Torchlight 2: Will be More Addicting Than Ever

Last night I decided that I wanted to try something a little different. I had been SHOOTING a lot lately having just played and/or reviewed Duke, F.E.A.R. 3, Trenched, and Red Faction: Armageddon. That’s a lot of trigger pulling and explosions for any one man. Finally, after years of putting it off I decided to give Torchlight a try. Six hours later I flopped off the couch in a glazed video-game induced stupor. Torchlight “got” me, I was addicted and I loved it. The good news is Torchlight 2 is on the way very soon and sports a handful of features that will make fans of the original lose their freakin’ minds. Here is what we know.

4-8 player Co-op: We all knew co-op play was coming, but how many other heroes can we adventure with? Well folks, the number appears to be between four and eight total. You’ll only be able to loot the items that work well for your character so arguing will be kept to a minimum. I’m sort of hoping that the number remains low at four, as seeing eight players on screen would be a little too chaotic.

…We’re Not in Torchlight Anymore: Torchlight 2 will be a much larger game and boasts an entire open world for you to explore. Players can now look forward to exploration above world as well as below. As opposed to the single quest hub (the town of Torchlight), TL 2 will have four or five unique cities.

New Character Classes: Good news and bad news. The original character classes from Torchlight-1 will not be returning as playable characters, but will instead play supporting roles as NPCs. Torchlight 2 will feature four all new character classes, three of which have been announced: The Railman, The Outlander, and The Berserker. The Railman wears a mechanical suit (sort of like a steam powered Iron Man) and wields a giant sledge hammer. The Outlander is said to be highly mobile and uses a glaive (Krull… hey hey hey) type weapon and relies on little magic. Finally the Berserker uses brutal melee attacks in combination with some shamanistic magic. The real fun will be seeing how the different characters work together to create new spell combos and chaos. Can’t wait.

New Pets: One of the best features of Torchlight was the simplicity of your characters companion pet. The ability of your pet to run to town and sell unwanted items was genius. Torchlight 2 will boast ALL new pets (including the Honey Badger). It has been stated that fan-favorites wolf and bobcat will probably make their return.

Retirement? Retiring an old adventurer is now an option when you reach maximum level. Retiring an old character is said to bestow some benefits unto your new/future characters. We’d love to see your retired characters exist in the game-world, perhaps sitting in a old tavern as a quest giver!

Release Date? Torchlight 2 is slated for release sometime this year, unlike that other dungeon crawler which will probably never come out. (angry glare)