Torchlight II Announced For 2011

Runic Games has announced a sequel to the popular action RPG Torchlight, planned for release in Spring 2011. One notable improvement from the first game is Torchlight II's inclusion of online co-op play, with LAN support and a matchmaking system. "The sequel will feature an updated version of the Torchlight editor, randomized overworld areas complete with weather effects, random dungeons, a selection of pets, fishing, limitless loot, and a retirement system which will allow users to retire an older character and bestow some benefits of it to a newly created character." An MMO set in the Torchlight world is still in development.

Comments

Built with Ogre3D

[johnhp]

Torchlight was built using Ogre3D, an open source graphics rendering engine. I hope that the sequel uses it too.

Ogre3D is written in C++ and is compatible with PC, Linux, Mac, iPhone, Android and other platforms. If you're into programming 3D games or simulations, you should definitely check it out. www.ogre3d.org

(I'm a long time user of Ogre3D but otherwise unaffiliated)

Re:Built with Ogre3D

[Tridus]

People keep saying that, but when have Linux games ever actually done well commercially?

Re:Built with Ogre3D

[xororand]

It worked for 2D Boy's World of Goo.

Quotes:
"It’s only been 2 days since the release of the Linux version and it already accounts for 4.6% of the full downloads from our website."
"More copies of the game were sold via our website on the day the Linux version released than any other day. This day beat the previous record by 40%. There is a market for Linux games after all :)"

A welcome trend.

[PhasmatisApparatus]

At a time when there seems to be more defunct than active game companies, and huge gaming monstrosities such as Activision and EA are merging/acquiring left and right, it's a welcome change to see new developers like Runic spring up overnight.

Re:A welcome trend.

[Anonymous Coward]

Runic is comprised primarily of developers previously from Flagship Studios (Hellgate London) previously from Blizzard North (Diablo 1 & 2). So they're not exactly 'newcomers', despite the age of the studio itself.

http://games.slashdot.org/story/10/08/05/0422232/Torchlight-II-Announced-For-2011#

Re:A welcome trend.

[El_Muerte_TDS]

The other half of Runic comes from wildtangent. And the last half is in fact new, or at least according to their mobygames profiles.

And because Runic has 3 halfs their games are 50% more fun that the closest alternative.

Re:I played through Torchlight last weekend

[Seumas]

It's a great game, but I grow weary of the recent trend where every franchise must have an annual release.

Re:I played through Torchlight last weekend

[Kireas]

I missed that trend. I'm a player of Valve's games mostly, and heaven knows that they couldn't release annually if they tried.
Valve time at work.

Re:I played through Torchlight last weekend

[Mongoose Disciple]

I'd have said it's more like Diablo 1 in those respects.

Which is a game I loved, but the state of the art really moved past it. I was excited about Torchlight but got bored of it pretty fast.

DRM

[emkyooess]

At first I was hesitant about Torchlight. But, it ['s boxed version] having no DRM swayed me to get it. I've had a lot of fun with it since. It's not the greatest "Diablo clone", but it's still good fun. LAN multiplayer, however, will breathe a LOT of life into it for me and, quite possibly, cause it to replace Diablo II as the game I play most with my roommates.

Timing

[TheJokeExplainer]

Runic really *really* needs to be able to release this way before Diablo III comes out.

Torchlight 1 was excellent for scratching the Diablo itch except that it painfully lacked multiplayer/coop -> that was what made the Diablo series really really fun and was very sorely missed. All in all that was my only Torchlight gripe, and was why I stopped playing it after a while. Collecting randomized bling ain't as fun if you can't show 'em off and trade 'em with others.

If this comes out at roughly the same time as Diablo III, it'll not only be a problem of gaining wallets+mindshare, but also the big one of timeshare.

People playing other games means less time playing your game, and with multi-player games, critical mass of players is very very important. It's really frustrating at how there aren't enough players to play with who have decent pings if you're in Asia, like with Streetfighter IV on PC and Borderlands.

If there aren't enough players online to play with, it'll make the game a little less attractive.

Anyway, Runic did a good job with Torchlight. The modest system requirements were a big plus too as it allowed you to run it on netbooks with less horsepower. Hope they're able to push the sequel out the window in time to avoid being slaughtered by Diablo III.

Re:Timing

[morari]

Torchlight was fun, but I quickly lost interest in it because there was no real driving force. When you talk about Diablo, you have a pretty interesting story and story related quests that drive your interest. Torchlight didn't have that. I really do think that multiplayer could have fixed this issue for me, and I suppose I'll get the chance to see with the sequel. I do hope that this time around, Netbook Mode actually means that it'll run on a netbook.

