Torchlight II Previews

Torchlight II’s E3 coverage proceeds at full speed, with many publications writing down their impressions about Runic Games’ hack’n’slash title after getting some hands-on time with it, and it’s really difficult to find even just a hint of negativity in any of them.

IGN:

Torchlight II includes all new classes, and at E3 2011 the Berserker was playable. This warrior uses a new type of weapon type, bladed claws, to swiftly slice up enemies, and has a number of powerful skills. He summons ghostly animal spirits to his aid for quick charges across the battlefield and high-powered single strikes, and can even summon a pack of ghost wolves to his side that spread out to gnaw on nearby hostiles.

Guns make a return in Torchlight II, with rifles functioning more like shotguns and a new heavy cannon thrown into the mix, which fires slowly but with devastating effects in a manner similar to a grenade launcher. While I was playing around with the class I was happy to find the weapons and skills had a satisfying sense of impact, because there a lot of feedback onscreen. There’s the graphical effects associated with using the skill, but then there are also explosions of gore and knockback and lots of other details packed in that make it easy to get sucked into the game.

GameSpot:

We played as a berserker in most of our hands-on time with the game and found it to be a class that seems to really need to get up close and personal when fighting monsters. Our character was equipped with what appeared to be a cestus (a short handaxe dating back to the days of Roman gladiator battles), so we found ourselves charging right into the action, and doing pretty OK for the most part, bashing the skeletons and ghouls of the crypt into piles of bones and picking up piles of gold, potions, and other items as loot. (Conveniently enough, Torchlight II will only display items onscreen that only your character can loot. You won’t even see the evenly distributed loot that fell onto the ground for your buddy, which means you’ll never waste time arguing a out who needs that shiny new item more.) It was only when we encountered the dungeon’s boss, an enormous, pudgy zombie that clambered out of a pit to greet us, that we even bothered to chug a healing potion. Then again, we were adventuring alongside Schaefer himself, who patiently babysat us through the demo, despite the fact that all of Torchlight II’s dungeon’s are randomly generated, so there was no neatly pre-made press demo.

Joystiq:

The one catch will be only that LAN players must have exactly the same mods installed, as certain mods will likely have assets that everyone will need to see while playing. But other than that, says Schafer, go nuts. The not-yet-set-in-stone “default max is 6-ish” players for the co-op mode, he told me, just because any more than that and all of the spell effects can start getting really confusing. But any limit on the co-op max will probably just be a config variable, says Schafer, so “if you have 100 people in your game and want to see what happens, go for it.” That’s an awfully refreshing attitude in these days of online passes, authentication servers, and all of the other headaches most companies place on playing their games away from the almighty Internet.

The Berserker class feels just as fresh — he’s (the version I played was male, though you’ll be able to choose a gender in Torchlight 2) a hulking dual wield monster with an animalistic bent for all of his skills, similar to an Enhancement Shaman in World of Warcraft. Wolfstrike is probably his most basic skill, just a forward cleave that features a big spirit wolf swiping enemies in front of you. Drake’s Breath evokes a dragon spirit that fires a cone of flame in front of you, and Wolfpack is probably the most visually impressive (and mana costly), blasting a circular ring of spirit wolf missiles that will home in on targets around you. The full skill trees for the Berserker weren’t done yet, but it’s a hack-and-hack class — run in and chop up a bunch of enemies until everything’s dead.

RPGamer:

Leaving my slowpoke party behind, I moved on to the next dungeon level; Brock (a designer for Runic) explained that the floors scale according to the number of players actually on them, so I wasn’t fighting mobs intended for three players until the full party arrived onto the same level. We banded together to take on a large boss, using our skills and abilities (as well as a lot of running away screaming like little girls) until he fell with a crash to the floor and we dashed in to grab our goodies. Loot is instanced; your items show up only for you, though you may drop a piece of equipment and it will be visible to all. Gold is also handled in this way, ensuring that giant loot piles will not simply go to the fastest clicker nearby.

Destructoid mostly reports about the promised features, despite going hands-on with the title:

Torchlight II is going to be huge, the sheer amount of content will practically dwarf the original Torchlight. Runic boasts that the first act already contains more unique assets than the entire first game combined. Players should find things much less linear this time around as well, as it is no longer a straight up top to bottom dungeon crawl. The game will contain three primary acts and a final “endgame” act with numerous outdoor areas and dungeons to explore.

To ensure that Torchlight II is not simply just a larger version of their first game, Runic has promised a variety of other improvements as well. In addition to a ton of under-the-hood optimization to the engine and combat mechanics, Torchlight II has also received a much needed upgrade to the wardrobe system and character customization features as well. Even loot has gotten an overhaul, with tons of new items being added, including unique equipment and armor sets.