Torchlight Frontiers Preview, Gameplay Reveal Trailer

During this year's Gamescom, Echtra Games will be presenting a playable demo of their upcoming online action-RPG Torchlight Frontiers. However, the IGN team has managed to play through the demo already and even put together a detailed preview article that goes over the game's basics, a couple of its classes, and its loot-based leveling system. There's also a minute or so of fresh gameplay footage:

A few paragraphs from the preview:

Torchlight Has Class

So far, Echtra’s only revealing two classes for Torchlight Frontiers. I chose to play as The Forge, an adorable steampunk quadruped robot that looked something like a combat-repurposed Wall-E on spider legs. His central torso included an equipment slot for an imbedded cannon. I instantly felt comfortable aiming the weapon and rapidly traversing the twisting dungeon pathways.

The Forge’s mana meter differed from the conventional blue bubble of a Torchlight MP reserve. Instead, I kept half an eye on a Heat Gauge that slowly built up as I used my special powers. When I hit an overheated state I could no longer fire off my best attacks, but I also got a chance to release my stored-up incendiary energy in a colossal area effect attack that sucked nearby enemies into a wall of flames and restored my arsenal of abilities.

Even at this early stage of development, there’s evidence of thoughtful craftsmanship in the handling of my hero. Spinning my arms around me in a 360-degree arc while tumbling forward, I plowed through mobs with a tactile sensation of gravity and momentum. The Forge’s crawl had an insectile quality more adorable than creepy, and practically all of my abilities felt situationally useful, though thanks to a very lucky Legendary equipment drop early in the demo I found myself relying heavily on a long range machine gun.

I also observed play by the Dusk Mage class. Her light and dark themed powers each had a distinctive characteristic: light themed attacks were orderly and precise, dark-themed attacks were chaotic and area-effect oriented. Using light powers charged up the ability to unleash more darkness, while spamming darkness powered up the light. I love the sort of Ikaruga-vibe the character gave off.