Perhaps the best part about these maps is the detailed visual variation within them.

Yup, he's barfing on me.

there were a few times I bought new helmets with inferior stats from vendors just to see how I'd look in that pirate hat.

I don't care if it gets me killed -- I'll leave a badass corpse.

One Unique mace promised me a fifth bonus stat if I'd kill 10 named champion enemies with it.

I love how they springload the treasure chests around here.

I felt pretty badass right from the start thanks to the Rapid Fire ability.

Rapid Fire: when you absolutely, positively have to knock back everything in the room.

Equipping my cat with zombie-summoning spells remains one of my favorite things ever.

This guy cracks a couple of jokes, but Robin Williams he ain't.

Playing Diablo 3 and Torchlight 2 back to back is a trip -- it's eye-opening how these two games can be so similar yet so different. Other than the skill system, what difference is most important to you? I'll go first: not having to beat it on normal before I can play on a challenging difficulty!

I've recommended Torchlight to every action-RPG fan I've encountered since 2009, but it's come with a caveat: "...But there's no multiplayer." When I'm recommending Torchlight 2 going forward, it'll be completely unconditional. This is, hands down, the best classic-style action RPG I've played in a decade. It comes with an astonishing amount of beautifully made, highly randomized content, and you can share it with yourfriends, not just your in-game pet. It's easily one of the best games you can spend $20 on this year.Over the 24 hours it took me to vanquish evil in the campaign on Veteran difficulty as a shotgun- (or shotgonne, as Torchlight 2 calls it) -toting Outlander named Pesto, I marvelled at the variety of locations, the diversity of the enemies that populate them, and the sheer quantity of interesting and cool-lookin' loot they dropped when I hit them hard enough.Perhaps the best part about these maps is the detailed visual variation within them; some regions of the desert that the random map generator cooked up for me were cluttered with wrecked ships (a wizard did it?), others were rocky, and still others merely dusty. One cave might be full of giant mushrooms, but the next will have crystals, glowing mana vents, giant, throbbing insect larvae, etc. Along with distinct textures, and randomized layouts, each felt like a completely different place. That same impressive variety exists in maps on green pastures, forests, swamps, and more. Every single one of them looks fantastic in Torchlight's style, and they're backed by an eerily moody soundtrack that sets a strong mood for exploration.Each different area comes with its own impressive menagerie of inexplicably belligerent inhabitants. We're talking all shapes and sizes of everything from everything from skeletons and zombies, goblins and trolls, and beasts and demons to giant bugs and steampunk robots -- and plenty in between. Just when I thought I'd seen it all, I encountered disgusting mucus mounds that spawned groups of small wormy things. Each of them could pull me around with their frog-like tongues, basically playing a six-way game of tug-of-war with me until I managed to kill the mounds, then the worms, mostly with AoE attacks.Then there are the bosses. I can't point to much as being innovative and unique about these fights -- a few could legitimately be referred to as "damage sponges" or "piles of hitpoints" -- but none can be accused of being boring, ugly, or repetitive. I have three words for you, and they are: 1) giant, 2) cyborg, and 3) centaur. That fight felt distinctly different from the battle against the winged Manticore and his backup flock of bat-creatures, as did the fight after that.Seldom did one of those fights (or some general exploration) end without some great loot, and the sheer quantity of what's available is stupendous. I saw at least five different varieties of shotgonne with their own distinct look, and that's not even counting the Unique ones, which each have their own art. And the armor! I'm not one to play dress up, there were a few times I bought new helmets with inferior stats from vendors just to see how I'd look in that pirate hat, that derpy tribal mask, that burlap sack, that curvy-horned helm, or that Egyptian burial mask. I have no doubt there's far more I haven't yet laid eyes on -- in fact, Runic's talked of rarer-than-rare Legendary items that will appear from time to time, but they were no-shows in my playthrough. Given the random nature of most of these items, it's a safe bet that your character is going to end up looking a hell of a lot different from pretty much everybody else.Runic has a few tricks to keep loot interesting, and one in particular caught my eye as a stroke of genius. Along with the typical gem-slotting and enchanting improvements, a few weapons will unlock new traits when they're used to kill a given number of enemies. I even had one Unique mace that promised me a fifth bonus stat if I'd kill 10 named champion enemies with it. Enticing, but Pesto is primarily a ranged guy, so I threw it in my shared stash so that a future melee character can realize its