Customer Reviews

Titan Quest

5 star:		(26)
4 star:		(14)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

While it's not a Blizzard product, Titan Quest fills the long void that has plagued fans of Diablo and Diablo II.

It is evident that some influence of former Blizzard veterans helped build this game and it plays like Diablo with better graphics. This isn't simply a clone however as there are some really nice new features and enhancements that makes Titan Quest stand on its own.

First, it features a map editor and even discusses it in brief detail within the manual. It's apparent that they want the Mod community to take this game and run with it. I can't tell you how many times, I had wished Diablo had extra maps.

Second, they have made it easy for everyone to get to and from town with a built in portal function. No longer are you required to bring a wizard in your party or to spend hours search for the town portal spell or spending hard earned cash on scrolls. It's built in from the start and usable by any class. Bravo!

Third, perhaps not as important given the nature of this being a game, but my personal favorite is the fact that if a creature is going to drop it, he'll be using it against you. It definitely adds a bit of adrenaline to run into the fray and see one of the bad guys charging at you with armor or a different looking weapon. This makes attacking a group of 20 'goat men' not feel like attacking a group of 20 'goat men'. Instead it's you'll find it more like fighting an actual living world. You might fight a leader and several levels of his henchmen. This to me feels much more entertaining and you'll start to look for villains with new and unique items in hand!

All in all if you're a fan of the Diablo series, you won't be disappointed and this promises to have a longer life as the map making tools appear to be very good and easy to use.

I'd highly recommend picking this one up. There is a demo available on fileplanet.com as well. It's a 500mb download.

Let's get one thing out of the way up front. Titan Quest is indeed made in the mold of Diablo. Since I can remember when virtually every RPG had a very similar look and feel (AD&D Gold Box, Bard's Tale, Wizardry, etc) that really doesn't seem like a crime to me. Most of us are looking for a fun game and Titan Quest delivers on that score. The graphics are very nice, the game play feels rewarding, and I liked playing a straight-on hero for once instead of the anti-heroes or morally ambiguous characters that seem so prevalent in games today.

This one is not for deep thinkers, though. Create your character, start walking forward, kill what gets in your way, and walk forward some more. Repeat until the game is over. There really isn't a whole lot more to the game than that. The side quests and main quest story lines are just enough to give your actions purpose and help you feel like a hero instead of someone who slaughters countless mythical creatures.

Does the game have flaws? Well, toward the end, when you travel through the orient, the quests are far sparser and it feels like too much of a stretched out hack & slash affair. The developers really should have put more story content into that part of the game especially since it comes after you've already been performing the same combat motions for many, many hours. To keep a player engaged when the initial thrill is gone, it's important to give the combat some meaning beyond just getting some experience. I also got frustrated at how many items I found that were tailored for casters while playing a warrior type. Almost all of the most powerful items were tailored to Dexterity or Intelligence types and the game could use a system that tailors more of the loot toward your class.

The overall game experience for me was very positive. While Titan Quest will not satisfy those searching for great flexibility in how to approach a game world it is a great hack and slash romp through the ancient world. On those terms, I highly recommend it.

I love this game for what it does well. It is a wonderful single-player hack-n-slash adventure set in a creative and vibrant world with mythical overtones. However, I must caution you. This is not Diablo III. This game is not really meant to be a multiplayer game. It is a single-player game with the multiplayer option. It handles multiplayer much like Sacred did by matchmaking you with those who host a server. There is no central Battle.net service here, and the multiplayer suffers because of it. Plus, this is a very linear game. Also, the game doesn't offer anything new to the genre that hasn't been done previously. But, it does borrow some of the best elements of gold standards in the industry like Diablo II, Sacred, and Dungeon Siege. The true strength of the game is the skill and character sets. There are so many ways you can develop a character and, in turn, so many ways you can choose to approach the gameplay. Helping our character grow and choosing the path is a lot of fun. I presently have 4 different characters I'm playing - each with a unique style of play that makes the gaming experience different. The graphics and sound are wonderful and what you would expect from contemporary games. In conclusion, if you are looking for a multiplayer experience like you had with Diablo II, this is not the game for you. If you want a fun and beautiful single-player game along the lines of Sacred and Dungeon Siege, Titan Quest is well worth the money. I've been unhappy with many of the games I've bought so far this year - I'm not unhappy with this one. Jump in and have a blast!

Let me start off by saying that I bought this game on release day. I have a mid-range PC and I have not encountered any of the technical issues that others have posted about (i.e. lost characters, frequent crashing, installation problems, etc.). If you are having problems, there have been two patches that have been released at the time of this writing. Also, the next patch is already being prepared. I suggest intalling the patches to see if they improve your experience.

None of us like technical problems when we buy software, but at this point, it's just something we have to live with. We can only hope that developers continue to support the software and improve it over time. With that aside, let's get to the review...

For anyone that has been waiting for a game to build on what Diablo 2 started, this is it. Don't consider it a Diablo 2 clone though. The developers were influenced by that game, but have taken that core gameplay and made many improvements.

