Torchlight is an interesting series with a rather odd but often great history. The company that started the series, Runic Games, was founded by Max and Eric Schaefer of Diablo fame. 

The first game in the series was a simple enough action RPG dungeon crawler consisting of one hub town and an endless dungeon you scaled deeper and deeper into, collecting tons of loot and leveling your character up. It had only three classes but was a fun game and got good reviews at the time. The second game, released in 2012, was much deeper with more areas to explore, tons of little towns with side quests, and far more than one dungeon. It also added new classes and gear, expanding greatly on its predecessor. 

It also happened to come out around the time of the highly anticipated Diablo III, the big name in the same genre. Usually, that would be a detriment but the launch of Diablo III is now infamous for the problems it had, which only helped Torchlight II form more of a fan base. 

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Then things got weird. They released a free-to-play mobile game that never did make it out west and the developer ended up closing down. Then outta the blue last year Torchlight II finally appeared on consoles and Torchlight Frontiers, a free-to-play MMO type version of the game was announced by developer Echtra games. Looks like that’s about to change as well. 

According to the official website for the game, now called Torchlight III. It will be a more traditional, linear ARPG in the style of the first two games. They also include a little teaser trailer as well.

This appears to be a big change for the game as they are turning it back to an act based structure, removing in-game real money store, making it a premium purchase that you pay once and can play online or offline depending on your preference. 

This seems to be a huge change in how the game will operate, likely extending the development time. The good news is it appears to be in response to feedback of alpha testers, so it’s nice to see a developer who will listen and adjust to what players want. 

The game is still in early development but this sounds like the changes fans of the ARPG genre prefer. Are you sad it’s no longer an MMO? Happy ablution the changes? Sound off below. 

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SOURCE: Torchlight