OMG RPG

The folks at Runic Games come from a successful line of game creation. With many who have worked on such hit titles as Diablo II and Fate the studio has come together with the idea of creating something to top even those titles.Embarking on a two part quest, the first of which I got a chance to play during E3. Phase one of their two part masterpiece is an action RPG called “Torchlight”. The game seems engrained in the Diablo II roots, which is by no means a bad thing, however they are certainly venturing off the beaten path of it is “done when its done” by promising that this title will be created, packaged and shipped out this fall. Quite the feat, since they’ve been working on it for just seven months.

Wishful thinking you might say? Well the folks at Runic Games beg to differ. First off this isn’t their first time around with this style of game; in fact it’s their third. And as CEO Max Schaeffer states it’s a lot easier to make games the third time around with your friends,

“It’s a lot easier when you’re working with a team you’re familiar with for sure” Schaeffer says. “Our meetings are a lot more efficient, sparse, and fun, that’s for sure.”

It goes without saying that being in the proverbially trenches with folks tends to push you towards the extremes, either you love the team you work with, or you hate them and for the group up in the Pacific Northwest, the team feeling is certainly one of friendship.

Starting out, Torchlight is not the most visually stunning game, but that’s not where the emphasis lies for Runic games. The effort for them is on the game play, and in particular replayability as President/Project Director Travis Baldree explains.

“The game definitely leans more towards a Diablo style where you have a hub and you descend downward, but its also a lot like Fate… Where beyond the actual game, you can actually keep playing, basically extending your character for as long as you like”.

Besides only having two playable classes (a third unnamed is on the way), the other things I noticed right off the bat that were quite “Fate-ish” were the pets, of which Baldree says you can either have a canine or a feline (of course don’t call them that to their face).  If you’re allergic to one or even both fear not, they easily transform based on perks and drops you get along the way. At one point during the demo my character had a black widow looking spider accompanying him that didn’t waste time dispatching enemies. The perk of the pet is its ability to carry its own weight, or inventory, something that few games do, but makes a lot of sense.

“(Your Pet) has its own inventory” Baldree explains. “They can actually store items and take them back to the village and sell for you.” Certainly gives a whole new meaning for carrying your own weight!

Not only that every Pet has its own functionality that makes them extremely helpful or extremely useless given a particular circumstance.

“One of them cold be a particularly good leaper” Baldree says. “Others could be extremely talented with ranged skill.” Regardless, it’s extremely important to have the right pet by your side when going to battle, especially against the higher level foes.

To start with, Torchlight will feature a level cap of 50, however as Baldree explains, that’s debatable.

“If someone doesn’t like that (level cap) then they can crack open the editor and spend 30 seconds and extend the level cap to whatever they want to. Our goal is not to make you grind it out but to play it, enjoy it and then play it again, Diable II style.”

An interesting tactic Runic is using for this title, but from all the chatter they’ve seen on their previous form sites and from what they’ve received so far from testers, the more creative a user can be with the game, the more they are going to want to keep playing it. With that in mind Runic has opened up the flood gates for user creativity with their editor system which allows users to change everything from their level cap to their opponent’s difficulty and even level design!

The key with replayability is to give the user some sort of badge or honor for doing it. A great example is the Call of Duty franchise which rewards users for reaching the top level and then going back to the bottom again. This is something Runic is doing as well.

“Similar to what we did with Fable, there will be this concept of a descendant that you can pass on some sort of knowledge or items to.” Baldree says. “And then you have the benefit of playing a new class (there are three total) and of course new levels as everything will be randomized. There will still be a similar basic narrative and bosses you will fight along the way, but there are also random quests that you can also get.”

This style of replayability is great, but what happens once you run out of classes to play? Well then my friends fear not, because the level editor has got you covered! During my demo Baldree changed an entire level, moving stairways, lava pits and balconies around, as well as adding more villains and making them hit twice as hard.

“Our level editor is kind of funky” Baldree kids. “You can actually play right in it. It’s a lot like LEGOs. If you want to build one you just snap a bunch of things together and just hit ‘play’ and you can hop right in and try it out.”

The kind of challenging level design that Baldree made is the kind that the insane posses and the sane say, “WTF”. But Runic understands from previous titles that if they give their users the opportunity to modify the game, they will take advantage of it.

“We’ll have it basically set up so you can use Mods (to pass along to your friends)” Baldree explains. “People did a ton of modding on Fate and it was only barely modifiable, it was just a bunch of open text files that people went crazy with. So we’re trying to support it much much more here, where people can REALLY get into it… They can create something that looks nice and professional.”
Baldree was quick to point out as well that it is not a bad thing if you don’t like to create levels as those who do, will make plenty for you. He said that roughly 90% of users use level mods that were created by a small 5% of the total audience. Something that doesn’t surprise me, but gives me a great idea on how I can earn celebrity Torchlight status!

The game will be entering closed beta soon, so be on the look out for it this fall at a rough price point of $20-$30. Baldree said that while the price point is lower than your typical new release you shouldn’t expect the quality to be any less. In fact, from what I played, the game looks to be quite the deal at that price point 

The end game for Runic is a Torchlight MMO, which unfortunately will not be following the same quick timetable as its mouse bashing predecessor. But if the title is well received then hopefully that will give Runic the go ahead to pump out expansion content as they build the MMO version.

“If people like it (Torchlight) and it does well, we would like to do some more expansion content” Baldree hints. “It would be pretty easy for us to do, especially since we’re going to be developing assets for the MMO already. Kind of like HEY we made some new monsters, let’s stick’em in the single player and see how they do. It’s not difficult to do; it’s again just a matter of how well the single player game is received.”

If the game continues to improve from the version I saw at E3, I think Runic will be able to add a third title to their growing resume and will have lots more work to do as they simultaneously build out new expansion content and (hopefully) their MMO masterpiece. The franchise could be a surprising and lucrative hit for up for Perfect World Entertainment, who already has two other titles on the way. From what I’ve seen so far, this Torchlight is shining in the right direction.