GON: Well essentially Torchlight II is a remake of Diablo II with modern graphics in many ways. Did that affect you?
Chris: The interesting thing about Torchlight II is when I was playing it the one thing I noticed is that all of the Diablo II-isms that we changed for Path of Exile came back to annoy me. And I’m not saying Torchlight II is a bad game! I enjoyed playing it but certain things that we’ve changed for Path of Exile that I’m now used to doing our way I found frustrating, because I felt they were bad systems, so I changed them in my game, and therefore it’s frustrating to play them in someone else’s.
GON: Can you give me an example of that?
Chris: A good example of that is the potion system. In a lot of ARPG’s, Titan Quest, Torchlight, you buy a ton of potions and every time you’re hurt you drink one and it’s just a big homogenous stack. In Path of Exile your potions are in set flasks that are actually items that you have to upgrade, and they can be used multiple times, and they become part of your build. If you want a flask that extinguishes fire if you’ve ever been ignited, then that’s part of the way you build your character rather than just a number of potions you bought from the shop last time you were in town.