Torchlight Frontiers
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''Torchlight III'' (formerly ''Torchlight Frontiers'') is an
action role-playing game An action role-playing game (often abbreviated action RPG or ARPG) is a video game genre that combines core elements from both the action game and Role-playing video game, role-playing game genres. Definition Action role-playing games empha ...
and the third game in the ''Torchlight'' series. It is developed by American studio Echtra Games and published by
Perfect World Entertainment Arc Games Inc. (formerly known as Perfect World Entertainment and Gearbox Publishing San Francisco), is an American video game publisher. Founded in 2008 as the North American branch of the Chinese company Perfect World, they currently operate ...
for
Microsoft Windows Windows is a Product lining, product line of Proprietary software, proprietary graphical user interface, graphical operating systems developed and marketed by Microsoft. It is grouped into families and subfamilies that cater to particular sec ...
,
PlayStation 4 The PlayStation 4 (PS4) is a home video game console developed by Sony Interactive Entertainment. Announced as the successor to the PlayStation 3 in February 2013, it was launched on November 15, 2013, in North America, November 29, 2013, in ...
,
Xbox One The Xbox One is a home video game console developed by Microsoft. Announced in May 2013, it is the successor to Xbox 360 and the third console in the Xbox#Consoles, Xbox series. It was first released in North America, parts of Europe, Austra ...
, and
Nintendo Switch The is a video game console developed by Nintendo and released worldwide in most regions on March 3, 2017. Released in the middle of the Eighth generation of video game consoles, eighth generation of home consoles, the Switch succeeded the ...
in October 2020.


Gameplay

''Torchlight III'' is a
dungeon crawl A dungeon crawl is a type of scenario in fantasy role-playing games (RPGs) in which heroes navigate a labyrinth environment (a "dungeon"), battling various monsters, avoiding traps, solving puzzles, and looting any treasure they may find. Video g ...
er where the player controls a character in a
high fantasy High fantasy, or epic fantasy, is a subgenre of fantasy defined by the epic nature of its setting or by the epic stature of its characters, themes, or plot. Brian Stableford, ''The A to Z of Fantasy Literature'', (p. 198), Scarecrow Pres ...
world. From an isometric, top-down view, the player controls their character to move about the game's world, using
hack and slash Hack and slash, also known as hack and slay (H&S or HnS) or slash 'em up, refers to a type of gameplay that emphasizes combat with melee-based weapons (such as swords or blades). They may also feature projectile-based weapons as well (such as ...
with a variety of weapons, magic spells, and skills to fight monsters, collect new items and treasure, and sell and buy items in a centralized town to improve their character's abilities. Initially, ''Torchlight III'', as ''Torchlight Frontiers'', had been a
massively multiplayer online A massively multiplayer online game (MMOG or more commonly MMO) is an online video game with a large number of players to interact in the same online game world. MMOs usually feature a huge, persistent open world, although there are games t ...
game, introducing large surface levels that allow players to join together to fight monsters that respawn over time, and travel between the game's primary dungeons, many of which are procedurally generated. Players would have been able to party together to explore these dungeons. To balance players' overall abilities, the game would have used item-based experience levels rather than player-based levels. Players with high-level items entering a dungeon with lower-level players would have their items temporarily weakened to the lower levels while in the dungeon. With the change to ''Torchlight III'', the game is expected to be more of a linear approach as from the first two ''Torchlight'' games, but will still support both offline and online play.


