Torchlight II Review, Loot Grinding with Serious Class
Torchlight II offers the best dungeon crawler experience for Veterans of the genre, and doesn’t sacrifice anything even with its low price tag.
In 2009, Runic Games released their take on the dungeon crawler genre known as Torchlight. Created by some of the original designers from Diablo and Diablo II, Torchlight proved that Runic knew what it took to make a great dungeon crawler experience, and at such an amazing price. Now Runic has decided to up the ante and create a new chapter in the Torchlight universe, Torchlight II.
Dungeon crawlers have been a favorite genre of mine since I was very young. It all started with Diablo. I spent many days leveling up my Rouge and diving deeper and deeper into the mysteries of Tristram. When Diablo 2 hit I lost part of my life. To this day, I have spent literally thousands of hours across a ten year span playing Diablo 2. During the time Blizzard was developing Diablo 2 I tried to find a good alternative. I tried Sacred, Sacred 2, Titan Quest, Path of Exile and a few other clones that were lesser known, but never found a game that could match Diablo. That was until Torchlight was let on the loose.
Torchlight 2 Beta Impressions: More Diablo Than Diablo
Following my stint in Diablo 3 I found a beta-weekend invite for Torchlight 2 in my inbox. Having thoroughly enjoyed the original, it was imperative that I play the promising sequel. I was nowhere near letdown by Runic’s effort; in fact I was thrilled by what I found. I’ve played dungeon crawlers since the original Diablo, and this game brought me back to my roots in a very traditional, yet enhanced, way.
Torchlight 2: Creating a hero to quell the evil
Before you can begin your loot-whoring shenanigans you must construct your hero. Torchlight has increased its class roster, giving you a choice between 4 different archetypes; including the familiar feeling Embermage, Berserker, and Outlander; and introducing the Engineer. Each class introduces a unique fighting style and skill tree. From there you are given the opportunity to customize your hero’s face and hair, followed by Torchlight’s most appreciated feature: the pet. Torchlight 2 has quadrupled its stable of pets, straying from the dog and cat route and trading it in for a menagerie. Torchlight 2’s pets include: three dogs; the Papillion, Bulldog, and a more exotic wolf. If you prefer your companions to be of the feline persuasion; also offered are the Cat and Panther. Rounding out the roster of animals are the “Wildcard” options such as; the Ferret, a Hawk, or the dragon-like Chakawary.
Torchlight 2 Interview with CEO Max Schaefer at PAX East 2012
Runic Games was at the Nvidia booth at PAX East 2012. Cory sat down with Runic’s CEO Max Schaefer to talk about Torchlight 2
What has been changed and improved from Torchlight 2?
Everything, but the biggest things is that it’s multiplayer now. So you can play with right now up to 6 people, but we haven’t set a maximum yet, LAN or over internet, as well as single player offline. You can use your same character through all of those. We also have a much bigger world this time that’s half outdoors, and half underground and dungeons. There are also big vast, also randomly generated outdoor areas that span a lot of different terrain types like deserts and mountains. It also has a lot more pets, I think there are eight rights now, and we don’t know if we are done yet. We are bigger better everything
One thing that’s not bigger is the price. Torchlight 2 will be twenty bucks again.
Torchlight 2 will be twenty bucks again.
