Titan Quest Gold

Titan Quest attempts to copy the Diablo formula of hack and slash while adding its own unique spin to the genre. While the game will likely be perfect for fans of the genre looking for something to tide them over until Diablo 3 lands, the areas where it attempts to differentiate itself tend to fall flat.

Most gamers at the very least have heard of Diablo and understand the basic mechanics, even if they haven't actually had the opportunity to play it. You click on enemies with your mouse and your character runs over hacks at them with their drawn weapon. Titan Quest makes no attempt to fiddle with this gameplay mechanic, so if you were already unimpressed based off other games, I'll save you the trouble of reading the rest of this review; you won't like the game. But if you desire another Diablo that's not Diablo, you might find exactly what you're looking for. The game also supports online play with your friends, but unfortunately I was unable to test this out. However, you can play the entire campaign online with your friends and this probably would be the best way to play.

Action RPGs such as this one tend to be successful or fail based off their leveling and loot system. Titan Quest actually feels a bit mixed on this one. The leveling system is easy to understand and provides players with plenty of abilities that they can give their character. After your first level, you will be required to choose a type of combat to specialize in, such as Warfare (close combat) or Hunting (ranged), or magical abilities such as Spirit and Nature. Then you will gain three points per level to getting actual abilities within your selected category. After a few more levels, you'll have to select a second mastery. Surprisingly, even the Defense mastery is extremely powerful for combat. You'll also get several points to increase your overall health, magic points, strength, dexterity, and willpower. It works quite well, even if it doesn't seem fantastic at first glance.

The loot system, however, has its share of problems. The biggest problem is that you'll attain so much loot that the economy of the game simply ends up feeling broke. By the time I finished the original Titan Quest, I had over 2 million gold pieces. This is partly because, until the very end of the game, I didn't even buy equipment from merchants. I simply just picked up whatever I could off the battlefield and it sufficed. So you'll ends up with tons of cash and no real incentive to spend it. The other disappointing aspect is that there just doesn't seem to be enough variation in the weapons. While different swords may have different stats, there doesn't seem to be much of a difference in the kind of weapon you use. It would've been nice to have a reason to change up your equipment mid-battle depending on your foe.

Graphically the game is gorgeous...almost. In screen shots, it looks fantastic given its age and when everything is running smoothly, it is a real treat. But that's the problem- when it's running smoothly. Despite having a modern PC and that the game is a few years old, the fact that I get constant slow downs when trying to teleport to other locations or have died is simply just unacceptable. Supposedly the game doesn't support dual-core processors at all, so a single-core chip with a higher clock speed should run the game better than a dual core with a lower clock speed. It really is too bad because the Iron Lore clearly did some fantastic work with its art design. The only other graphical problem is that walls don't cut out as quickly as they should. Sometimes you're running through a dungeon and you can't see your character or who's attacking you because the wall is still being rendered and you need to move down a touch more to get to finally cut-away.

Titan Quest boasts having a story written by one of the guys behind the movie Braveheart, but the story is so sparse and weak that it's actually disappointing. Basically, your character just shows up to a village and is asked for help. Then you're sent to go find someone else, who will basically repeat the pattern of, “help me, then I'll tell you to go find someone else to help.” Over the course of your adventures, you'll visit three main locales- Greece, Egypt, and China (ironically enough, the game actually goes to the city I live in currently). The expansion adds one more area. While the basic plot is a bit weak, the real disappointing aspect was the use of the cultures. The campaign inside of Greece is easily the strongest and uses famous Greek characters and stories pretty effectively. Egypt has some good and some bad in terms of cultural tie-ins, but China is just weak. It really feels like the story was originally intended to be fully played out in Greece, but the game just wasn't long enough. Then the developers added Egypt, and when they still felt the game wasn't long enough, they added China. Why one of the famous characters in Chinese history has full faith in the Gods of Olympus, I'll never know.

Similar to the story being a bit uneven is also the difficulty level. As noted before, during the original portion of the game, I never needed to buy new equipment. My character was easily a hero, capable of taking down any foe so long as I used a bit of strategy when it was required (which only happened three times, unfortunately). Once I hit the final stage of the main campaign and went into the expansion, the difficult just spikes upward. Before, I could handle a string of battles before needing a health potion. During the expansion, I would often need several during a single encounter. And since you're already at the point in the game where levels come slowly, it feels like the game wants you go back and grind for a bit. It just feels like it was designed for a person who has already beaten the game a few times with one character and is bringing him or her into the expansion. But since the expansion directly adds to the originals story, it just lacks continuity.

Sound-wise, the game is acceptable but not outstanding. The sounds of battle seem to have a good amount of impact and what little music there is throughout the game seems perfectly fine, but there's nothing extremely outstanding about any of it. The voice acting is a little weak, though. While it's nothing grating, it won't draw you into the story. Fortunately the vast majority of your time will be spent killing creatures as opposed to listening to the locals talk about their problems.

Titan Quest Gold packs a lot gameplay hours in and will probably take you 35 hours or more on your first playthrough. It's easy to recommend if you're craving some more point-and-click goodness and you loved Diablo or if you can at least find one friend to play with online. But if you weren't sold on the genre before or, like me, want a strong story to keep you going, you're probably better off looking somewhere else. While it has its faults and the gameplay hasn't evolved at all, you probably will get your money's worth. Be warned, though, that it probably will bring your computer to its knees.

 (NOTE: I played the game with a small mod that increases the font size because I don't sit extremely close to my monitor, which I forgot to remove for the images used in the review. If that stuck out to you, the default version of the game looks much better.)