Torchlight Frontiers - Announcement Trailer

A new hack and slash game has been announced called Torchlight Frontiers.

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REKINDLE THE FLAME IN 2019!

www.torchlightfrontiers.com

Torchlight Frontiers combines the heart of the beloved Torchlight series with a shared, persistent and dynamically generated world. In true Torchlight style, players will team up with friends and devoted pets to hack and slack their way through a vibrant world, discover ancient ruins of lost civilizations and brave dungeons filled with riches and dangerous creatures.

More information.

Uh oh, Perfect World seem to have a hold of the reins, incoming Arc alert…

I thought the creator of torchlight moved on; if so would this just be a new game reusing the title ?

Looks like the developing studio is Echtra Games, founded by Max Schaefer who was one of the founders of Runic and an original dev of Torchlight 1 and 2. No idea if anyone else involved with the earlier Torchlight games is involved with this or not.

TL1 and 2 were pretty fun Diablo clones, so I'll be keeping my eye on this

Torchlight and Torchlight 2 were sort of quirky fun - but ultimately too silly and lacking in thoughtful mechanics. Certainly among the lowest ranking D clones, to my mind.

While this could be interesting, my immediate reaction screams cash grab.

Pass…
If it has to be an ARPG I'd rather give the Anniversary Edition of Titan Quest another try.

Pass…
If it has to be an ARPG I'd rather give the Anniversary Edition of Titan Quest another try.

Perhaps my mistake. Thought the guy who wrote rebel galaxy also did torchlight but maybe not…

Originally Posted by Nephologist
Looks like the developing studio is Echtra Games, founded by Max Schaefer who was one of the founders of Runic and an original dev of Torchlight 1 and 2. No idea if anyone else involved with the earlier Torchlight games is involved with this or not.

TL1 and 2 were pretty fun Diablo clones, so I'll be keeping my eye on this

This was kind of what Mythos was supposed to be before Flagship Studios shutdown and became Runic. I might try this one out, even though Runic is no more, and the original Blizzard North crew is off to greener pastures.

When I was playing the closed beta of Mythos, it was like the wild west of development. We would submit ideas to them on the forums and the next day they would implement them. Fun times.

From memory:

Travis Baldtree was the guy who designed Mythos (another Diablo clone) for Flagship Studios (developers of Hellgate London). I believe they hired him because he made that shallow kiddie Diablo, called FATE. IIRC, they were using Mythos as a testbed for their innovative network infrastructure.

Along with some other ex-FSS developers, he formed Runic games - the developers of Torchlight and Torchlight 2.

AFAIK, he went on to form Double Damage games with Schaefer - and they made Rebel Galaxy - which is a pretty and extremely shallow "Diablo with spaceships" sort of game.

Apparently, Schaefer must have moved on yet again.

As far as I'm concerned Baldtree is a curse more than a blessing, as everything he's been involved with since FATE has been a weak-ass, shallow Diablo clone of one kind or another - and his studios keep closing down.

Schaefer has been part of some really, really great games before Runic - but I'm guessing he's sick of the big stuff - and he's probably just trying to cash in here and there.

Originally Posted by Darth Tagnan
From memory:

Travis Baldtree was the guy who designed Mythos (another Diablo clone) for Flagship Studios (developers of Hellgate London). I believe they hired him because he made that shallow kiddie Diablo, called FATE.

Along with some other ex-FSS developers, he formed Runic games - the developers of Torchlight and Torchlight 2.

AFAIK, he went on to form Double Damage games with Schaefer - and they made Rebel Galaxy - which is a pretty and extremely shallow "Diablo with spaceships" sort of game.

Apparently, Schaefer must have moved on yet again.

As far as I'm concerned Baldtree is a curse more than a blessing, as everything he's been involved with since FATE has been a weak-ass, shallow Diablo clone of one kind or another - and his studios keep closing down.

Schaefer has been part of some really, really great games before Runic - but I'm guessing he's sick of the big stuff - and he's probably just trying to cash in here and there.

Also important to note, Flagship Studios was comprised of some the ex Blizzard North people, responsible for the original Diablo 1/2, so there's quite a heritage to everything here.

I did enjoy the first games for what they were, but not so sure if this one would be equally enjoyable.

Originally Posted by Caddy
Also important to note, Flagship Studios was comprised of some the ex Blizzard North people, responsible for the original Diablo 1/2, so there's quite a heritage to everything here.

I know, Schaefer was one of those

Also, I believe Bill Roper was the guy everyone decided to blame for HGL's failure - because he was the PR lead in most cases.

Brevik, which is the real genius behind Diablo and Bliz North was a part of Flagship, too.

Here's an interesting interview with Brevik, if anyone actually cares how Diablo got started - and how Brevik was forced to concede that going from a turn-based combat system to a real-time combat system was genius, even though he HATED the decision at first:

Run around, kill lots of things, then send your pet to the store. Plus fishing. 'Bout sums it up. I enjoyed the art style though.

TORCHLIGHT I and II were fun, casual games. I'll be checking this one out!

If I remember correctly, a Torchlight MMO was the next planned project for Runic after Torchlight 2, before Travis and Erich left and everything fell apart.

This looks to be a continuation of that.

Torchlight 2 was great; hardly among the "lowest ranking D clones". Much more fun than the bland, vanilla Diablo 3.

If it was just a normal sequel that could be played in local co-op, I'd be on this like a … something on a sticky something. As it's a MMO-isation of Torchlight, I'm less enthusiastic, though I'll undoubtedly follow its progress.

"Team up with friends in a shared, persistent and dynamically generated world"

This scares me. It sounds like it might be online and multiplayer only.

I had great fun playing and MODDING the first two 'single player' Torchlight games. But I hate multiplayer games! So I have no interest at all in a multiplayer version of Torchlight, especially if it doesn't support modding.

But I'll keep my eye on this, hopefully I'm wrong, but so far, it doesn't look promising.

Originally Posted by Tiptoe
"Team up with friends in a shared, persistent and dynamically generated world"

This scares me. It sounds like it might be online and multiplayer only.

I had great fun playing and MODDING the first two 'single player' Torchlight games. But I hate multiplayer games! So I have no interest at all in a multiplayer version of Torchlight, especially if it doesn't support modding.

But I'll keep my eye on this, hopefully I'm wrong, but so far, it doesn't look promising.

Well……

Torchlight Frontiers has been announced as a shared-world action-RPG set in the same universe as Torchlight 1 and 2.

Along with the setting, the “signature features and mechanics” also return.

Torchlight Frontiers features a share, persistent, dynamically generated world. In the game players and their pets team up to “hack and slack their way through” the game.

Intrepid adventurers will discover ancient ruins of lost civilizations and, of course, gather loot and give enemies the what for in dungeons.

“Evolving the Torchlight universe into a shared world has always been a goal for the franchise,” said Schaefer in the announcement. “I’m excited that we’re finally able to make it a reality,”

“Torchlight Frontiers will be a living, breathing universe that will still feel uniquely Torchlight, with our own creative spin. The team is building something truly special, and we can’t wait for fans to play it for the first time at gamescom and PAX West.”

I'd say that answers that it will be an online shared world.

Originally Posted by Couchpotato
Well……
I'd say that answers that it will be an online shared world.

They can sell that to their mother.