Perfect World Entertainment and developer Echtra Games have announced today that their upcoming hack ‘n’ slash dungeon crawler Torchlight Frontier has morphed into a more direct successor the popular first two entries in the series. Now rebranded as Torchlight III, the game will be coming to Steam this summer, with a closed alpha test beginning on 29th January.
Announced back in 2018, Torchlight Frontier promised a “shared-world experience” and free-to-play gaming, but that didn’t really sit too well with the fanbase of games that were designed to fill the void leading up to Diablo III’s release. This rebranding also sees the game drop its free-to-play business model and follow the more traditional action RPG form of the first two games.
Max Schaefer, CEO of Echtra Games and co-founder of the Torchlight franchise explained, “During development, you often discover what type of product a game was meant to be and we found Torchlight Frontiers was meant to be a true successor to Torchlight I & II. Based on this and extensive feedback from our Alpha testers, we decided it was time to take the game back to its roots and model it after the classic Torchlight games that ARPG fans have come to love. We’d like to thank our dedicated player base for supporting us and providing such insightful feedback during early development.”
So it’s back to more linear dungeon crawling and drive to better Epic Gear and Relics, instead of the “horizontal progression” previously mooted, and many of the particular quirks of the series will return. You’ll choose from four Torchlight classes, pick a pet to accompany you – including an alpaca, owl and dog – and then explore forests full of dangerous beasts and powerful rewards.
Those four classes in the game are:
- The Dusk Mage is an enchanter who harnesses the power of light and dark energy to conjure devastating attacks.
- The Forged is a powerful robot who relies on an arsenal of weaponry to build up heat and unleash explosive assaults.
- The Railmaster is a locomotive savvy powerhouse who steams into combat with a massive hammer and heavily armed battle train.
- One as yet to be revealed class.
One element that does seem drawn from the Frontier game design is building and upgrading a personal fort. Here you’ll be able to upgrade gear, make renovations to show off to friends, and fill it with monuments pet stables and more.
Oh, and all of this can be played either online or off. Hurrah!
Torchlight III will be out for PC via Steam this summer. Though originally announced for consoles as well, there’s no mention of anything other than PC at this time.
Source: press release