Development


Series background

The ''Torchlight'' series was originally developed by
Runic Games Runic Games was an American video game developer based in Seattle. It was formed by former Flagship Studios developers in August 2008. In 2009, the company released ''Torchlight'', a single-player action role-playing game. It was acquired by Perf ...
; the first game, ''
Torchlight ''Torchlight'' is an action role-playing hack and slash dungeon crawler video game developed by Runic Games and published by Perfect World Entertainment. It was originally released for Windows in October 2009. The fantasy-themed game is set in ...
'', was a single-player only game released in 2009, and its sequel, ''
Torchlight II ''Torchlight II'' is an action role-playing dungeon crawler video game developed by Runic Games, released for Microsoft Windows on September 20, 2012. It is the sequel to ''Torchlight'', and features peer-to-peer multiplayer support and extended ...
'', released in 2012, added in cooperative play between (up to) six players. Runic was founded by several video game industry veterans with experience from dungeon crawlers like '' Diablo'', '' Hellgate: London'', and ''
Fate Destiny, sometimes also called fate (), is a predetermined course of events. It may be conceived as a predeterminism, predetermined future, whether in general or of an individual. Fate Although often used interchangeably, the words wiktionary ...
'', many of whom had been at
Flagship Studios Flagship Studios was an American video game developer founded by Bill Roper along with , , and David Brevik, former Blizzard North executives. The latter three had been collaborating since their 1993 founding of Condor Studios, later renamed up ...
at the time of its closure in 2008. Flagship had been developing ''
Mythos Myth is a genre of folklore consisting primarily of narratives that play a fundamental role in a society. For scholars, this is very different from the vernacular usage of the term "myth" that refers to a belief that is not true. Instead, the ...
'', another action RPG but with significant
massively multiplayer online A massively multiplayer online game (MMOG or more commonly MMO) is an online video game with a large number of players to interact in the same online game world. MMOs usually feature a huge, persistent open world, although there are games t ...
(MMO) components. With Runic, the company wanted to "finish what they started" with ''Mythos'', but to redevelop all portions of the game, lore, and art for this title. With only fourteen employees to start, Runic decided to stay closer to their roots and develop a single-player game without an online component so as to get a product out faster and then build upon that in the future; this ultimately became ''Torchlight''. On release of ''Torchlight'', Runic's Max Schaefer asserted that it was a first step toward a planned ''Torchlight'' MMO. ''Torchlight II'' represented a partial step toward the MMO, giving them the opportunity to expand and test multiplayer elements. During ''Torchlight II''s development,
Perfect World Entertainment Arc Games Inc. (formerly known as Perfect World Entertainment and Gearbox Publishing San Francisco), is an American video game publisher. Founded in 2008 as the North American branch of the Chinese company Perfect World, they currently operate ...
invested into Runic Games, gaining a majority control of the studio. This investment was targeted toward the development of the ''Torchlight'' MMO that the studio has previously presented. In 2014, studio co-founders Travis Baldree and Erich Schaefer left Runic Games, ultimately forming Double Damage Games and releasing '' Rebel Galaxy''. While Runic had grown under Perfect World's investment, Baldree and Schaefer wanted to get back to smaller scale development, the reason for their amicable departure. Co-founder Max Schaefer (Erich's brother) recognized that both developers were part of the critical team behind Runic's development, and with their departure, they had to rethink their plans for the ''Torchlight'' MMO. This required them to shift away from the action RPG genre into a new type of game, ultimately released as '' Hob'', a puzzle-driven
adventure game An adventure game is a video game genre in which the player assumes the role of a protagonist in an interactive story, driven by exploration and/or puzzle-solving. The genre's focus on story allows it to draw heavily from other narrative-based m ...
. Schaefer was still keen on the ''Torchlight'' MMO, but with the direction the studio had taken with ''Hob'', he decided to leave Runic games along with additional programmers to try to fulfill this vision. He founded Echtra Games, a developer under Perfect World, in 2016, hired a number of developers with background in the action RPG area, and was able to get the rights for ''Torchlight'' through Perfect World. Ultimately, Perfect World closed Runic Games in November 2017, although they did state that news about ''Torchlight'' would be made in the future. ''Torchlight Frontiers'' was first announced on August 9, 2018, and early versions of the game were available to play at the 2018
Gamescom Gamescom (stylized as ''gamescom'') is a trade fair for video games held annually at the Koelnmesse in Cologne, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. Gamescom is the world's largest gaming event, with 370,000 visitors and 1,037 exhibitors from 56 ...
trade show and
PAX West PAX (originally known as Penny Arcade Expo) is a series of gaming culture festivals involving tabletop, arcade, and video gaming. PAX is held annually in Seattle, Boston, Philadelphia, and Melbourne. Previously, it was also held in San Antonio. ...
later that month. The game was anticipated to launch on
Microsoft Windows Windows is a Product lining, product line of Proprietary software, proprietary graphical user interface, graphical operating systems developed and marketed by Microsoft. It is grouped into families and subfamilies that cater to particular sec ...
first, with releases on
PlayStation 4 The PlayStation 4 (PS4) is a home video game console developed by Sony Interactive Entertainment. Announced as the successor to the PlayStation 3 in February 2013, it was launched on November 15, 2013, in North America, November 29, 2013, in ...
and
Xbox One The Xbox One is a home video game console developed by Microsoft. Announced in May 2013, it is the successor to Xbox 360 and the third console in the Xbox#Consoles, Xbox series. It was first released in North America, parts of Europe, Austra ...
to follow. In January 2020, Echtra and Perfect World announced that ''Torchlight Frontiers'' had been rebranded to ''Torchlight III'', and had dropped several of the planned MMO-like aspects in favor of a more linear progression in the game. Schaefer said "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 and 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 action RPG fans have come to love." The companies affirmed the game would no longer be free-to-play but would instead be a premium title, with plans for a Microsoft Windows release in mid-2020. A closed alpha period launched in January 2020, with an early access version of the game released on Steam on the 13th of June 2020.
Zynga Zynga Inc. () is an American video game developer and Video game publisher, publisher known for its social video game services. It was founded in April 2007, with headquarters in San Mateo, California. The company primarily focuses on mobile an ...
acquired Echtra Games in March 2021 for an undisclosed sum. As a result, Echtra completed one last update for the game in May 2021 and then turned over the game and IP to Perfect World to allow the publisher to seek developers to continue the game's development.


