Torchlight III revealed, buy to play with no microtransactions

The new Torchlight game sheds its free-to-play model and complete nixes microtransactions.

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Today Arc Games announced Torchlight: Frontiers is now Torchlight III, a more traditional buy-to-play game with offline singleplayer and no in-game storefront.

Torchlight III revealed, buy to play with no microtransactions | TweakTown.com

Torchlight is back. Not the imitation Torchlight that tried to heavily monetize its audience and gear itself up to be another live service game, but the isometric grind-fest ARPG before the days of rampant in-game purchases. Under the new banner of Torchlight III, Arc Games is morphing Frontiers into an authentic sequel to the original games that goes back to the series' roots, complete with the linear act-based structure. It's also coming to Steam and won't be exclusive to the Arc launcher.

Once you buy Torchlight III, you own the full game. There's no storefront, no premium currency, and no cosmetics to buy. Offline singleplayer is also included, but any characters made offline can't be used for online play (likely due to the game's traditional mod support). The new classes (railmaster, dusk mage, and forge) and collectibles from the Frontier alpha tests are crossing over to the main game, but progression is getting massively overhauled.

Major changes include:

  • The game now follows the classic Act structure from previous titles. Players start at the Imperial Outpost besieged by goblin hordes. They then follow the trail of nether corruption into lands overtaken by Hyvid and finally reach the (redacted) Peaks and their cavernous underplaces ruled by the electrifying (redacted)
  • Horizontal progression has been removed, so all Frontier-specific levels, gear stats, and scaling has been removed as well. We are returning our progression systems to better work in tandem with this.
  • Most zones are now private by default to give a better play experience. Players can still meet each other in public town levels and form parties to play together in instanced combat zones.
  • When creating your character, you can now select Online or Offline Mode. Characters made in Offline Mode do not require an internet connection to play, but will also not be able to participate in multiplayer games.
  • We have removed the in-game real-money store.

Led by original Diablo creator Max Schaefer, the team plans to hold many more alpha and beta tests throughout the year.

Torchlight III is due out on PC in 2020 and is coming to Steam. It'll also come to consoles some time later.

NEWS SOURCE:torchlight3.com

Derek joined the TweakTown team in 2015 and has since reviewed and played 1000s of hours of new games. Derek is absorbed with the intersection of technology and gaming, and is always looking forward to new advancements. With over six years in games journalism under his belt, Derek aims to further engage the gaming sector while taking a peek under the tech that powers it. He hopes to one day explore the stars in No Man's Sky with the magic of VR.

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