E3 2009: Torchlight will morph from single player game to MMO

Coming from the desginers who made Diablo, Mythos, Mythos II and Fate, we're expecting quite a lot from their new title, Torchlight. This classic Diablo style 2D hack-and-slasher can in every way be considered the spiritual successor to Mythos, and in some ways even more closer to the original Diablo. For instance, Torchlight is a town with another world underneath it -- that and it's going to be a single player RPG before it goes MMO. But rest assured, it will go MMO in a year to a year and a half.

First, we'll discuss features that will exist at singleplayer launch later this year, then we'll cover the new elements planned when the game expands into a massively multiplayer game. Check it all out after the jump along with gameplay footage, complete with Felicia Day of The Guild trying her hand at a beta version of the Action RPG.%Gallery-65189%

Torchlight will have pets that can fight with you, they never die and have their own inventory. We thank Runic Games for this design choice, because it means as players we won't have to constantly check in on our little monster's health -- instead, we'll be able to focus on beating the living mana out of our enemies.

The class we were able to get our hands on was the Destroyer. This class summons a shadow worm that attaches to your back and attacks anything nearby. We thought it was pretty wicked, actually. The game will be very modder friendly, which is a big bonus for the game's community. Things such as skills, quests, level cap, art and levels will all be moddable -- and the system is much like Unreal's drag and drop modular functionality.

Twelve to eighteen months after the single player release, Perfect World will launch the free to play MMO version. Planned features for the online game include more character customization, more character classes, mounts, PvP (both personal and territorial) and randomly generated dungeons. They will also add social features like marriage, buddy lists, chat features and world events.

Until they get that out the door, you'll have the single player game to hone your skills.

Massively is on the ground in Los Angeles this week and covering all the latest E3 MMO news coming from the convention. Check out our breaking coverage (or all the Joystiq network E3 reporting) and keep your eye on Massively's front page for the latest developments.