Reception

''Torchlight III'' received "mixed or average" reviews according to review aggregator
Metacritic Metacritic is an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...
. Review outlets unanimously deemed the game an inferior one compared to prior entries in the franchise. ''
Destructoid ''Destructoid'' is a website that was founded as a video game-focused blog in March 2006 by Yanier Gonzalez, a Cuban-American cartoonist and author. Enthusiast Gaming acquired the website in 2017 and sold it to Gamurs Group in 2022. Histor ...
'' gave the game a six out of ten, calling its campaign "forgettable" while writing, "If you’re the kind of player who got deep into ''Torchlight II'' mods or spent countless hours crafting your ideal character builds, you’re almost certainly going to feel under-served in ''Torchlight III''". ''
Push Square Gamer Network Limited (formerly Eurogamer Network Limited) is a British digital media company based in London. Founded in 1999 by Rupert and Nick Loman, it owns brands—primarily editorial websites—relating to video game journalism and oth ...
'' acknowledged that the game's visuals and core gameplay were fine, but that the title felt "overly familiar and crushingly linear". ''
PC Gamer ''PC Gamer'' is a magazine and website founded in the United Kingdom in 1993 devoted to PC gaming and published monthly by Future plc. The magazine has several regional editions, with the UK and US editions becoming the best selling PC games m ...
'' noted that ''Torchlight III'' was technically sound, but called the dungeons "cookie cutter" and ultimately concluded that "what was missing asmore than what was there". ''RPGamer'' noted that the process for online multiplayer was "frustrating" and called its limitations a "glaring annoyance". ''
Nintendo Life Gamer Network Limited (formerly Eurogamer Network Limited) is a British digital media company based in London. Founded in 1999 by Rupert and Nick Loman, it owns brands—primarily editorial websites—relating to video game journalism and ot ...
'' praised the game for its rewarding gameplay loop, lengthy endgame, and replayability while criticizing its technical issues and calling its Fort system "underutilized". ''CGM'' and ''
Shacknews ''Shacknews'' is an American video game journalism website founded in 1996. It that publishes news articles, reviews, and cheat codes. History ''Shacknews'' was founded in 1996 by Steve Gibson. The website, originally named 'Quakeholio', was ...
'' reviewed the game more positively, praising the game's simplistic nature and the co-op mode, calling it accessible and appealing, though both criticized the level creation system, technical issues, and boss fights.


References


External links

* {{Torchlight series Action role-playing video games Free-to-play video games Early access video games Hack and slash role-playing games Nintendo Switch games PlayStation 4 games 2020 video games Unreal Engine 4 games Video games developed in the United States Video games scored by Matt Uelmen Windows games Xbox Cloud Gaming games Xbox One games Cooperative video games Torchlight (series) video games