class, and gender choices, skill path decisions, and the treasures they acquire, each character can be custom-tailored to each player’s needs.
  
• Moddability – Torchlight II will release with an updated version of TorchEd, the Torchlight editor. Players have the option to create their own mods, adding even more content to the world. You and your friends can download the same mod and play together!
  
• New User Interface – Torchlight II boasts an entirely new, improved user interface, designed to be easier than ever for new players to pick up and play. Thanks to this intuitive interface, players have immediate access to a rich and varied world, with little experience necessary.
  
• Overworld Areas – Torchlight II has large randomized overworld areas to explore with weather, time of day cycles, and random events that provide players with even more content to experience.
  
• Random Dungeons – Delve into randomly generated dungeons within the game at any time for extra experience and rare loot. Dungeons in Torchlight II have even more branching paths to explore with friends filled with random events, rewards and dangers.
  
• Retirement System – Once characters are sufficiently leveled up, they can “retire” and bestow specific benefits and perks onto new characters.
  
• Pets – Players choose a pet to accompany them. Pets level up along with the player, and help in battle, learn spells, carry items, and perform a variety of support services.
  
• Fishing – Fishing returns in the sequel! Players can take a break from the high-energy pace of adventuring to relax by one of the many fishing holes and see what they can catch. Fish have unique benefits for the player and pet, while a number of other rewards can also be discovered.
  

Personally, I actually have more interest in this than Diablo III, seeing how Blizzard as of late is becoming more and more the evil empire of computer gaming. I have reservations that Runic Games won't have the network code and willpower to stop rampant cheating, though, which is nowadays ever-present in all multiplayer games.

We'll see! Looking forward to it.

[Kevin]

Personally, I actually have more interest in this than Diablo III, seeing how Blizzard as of late is becoming more and more the evil empire of computer gaming. I have reservations that Runic Games won't have the network code and willpower to stop rampant cheating, though, which is nowadays ever-present in all multiplayer games.

I enjoyed Mythos some but it never quite got fleshed out enough and there was something with the graphic style that left me wanting. I enjoyed Torchlight to an extent, but lack of multi-player meant I didn't do as much with it as I might have. My single player games tend to be more along the lines of MOO 2 (or Civ, Gal Civ, etc), or some of the space combat sims (I still of FreeSpace 2 and thanks to the open source project it's prettier than ever!)

It sounds like they are taking a lot of the multiplayer code from Mythos, combining it with the graphical style of Torchlight and taking features from all the games they've worked on and hopefully getting them combined in a good way.

I too think I might be more excited about this, and for similar reasons. D3 didn't catch my interest nearly as much in the previews, the stuff that has been going on with SC2 and the marketing. I dunno. We'll see.

[LochnarITB]

To whom do I write my check?

[Thecla]

I have reservations that Runic Games won't have the network code and willpower to stop rampant cheating.

They are going in completely the opposite direction and won't even try to do that. TL2 is back to the original Diablo model (minus the hidden character files, encryption, and other useless anticheating measures): peer-to-peer with a simple matchmaking service, LAN play, modding, but no server-side checks. It'll be cheap, casual and light and up to players to decide who they play with and how they use it.

The originally planned Torchlight MMO is still being developed and that will be server-side, but supported by microtransactions (claimed, and probably with reasonable accuracy, to be entirely optional) rather than by subscriptions.

As someone who never liked WoW, I'm still hopeful about D3, but I also really wonder about the direction Blizzard has been going recently -- maybe it's part of a transition in the whole gaming/online industry.

[--Pete]

Hi,

It'll be cheap, casual and light and up to players to decide who they play with and how they use it.

You mean, it'll be like a GAME?! Oh, noes -- can we handle that?

. . . maybe it's part of a transition in the whole gaming/online industry.

Gaming companies started out as a few (sometimes one) individuals trying to make games. Those that succeeded were bought out by corporations trying to make money. How many top level Vivendi executives do you think actually understand games and gaming, and how many just understand that what sold will sell?

--Pete

[DeeBye]

Torchlight was fun. Torchlight multiplayer will be more fun.

[Frag]

Thanks for this thread. Really. Haven't had internet for two days, or much to do after the applications where turned in, and I never thought to look at Torchlight due to how much I despised Fate, and abhorred Mythos. Gave it a download right before I lost connection at all your recommendations and it's just like Diablo 1(ver 3.0). So much more polished and immersive than it's predecessors, I'm having a hard time going back to SC2 now that I have internet back. Want to find out what's at the bottom!

~Frag

[Bolty]

Want to find out what's at the bottom!

Is this the part where we tell him that technically there IS no bottom?

Remember the old "wouldn't it be cool if Diablo had a 'hard mode' where you just kept going down and down and stuff would get harder and harder and you'd see how far you could get" discussions?

Hmm...

[kandrathe]

Gaming companies started out as a few (sometimes one) individuals trying to make games. Those that succeeded were bought out by corporations trying to make money. How many top level Vivendi executives do you think actually understand games and gaming, and how many just understand that what sold will sell?

Executives in the entertainment business, be it movies or games, are alike in that they only understand some of the components, but never understand what it takes to be fully baked.

For example, I've not played SC2 yet, but I'm already put off by a few things; 1) I expected more than improved graphics and a few unit changes, 2) I'm not paying $60 for 1/3 of a game, 3) battle.net required. But, I'm one lone consumer, and this may be successful enough where my resistance won't matter.

What Torchlight I successfully captured was the sense of adventure in dungeon diving (accomplishment) with enough change over time (feeder bar) to keep it interesting.

Doing it with some friends, beverages and snacks would make it a party. I'm eager to see TLII.

[Chesspiece_face]

For example, I've not played SC2 yet, but I'm already put off by a few things; 1) I expected more than improved graphics and a few unit changes, 2) I'm not paying $60 for 1/3 of a game, 3) battle.net required. But, I'm one lone consumer, and this may be successful enough where my resistance won't matter.

At the risk of diverting this thread too far towards Starcraft when there is another thread alive that better suits it, let me just say that I felt much the same way you did. When they initially said they were going to split the game up into three I wasn't that upset. For some reason, however, the splitting of the game and the increase in price to $60 really put a sour taste in my mouth. I buckled and picked it up despite that and I have to say I've been sold.

Regarding points 1 and 2 you list: This game is not just a graphical upgrade and unit changes. This is a complete overhaul of not only the battle.net system and matchmaking but of the single player game as well and it shows. I've been amazed at how fleshed out the single player campaign is and how much the addition of Achievements/Feats of Strength from WoW can add depth and replayability to the missions. This definitely doesn't feel like 1/3 a game. In fact if you have any interest at all in single player I would argue that in retrospect the original Starcraft and Brood War together feel like less of an campaign experience than what is available in Starcraft 2.

There are some issues that are present in Starcraft 2 that may be sticking points for some people. Like you said, Battle.net is required and LAN play is out. But the single player should be the last thing that anyone should worry about. I've also not looked too far into the map editing tools but if they are half as good as the tools in Warcraft 3 the player generated content could end up being very interesting.