Staff Writer Nate Wong got his hands on Torchlight II at PAX to try out the recently unveiled Embermage class. Is the title worth the $19.99 price tag? Find out!

Dungeon destruction fever is sweeping over the world again. Players across the globe are prepping their computers for an onslaught of high-caliber games that put the mouse and keyboard to work as players destroy skeletons, kill minions, and basically waylay their opponents with a variety of magical and lethal implements. The developers at Runic Games are paving the way, leading the pack with their (relatively) recently released Torchlight and it's upcoming sequel, Torchlight II.

During my time at PAX, I was able to get my hands on the the recently unveiled Embermage, an element-controlling death dealer that waylaid the enemies around him. The class is a pretty strong dichotomy to the other classes that had already been unveiled; the Embermage is much more of a ranged “glass cannon” type of character than any of the others, and if you paired him with the Engineer or anything that is even semi-tough, they'll be able to defend themselves from hordes of enemies.

Just like in the original Torchlight, there will be tons of items and pieces of gear to collect throughout the expanded world (which now includes overland zones of massive proportions). Gearing up using tools like ZAM's own Torchlight Armory will be essential for players, especially those that are going to be joining their friends online or in LAN parties. You definitely don't want to bring a knife to a gunfight, if you get my drift, and I'm sure your friends won't be too happy if your character is undergeared for what they're trying to accomplish.

Along with the new class and multiplayer options, it was also recently announced that Torchlight II will continue the trend of its predecessor and have a $19.99 price tag. If you're looking to hold on to a bit of your cash for when the “other” dungeon-running title comes out in a few months, that's definitely not a concern with this relatively inexpensive title.

Back to the Embermage, the gameplay and controls in Torchlight II felt just about running compared to the controls of the original title, and you can definitely tell that only a few minor tweaks were necessary to get everything just right. Although there weren't many pets on display, the Runic Games developers promised that more were on the way, and they were going to be “awesome.”

Other items of note:

• The size of the zones have been greatly increased, so you can actually fight in the same zone as someone online and not be in there group.
• Graphics still look great and are enhanced beyond what Torchlight demonstrated.
• The Embermage was definitely fun; felt very classic.
• Being able to play online makes the $20 seem even more appealing.
• Definitely an easy purchase when the game is launched.

While Torchlight II still is the same style of gameplay we've seen for years, it can't help but win this writer's heart with its super cheap price tag and simply giving us even more bang for our buck. This business model is really one that should be used on a lot of upcoming games, and with more sales racking up for the Torchlight franchise hopefully we'll finally see that long promised MMO hit the shelves.

Nate Wong, Staff Writer