Re:Timing

[TheJokeExplainer]

Yup! If Torchlight only had multiplayer, it wouldn't have needed much of a story at all. Fun-ness of the gameplay would have been enough.

Proof of this is the ridiculous slew and success of MMORPGs coming from Asia that have zero story and are all about level grinding and looting: I'm looking at you MU Online and Perfect World! (the parent company of which bought Runic and will be funding the Torchlight MMO).

Re:Timing

[WankersRevenge]

First thing, you need to go back on the meds. I know they make you feel like a slug during the day, but it makes all of us feel safer to be around you. Especially when you are cleaning your guns. God, I almost killed Frank when he mentioned that Fallout3 should have had at least token multiplayer while you were at the target range. I thought we were all dead.

Second thing ... instead of paying sixty dollars for a full price game, maybe you should wait until the games are cheaper so you won't feel so ripped from the lack of single player content. Um, don't get up. It was just a simple suggestion. You know ... let the early adopters take the hit and then you can get it used and not feel so ripped off.

Thirdly ... calm down, I'm almost done ... if playing multiplayer makes you so upset, maybe you should avoid it. Or play with only vetted friends. ... what's that? you want to play with me? well, i'm busy these days ... no, of course I'm your friend. Why would you think otherwise?

And just remember, it's just a video game. okay? you feeling better? There's no reason to load that gun now. Can we please talk? Did I mention I hate multiplayer just as-

Re:Timing

[morari]

I agree. Certain games do not benefit from multiplayer. A basic hack-n-slash dungeon crawl like Torchlight is practically begging for it though. With as little story as there is in the game, playing with friends is the only thing that would really keep me interested. The game's mechanics are there and fun, but the driving force of interest isn't quite.

I thought that I'd have fun playing the original Torchlight in little chunks while I was on the go with my netbook (Toshiba Mini NB305). Unfortunately, I found that the proclaimed "Netbook Mode" coupled with the lowest settings possible still made the game unbearably choppy during combat with more than two or three opponents. So I play Diablo II: Lord of Destruction on my netbook instead. :P

Re:Nice!

[TheJokeExplainer]

Excellent point. If Diablo III will continue to be internet-only with zero LAN support, that could be how Torchlight can grab a respectable enough chunk of the Diablo market segment. That'd be a sale from me as well :)

Re:Why have I never heard of Torchlight?

[TheJokeExplainer]

In fact, it's such a good Diablo clone that all that latent muscle memory you stored from playing Diablo II all those years ago would kick in without a hitch and make you feel right at home. Great job by Runic! :)

Re:I played through Torchlight last weekend

[drzhivago]

Torchlight didn't have, as far as I know of, a compendium site that listed every possible drop you could get. I've recently come to the realization that that is one of the major differences between Diablo (2) and it. Having a list of what you could get gives you goals that keep you playing.

Instead I played through the main "story" of Torchlight and stopped right after. Random dungeons with unknown loot was not a good enough reason to keep playing.

Re:What about Fate?

[PotatoFarmer]

I played the Torchlight demo and I could not stop thinking how much more similar it was to Fate than to Diablo.

There's a good reason for that. Travis Baldree, the lead developer of Torchlight, also designed Fate.

Re:I played through Torchlight last weekend

[Omestes]

I love it because it is a casual game for people who generally hate casual games. Its like Diablo II lite, DiabloII required a decent time commitment, and was pretty hard to just play for a couple minutes while your waiting for something else to happen, Diablo II also required spreadsheets for even causal play. Torchlight can be played for 10 minutes and quickly forgotten.

Its lack of a story doesn't hurt it too much, there is enough of one to make it somewhat interesting, but not enough to make it compelling and attention grabbing. It is like Peggle: Diablo 1.5.

My install of it recently went wonky (strange graphics artifacts), so I installed Sacred 2 to scratch my Diablo itch. It somehow didn't hitt he mark. It is almost "hardcore", except it has no story whatsoever (AFAICT). I think you have a winner if you have a complex story and complex gameplay, or a simple story and simple gameplay, but completely die when you mix simple with complex. Sacred 2 is a better game on pretty much all counts, but really doesn't hold my interest. Torchlight is like taking a small hit of crack whenever the desire hits you. (As opposed to Diablo I/II's fullblown heroin addiction).

Re:I played through Torchlight last weekend

[LordArgon]

Diablo II also required spreadsheets for even causal play

I'm not sure we have the same definition of casual play...