Torchlight II Windows, Mac game

6 comments by BadgerDeluxe on Aug 4th, 2010

Runic Games, some of the key people behind Diablo, Diablo II, Mythos, Fate, and Torchlight, have announced a sequel to last year's surprise hit! It's scheduled to be released Spring 2011 and comes with a plethora of new features and upgrades, but the most notable? Co-Op using your choice of a Local Area Network or their free matchmaking Peer-to-Peer service! Other features include:

• 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.

It should be noted that they have also announced through the @runicgames Twitter that Torchlight 2 is NOT the MMO that they still have planned, but rather just a sequel to Torchlight with engine upgrades and Co-Op capability, which seems more than enough for me! Those looking forward to a full Torchlight MMO seem to have nothing to worry about, as well. In addition, they also stated through Twitter that there will be a Mac version, released at at time TBD after the PC version. Head on over to the Official Torchlight 2 site for details and updates, as well as links to PC Gamer's interview and first look at the art of the game!