Here's a rundown on what you can expect:

First, the story is heavily based on mythology. The game explores Greek, Egyptian, and Asian mythology which I have found to be quite accurate. Also, many of the characters you meet in game or hear about actually existed in myth or history. The developers have certainly done their homework. As a fan of mythology, I was very pleased with this aspect of Titan Quest.

Next, the graphics and sound are gorgeous. Colorful and detailed environments make you feel like you're in a living, breathing world. The creatures you must battle look amazingly detailed and realistic. Also, the special effects from the various abilities in the game are exciting and fun to watch. The music and sound effects are equally immersive and epic.

Last but certainly not least, the gameplay is your traditional "hack n' slash" action RPG. It does NOT require you to quickly click your mouse button! You can simply hold the mouse button down and your character attacks repeatedly.

Now when the game begins, you pick a male or female character, name them, pick a tunic color and you're ready. At level 2, you get to pick your first mastery (or class)from 8 choices. Each mastery has a skill tree full of abilities to invest points in. There are many choices available ranging from melee, archery, and magic-oriented masteries. But it gets better...at level 8, you get to choose a second mastery to pair with the first! Now you can mix and match skills from both masteries to create an even more unique character.

You can interact with most of the townspeople to hear about current events, to receive quests, or to hear a legendary story. There are also merchants for buying and selling equipment. Once you leave the safe surroundings of town and begin your quest, you'll be faced with fearsome mythological creatures. Defeating these monsters will gain you experience and better equipment. Another nice touch is whatever you "see" your enemy carrying is what it drops. That means if you defeat an enemy carrying a nice looking sword, that sword will be available for you to take! As you gain experience, you earn more points to further invest in your masteries. You will visually see your character's increasing power as he or she hits enemies harder and farther. Even the spell effects become more impressive as your level increases.

Another nice addition is the map editor and co-op multiplayer features. The map editor allows you to design your own worlds that you and your friends can explore. The multiplayer lets you team up with other players to take on the challenges of the main game or a custom map.

With all that being said, this is a technically ambitious game so make sure your system is up to the task. Please read the requirements on the box! In the last patch, the developers have added some features to help the game run better on more systems. However, you'll still need some decent horsepower to run the game in all its glory.

In closing, I'd like to say I've really enjoyed this product from day one and highly recommend you give it a try.

I'm probably about 2/3 of the way through this game, and it is very, very good. I was a fan of Diablo I and II. This game takes everything that was right about Diablo, ditches everything that was negative, makes the graphics incredible, and hands back a superb game. Players of Diablo will instantly recognize how to play the game. It's not a rip off of Diablo; rather, Diablo set a standard for the "Action RPG", and Titan Quest pays it a huge compliment by using its basic structure. Examples of things they happily did away with from Diablo are the need for Town Portal scrolls, repairing equipment, and endurance (where you can't run after a while). There are many, many improvements, the biggest of which is the graphics.

The graphics are simply stunning (especially if your video card can handle high quality settings), and actually interesting and pleasing as you traverse many ancient cities in Greece and other areas (no spoilers). At any time, you can scroll in and see the faces of the monsters or the texture of the wood on a cart of goods. The game is playable on a mediocre video card...I did for a few hours. But after seeing what was possible with all the graphics set to high (though too chunky with my old card), I went out and bought a top of the line video card. And now the game is beautiful and hyper-responsive. But you have been warned! This $50 game could turn into a several hundred dollar computer upgrade (but again, it is very playable as long as you dial down the detail settings on a lower end video card).

You will not have to think when you play this, so if you like that, this isn't the game for you. But then, neither was Diablo. This game is for those who like to keep finding better and better magical items to slay foes with. And there are TONS of items in this game.

Another important note. There are three levels: normal, epic, and legendary. My friend is ahead of me playing epic, and not only are the monsters harder and your resistances set lower to begin with, but the items you find and buy continue to progress through the other levels. This is but one example of how much care and thought the game creators put into the game.

A huge kudos to the Titan Quest team!

I decided to ignore all the negative reviews about TQ and check it for myself. After playing it for 14 hours I think that in more than one way it is better than D1/D2. Yes, many of these improvements are simply due to the fact that D1/D2 are so old but hey, where the f is D3 anyway?

TQ adequately satisfies the Diablo hunger and in many ways indulges its further. More items, bigger world, more side quests. And maybe its just cuz im playing it right now but I think I like the TQ skill/mastery system more than D2's. I like how the skills don't require so much of commitment of points (ie max of 8 ranks in a given skill as opposed to 10 or 20ish).

I tend to check Gamespot and IGN for reviews online but I'm starting to come to the conclusion that these profit org's are biased. I think the main reason that TQ didnt get great ratings is because its not "original". Well duh... Its a clone. Blizzard is sitting on a collosal gold mine known as WoW and has no need to release D3 atm. But there will always be demand for a D3ish game, so I thank THQ for releasing this. Above all, as a gamer, i could care less how original a game was. I dont boycott all the new FPS shooters just cuz theyre clones of wolfenstein 3d.

