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Titan Quest Mini Review
Chris Leyton
05/07/2006
Still waiting for that Diablo 3 announcement, then Titan Quest may be just what you're after...
The first game to emerge from Brian Sullivan's (co-creator of the Age of Empires series) Iron Lore Entertainment, Titan Quest harks back to a golden era for PC RPGs, and dare we say it, to some degree makes up for the continued absence of a certain "click-click" combat title from Blizzard?
Taking place throughout ancient Greece, Mesopotamia and Egypt, Titan Quest draws heavy inspiration from their associated mythologies. At a time when Gods and mythical monsters have faded into legends, a weary wanderer emerges to find that such terrible beasts haven't been confined to the pages of a book just of yet. With basic weapons and equipment, your challenge is to travel through the three different realms, embarking on quests that will pit you against an army of Cyclops, Centaurs, Harpies and much more.
Titan Quest is all about being a hero to the point of emphasising such a class; this isn't a game that throws the conventional fantasy archetypes at you, instead focussing solely on the skills and abilities you choose to develop your character. To begin with there's none of the intimidating class/attribute selection that's commonplace with other RPGs, it's simply a case of entering a name, choosing a gender and away you go.
Coming across as a very accessible hack 'n' slash Action/RPG, Titan Quest hides a lot of the genre's complications behind the scenes, but still presents enough to cater for the RPG fanatic. It's only once you've reached Level 2 that the first "Mastery" choice becomes available, providing the choice between various different selections, each opening up a certain group of skills such as those that will make you a strong melee fighter with "Warfare" or spells involving stone and fire for the "Earth" mastery. Of the eight different masteries available you'll have the choice to add a second selection at Level 8, which presents the opportunity to create a wide range of mix-and-match combinations without too much confusion and the associated issues with classes becoming too specific at higher levels.
Levelling up in Titan Quest grants you Skill and Attribute points, the former which are used to gain new abilities, whilst the latter improve the overall state of your character. Titan Quest does provide a particularly novel method of levelling up, requiring points to be added to the aforementioned Mastery, which in turn acts as a ladder system, unlocking new skills to learn and add points to; it's a careful balance of developing existing skills and discovering new ones that works well within the game.
Quests are broken down into Primary and Secondary, effectively split between those that push the story forwards and those that reward you with rare loot and large sums of gold. Unfortunately the challenges laid down rarely threaten to push beyond conventional objectives, with time-honoured "A-B, Kill Monster, Return to A" quests, unlikely to make up for what could be labelled dated, simplistic and repetitive gameplay by anybody who hasn't been waiting for Diablo 3 to arrive.
Titan Quest isn't afraid to throw legions of monsters at you right from the onset, and one of the game's unique aspects stems from its looting system. Instead of the random system favoured by the likes of Diablo, monsters and creatures only drop what they're equipped with, which can also break depending on the severity of the battle. Loot is a crucial element to a game such as Titan Quest, providing the impetus to carry on and hopefully discover that rare piece of armour you've been searching for. With over 1000 items to find and customise your character, Titan Quest fills this quota sufficiently and implements an effective artefact feature to add further depth.
In the same vein as Diablo, Titan Quest puts everything behind the left click of the mouse button, whether it's engaging in combat, traversing across the map, looting a fallen opponent or interacting with the various NPCs throughout the game. Using the genre's characteristic Action Bar, Titan Quest may not be heavy when it comes to controls; however, there are a handful of ideas that suit the game well such as assigning different actions and abilities to both mouse buttons, whilst switching between two weapon configurations at the touch of a button.
Despite a sprinkling of minor alterations to conventional features, Titan Quest biggest fault is the fact that it sticks so closely to a five-year-old rulebook. Beyond the resource consuming, runaway juggernaut that is World of Warcraft (and a number of high profile resignations across the years), there's a very good reason why Blizzard is taking its time with Diablo 3 - it needs to push forward the series and meet the heavy demands placed upon it from the first two games success. If you're looking for the next step in Action/RPGs then regretfully Titan Quest comes nowhere near to satisfying this; it does, however, satisfactorily fill the void for those left waiting for an announcement to stem forth from Blizzard.
Throughout Titan Quest Iron Lore Entertainment have paid special attention to the game's production values, which comes across in the beautifully rendered visuals and polished sound presentation. The 3D engine capably brings the era to life and each of the 80+ creatures and myriads of NPCs look stylish, whilst rag-doll physics lends a sense of belief to the proceedings. Every character within the game that has something to say has been fully voice recorded, along with a rousing and appropriate soundtrack that embellishes the game's setting.
Much like the Diablo series before it (can you spot a pattern here?) Titan Quest pushes online multiplayer as a key component. Featuring support for parties of up to six players, the enjoyment to be had from Titan Quest intensifies once you have a few friends to join the adventure and the setup is designed to make this as easy as possible. Where Titan Quest really comes into its own is the full modding support provided with the game, which provides the power to create their own worlds, build maps, assign assets, and create quests, characters, monsters and much more.
Like that bobbled armchair that's missing a leg, Titan Quest feels dated but at the same time warmly familiar. Filling the current void of click-click RPGs with a lengthy and absorbing campaign, high production values and enough loot to keep even a "ninjalooter" happy; whether or not such qualities are enough to look past the game's lack of creativity, however, very much depends on whether you've spent the last five years waiting for Diablo 3 or not.
pimp my imp
Date Added:Tue 20th Mar 2007 02:44
Anonymous
Date Added:Fri 22nd Sep 2006 20:52