It's no secret that I'm a fan of Torchlight, so it's no surprise that I was eager to try out Torchlight II at E3.

Armed with a two-handed weapon and accompanied by a ferret with its own pair of goggles, the Railman trekked forward with his two friends into a dungeon! Copious amounts of killing ensued as we mowed our way through a variety of foes, all of which dropped delicious loot to fill up both player and pet inventories. Equipping some gloves made specifically for my class, it was also nice to see equipment requirements are now either a minimum stat/stats OR a level -- meaning equipment requiring a stat your particular class would not have in requisite amounts could simply wait and be worn at a higher level.

Leaving my slowpoke party behind, I moved on to the next dungeon level; Brock (a designer for Runic) explained that the floors scale according to the number of players actually on them, so I wasn't fighting mobs intended for three players until the full party arrived onto the same level. We banded together to take on a large boss, using our skills and abilities (as well as a lot of running away screaming like little girls) until he fell with a crash to the floor and we dashed in to grab our goodies. Loot is instanced; your items show up only for you, though you may drop a piece of equipment and it will be visible to all. Gold is also handled in this way, ensuring that giant loot piles will not simply go to the fastest clicker nearby.

30 minutes was not enough for a demo, and we dragged ourselves out of the Runic booth feeling both enthused and saddened that we surely won't be seeing Torchlight II in July, and even an August release is looking doubtful. As soon as RPGamer has some copies of the title, we will be streaming several of our staff members playing it, so keep an eye out for that feature coming later this year.