Torchlight II Previews and Video Interviews

Courtesy of this weekend's PAX Prime, Runic's highly anticipated Torchlight sequel has been treated to some more hands-on coverage while also being the subject of a couple of video Q&As.

GameSpot starts us off with a preview of the Embermage abilities and a nearly five-minute video interview with Max Schaefer:
Shocking Burst: By holding down the corresponding key this spell discharged a continuous blast of electrical energy in a small cone in front of us. It also got the least amount of use since it required us to get in melee range to be effective, plus the damage output wasn't enough to counteract having a swam of foes grouping up on us.

Blazing Pillar: Our panic button, this spell unleashed four pillars of flame that would seek out and damage nearby enemies for a few seconds. This high-damage spell made an excellent crowd control tool, as well as looked very intimidating.

Frost Phase: An excellent utility spell, it let us teleport to our cursor nearly anywhere on the screen. The only limitation was moving up to higher cliffs and platforms; moving down worked every time. Nearby enemies were also damaged upon our arrival. Whether we were popping into a fight, or frantically running to safety, this spell got plenty of use.

Hooked Gamers keeps us interested with their own preview:
As my character leveled up, I was struck by the overhaul that the various panels had received. First and foremost, the game no longer pauses when you call up an information panel. The game has multiplayer now which means that obscuring your entire screen while pausing the game for every player in the game is simply not going to work. So the game keeps running and panels will only take up a third of your screen, leaving you able to see what's going on while trying to decide on what skill to pick.

I'm sure many Role-Playing fans that have taken their games online will have experienced the frustration over having to decide who gets what loot. You won't have to fight over dropped loot here though: your kill, your reward. Any loot dropped by someone you killed will only be visible to yourself. You can still share with others, but only when you drop items on the floor yourself become visible to other players.

Gamers Route takes the preview route, too:
First, let's start with the things you may already know; four-classes, colorful maps above and under the ground-level, fluent drop-in and out multiplayer modes for WAN/LAN environments, auto-adjusted difficulties, randomized-level designs and quests, release price set to $19.99, yadda yadda yadda.

Let's cut to the chase by getting to the conclusion first: Embermage is definitely a fun class to play. With an adequate mix of range-attack skills and AoE attacks, you will find yourself concentrating on different combos, getting rid of multiple enemies at once. No crazy micromanaging; just pure fun using magic to kill single or multiple enemies. Ebermages definitely have a style everyone seeks in a good co-op gameplay experience.

And then CtrlAltKill finished things off with two separate gameplay-laden video interviews with Mr. Schaefer.