S&S; Review: Torchlight II

Title: Torchlight II
Format: PC
Release Date: September 20, 2012
Publisher: Runic Games
Developer: Runic Games
Price: $19.99
ESRB Rating: T

Torchlight 2 is the long-awaited sequel to of the 2009 dungeon crawler, Torchlight.  The game was an instant success because of it's polished gameplay and addictive combat and looting systems.
Presentation and Story:
When it comes to Torchlight 2's narrative, I didn't come in expecting much at in terms of storytelling.  I got exactly what I expected, after coming out of the first game not knowing why I was killing monsters and spelunking through caves, I had the same experience with the sequel as well.  I wish the guys at Runic would expand the world of Torchlight, giving us more memorable cinematics and characters.  The gorgeous presentation really makes up for the lack of story, tons of diverse environments await your excavation and exploring.  Tons of enemy variations keep the game looking fresh and unique.  Instead of repetitious cave diving in the last game, Torchlight 2 feels more like an adventure.  The game constantly pushes you from one locale to the next.  This isn't a negative in any way, in fact I find that the more places to explore, the better.  The cool character models each bring their own unique look to the game, like the insane and sketchy berserker.  The game does have some voice acting, coming from static moving characters that give you quests to complete.  The voice work is stellar across the board, although the story still isn't very interesting.  The superbly composed soundtrack rounds out the great presentation, filling your ears with adventurous sounds and tracks.
Core Gameplay and Multiplayer:
The game is just like any PC dungeon crawler, lots of loot for you to grab, and tons of enemies to slay.  Seeing how some of the guys that helped craft Diablo 1 and 2 are now making Torchlight, you'll will always get those comparisons to the Diablo games.  If you've played Diablo 3, and switched over to T2, there are a lot of similarities.   This game definitely separates itself from its major competitor though.  Excellent pacing between the acts being the definite standout, gradually nudging you through the lengthy campaign.  You start off choosing between four character classes, Embermage, Engineer, Outlander, or the Berserker.  Each provides you with a different set of skills and play styles for any type of player. As you play with a certain character, you'll gain levels and learn new abilities.  There is an immense amount of new active and passive abilities to learn.  Thankfully, navigating the character progression skill trees are simple and easy to read. You can play the entire campaign single-player if you want, but you can also take your game online.  Joining or creating your own game is simple and painless, there isn't a lot of real problems concerning lag either, the gameplay is smooth offline and on.  After you finish the campaign, you can go back through it once more with the new game+ mode.  A lot of developers are adding this mode, it adds a lot more replayability to their game, it never feels like its tacked on.
Final Thoughts:
Torchlight 2 is a lot of fun, with tons of gameplay improvements from the previous game and an improved presentation, this is an easy purchase for fan of the first game.  Even if you've never played a Torchlight game, this is a great starting point into the series and should not be missed.
S&S Rating:9/10 @whatsPlay