Runic Promises a Vast World in TORCHLIGHT II
Torchlight, in my humble opinion, was one of the better games released in 2009. The hack-n-slash title had many things going for it, however, the scope of its world was quite narrow which hindered the replayability value. In an interview with Gamasutra, Max Schaefer, CEO of Torchlight developer Runic Games, promises this problem will be addressed in Torchlight II, which releases in the spring of 2011.
"With respect towards design, a lot of what drove Torchlight I's design was necessity, and the need, want and desire to get something out quickly,"he said. "People felt a little claustrophobic with the structure – Torchlight is just one town and a series of dungeons underneath. So the obvious remedy for that is to make big overworlds and different cities, so we're doing that."
He also mentioned that Runic still plans on making the long-promised Torchlight MMO. Apparently after the first game released, the demand for co-op functionality was so great that they decided to put out a sequel with that included before the MMO.
If you've yet to play the game, you can pick it up on Steam for $19.99. Trust me when I say that it's worth every penny.