Torchlight II Previews

We have a few new previews for Runic Games’ Torchlight II, courtesy of this year’s E3, and giving dungeon crawler fans good reasons to keep tabs on the title.

First, RPGFan:

Torchlight II is an impressive-looking upcoming title; even though details are relatively scarce, my hands-on time with the title was quite fun. Runic hasn’t set a solid date for the title, but it will be released sometime in the summer, followed by a Mac port, and possibly an Xbox Live Arcade port forthcoming after these are completed. With some spiffy graphics, addictive gameplay, and brand new character classes, Runic should have another winner on their hands. It’s not often that games are good, clean fun, but Torchlight II is the type of game that has that and only that – there’s no fat on it.

Then we move over to GameRevolution:

The game plays pretty much the same as the original (awesomely). Why change a winning formula? We aren’t, however, getting the same character classes from the original, and talking with Max Schaefer, Runic’s CEO, I got the impression that they really wanted to make Torchlight II different from the first game by having new classes instead of reinventing the gameplay. And it’s not like they’re completely throwing away the old classes Shaefer went on to say that your old friends from the original game would be making a cameo at some point in the sequel.

Then we wrap up things with Marooner’s Rock:

Torchlight’s characters (Alchemist, Destroyer, and Vanquisher) make appearances in Torchlight II as quest-givers, and are not playable. Instead there will be four new playable characters, three of which have been announced: Berkserker, Engineer, and Outlander. The Berserker is very animalistic and is highly attuned to nature. The Engineer wields a mighty hammer that can be charged for massive attack power. The Outlander is an acrobatic character, focused on speed and agility, and can work wonders with traps. New pets will be available as well. These characters will be taken through a linear story, with the option for exploring the massive overworld and its random events on the side, if the player so desires.