full potential.As I mentioned, this is a classic-style action RPG, which means that you're locked into the skill-development path you choose. Torchlight 2 isn't without mercy: you can respec your last three points for a cost, but even if you hit the level cap of 100, you'll never max out every skill a class can have. (I hit 53 during the final boss fight, so that's New Game+ territory.) After my experience with Diablo 3 reminded me how important decisions like these are, I particularly appreciated being able to create a trulyOutlander from fellow reviewer Charles Onyett's. His focused on summoning, mine on acrobatics and pure damage-dealing.I felt pretty badass right from the start, thanks to the Rapid Fire ability turning my shotgonne into an assault rifle as long as I had mana to spend. Imagine a firehose of bullets that pins all but the biggest enemies against the wall. Then imagine the satisfaction when, 10 skill points later, the range extended to the point where I could simply push enemies I didn't want to deal with off screen. I later picked up Rune Vault to quickly evade boss attacks with big tells, Burning Leap to charge forward and set groups of enemies in my path on fire, and Glaive Sweep to do a 360-degree attack with knockback while I'm in their midst.I've spent about 90 percent of my time thus far as an Outlander, but in my toying with the Engineer, Embermage, and Berzerker I've found that those classes all make better use of the Charge bar that fills as you beat up enemies. As the Outlander I simply gain damage bonuses when it fills -- thatgive me some incentive to press on the attack, but didn't really change the way I played. There's no big payoff there. My Engineer, on the other hand, could spend her Charge energy on more explosive stomp attacks, and the Berzerker would go on a critical-hit rampage when his maxed out, giving a real reason to pay attention to that bar.Speaking of paying attention, it's worth keeping an eye on how your character acts. The animations are great -- every fifth or sixth shotgonne shot, for example, my Outlander bends a knee to fire from a different angle. It's a small thing, but exemplary of the extra layer of attentive touches to be seen everywhere in the art and design of Torchlight 2.To touch on pets briefly: these adventurers' best friends are as useful as they are adorable, providing companionship and serving as combat wingman and (figurative) gopher when you need something run to or from the shop in town without having to slow down the action. Equipping my cat with zombie-summoning spells remains one of my favorite things ever, as he's actually saved my life with timely reinforcements several times.One carryover annoyance with pets from Torchlight remains: they're unkillable, but not invulnerable, which basically makes them perpetual whiners when the going gets tough. "Your pet is badly injured. Your pet has fled! Your pet is badly injured. Your pet has fled!" It'd be great if they'dfled for a little bit, maybe, instead of coming back for more the instant a sliver of health regenerates. [Update: Oh hey, they've fixed that. Thanks Runic!]With so many great classes, locations, and enemies, I wish Runic had put a little more effort into making Torchlight 2's fiction something that'd tie it all together into a world I'd want to be a part of. Instead, it alternates unevenly between the first game's intentionally light and vague fairytale storytelling of preventing a bad man from doing a bad thing to overly detailed lore about conflicts between peoples with names like the Zeraphi and the Ezrohir. I don't know for sure if I ever met one, and if there's text that explained who they were or why I should care I must've glazed over it. I'm not gonna call it bad, but certainly a missed opportunity. A memorable character or two could've ridden the wave of Torchlight 2's inevitable popularity legacy into PC gaming history -- after all, weneed to replace the late Deckard Cain.Oh yes, there's LAN play, and yes, it works perfectly. I didn't even sign up for the Runic account you need to play online until after I'd tested out a couple of hours of four-player co-op (it supports up to six) over the gold old-fashioned LAN. Dropping in on a friend with an open game is as easy as popping open the server browser -- and when I had to leave, the other three guys kept playing as though the host dropping were no big deal. Difficulty scales up in a big way with four players, so teamwork is a must. I'm a little sad that there's no way to easily link others to a description of the great item I just picked up like you can in Diablo 3 and every MMO under the sun these days, but if having to brag about loot the old-fashioned way is the biggest problem with multiplayer, I think we'll be just fine.There's oodles more I could go into detail on about why Torchlight 2 is simply an amazing game, but I think you get the idea by now -- it's not to be missed by anyone who considers themselves a fan of the proud tradition of action RPGs. It's great, it's gorgeous, it's hugely replayable, it's multiplayer, it's moddable (with Steam Workshop!), and it's dirt cheap. A game like that doesn't come along every day, you know.