Runic Games has done it; during this year's PAX Prime taking place over this current weekend, Runic has officially announced the release date for the highly anticipated ARPG, Torchlight II. The game's release date was announced via a release date trailer, as promised last week, which showcases some of the game's high-end action and cooperative loot-and-grind gameplay.
One of our readers labeled the announce date for the trailer which would announce the release date as a “Releaseception”. While the news created quite a stir for being very confusing (viz., a news announcement announcing a news announcement for a release date) it didn't overshadow the fact that Torchlight II is now such a big deal because of the massive community flop known as Diablo III. While the latter may have sold 10 million copies, it'll forever be known as Real-Money Auction House: The Official Simulator For Grinding And Buying Goods For Real Money.
No need to worry about always-on DRM or an RMAH in Torchlight II. There's just gonna be plenty of loot, lots of grinding, easy-as-pie co-op to drop in and out of, as well as an offline mode, thank you very much. Check it out below.
At first I wasn't too keen on the art-style, but upon further viewing I think the color tones and character designs have kind of grown on me. It looks a little bit like a more caricatured version of Allods Online, which was already a sort of Eastern European take on World of Warcraft.
The character classes themselves also look quite intriguing, it's not entirely the same-old, same-old. This should help breath a bit of life into the game's replay aesthetics, giving obsessive loot-and-grind fanatics plenty to do even after the initial run.
The real telling part of Torchlight II's success will be if it can maintain it's playerbase longer than Diablo III did. Losing 65% of 10 million players in under two months is not a very good thing, especially when the Diablo series is a staple for fanaticism and addiction.
You can pre-order Torchlight II right now or learn more about the game as it preps for a September 20th release digitally for PC by visiting the Official Website.