Instead of admitting they dont like its originality or revolutionalizing of the genre, above mentioned reviews attack TQ for being repetitive.... All this sounds like to me is a disguised way of complaining that game is too long. I strongly disagree with this assertion made and would say its probably because the reviewer wasnt having a good time with their stupid pet magician combo (go warriors!) --TQ isnt so much geared for that class I'd say.

Secondly, they complained that the items in TQ arent scaled.. First off, I cant tell that they arent scaled. Second of all, ive never been a big fan of scaling. I think it should be implemented, but only to a limited extent. How fun is it going into a dungeon or whatever knowing that you wont get an amazing loot, rather just stuff that will upgrade your character a little bit. The way TQ is, it makes the beginning of the game more fun, and has no effect on the latter part of the game, because by the time youve gotten there, youve come across phat loot. Just a matter of statistics.

TQ rocks, Im giving THQ my money for the expansion pack as well because I want to encourage small companies like this to actually respond to what people want.

A game of this type can't escape comparisons to Diablo, and doesn't even try. I can handle a clone of a great game if it works well, and let me tell you, this one works fantastic in a world long-overdue for a Blizzard sequel (you Blizzard-North folks listening? Take this game and the reviews thereof as a hint!).

Titan Quest is essentially a Diablo-style game in which your character is thrust into the ancient Greek world. Starting off in the small village of Helos your first quests are to defend the town from pillaging Satyrs (half-goat/half men hybrids). As the game progresses and you travel through Sparta, Delphi, and Athens, the storyline unfolds; Wild beastmen (Satyrs, Centaurs, Piceans, etc) are rampaging through the countryside and creating incredible havoc. To make matters worse it appears that those long-ago foils of the Olympian gods, the Titans, have gotten loose from their confines and are somehow orchestrating this assault on the Hellenistic world.

To describe the game it is simply going to be necessary to put things point to point against Diablo, because there's no other game that's comparable to this one save for the former. The usual equipment slots are all there, as are the wide array of weapons and jewelry. While there is no trunk that travels with you from town to town, at the completion of every 10 levels you receive a backpack, slighly smaller than your inventory screen but extremely handy. I'm level 34 and I have my main inventory and 3 backpack screens, meaning I can haul around a whole lot more goodies. While "slotted" weapons are missing you can collect Essences, basically rune-like items that you can combine 3 at a time into a super weapon/armor enhancement.

Each level allows you to apply basic stats to health, intelligence, strength, and dexterity. In addition you can choose a primary and secondary combat class in numerous combinations (the book makes mention of 36 different unique "classes" a player can have, based upon these skill classes) and you'll have a lot of fun applying skill points to the expansive combat skill trees included within. If you don't like the selections you've made, no worries; unlike Diablo 2 when you get to a major city you can remove points from the errant skills and apply them to wherever you want. It's a very flexible system and I find myself eager to try out some of the other classes to see what they offer.

As the game progresses you'll eventually leave Greece and head off to Egypt and beyond. The game's plot flows smoothly, and the graphics are absolutely beautiful. Grass moves in your wake as you pass through it, water leaves impressions when you run by, and monsters fly through the air when you critically hit them. The Havoc Physics Engine they included in the programming makes swatting a Satyr look like I just nailed a grand slam at the World Series. It's *very*, *very* gratifying.

If there's one gripe I do have about the game, to echo some other reviewers, money is made with little effort. After level 10 I found there really wasn't anything I *couldn't* buy and now at 34 I have around 7 million gold. The only time I really spend any is to get health potions or buy the occassional uber-amulet or ring.

As far as multiplayer goes there's mild lag to be found online. I play largely with my wife's Ranger/Fire Mage character alongside my Warrior/Defender, and it makes getting past those rough parts of the game more palatable. Even better the game is extremely long. I spent the better part of almost 35-40 hours plowing through Titan Quest on Normal level, and the last battle was truly of Titanic (pun intended) proportions.

I cannot help but recommend this game. Just make sure your PC has the horsepower for this one or else it'll be a lag-o-licious experience. The game is rich, colorful, detailed, well-executed, and an absolute blast to play. It's the best $30 you'll ever spend!

Fun Diablo style play with better graphics than Diablo 2 with a wider range of skill sets/options instead of set classes. It's really so close in gameplay to Diablo 2 that Blizzard's name could be on the box instead of THQ's. It really boils down to if you liked Diablo 2 you will like this game.

After about 10 hours of gameplay so far (the reviewer that said it takes "3 hours" to complete the main quest is a moron) I have seen none of the install problems, bugs or crashes described in other review. THQ has already made at least 2 updates available and with these installed the game is playing perfectly for me so far.

I've had this game for about a week now and I haven't taken too many breaks from it.
I wasn't a real big Diablo fan, I preferred Sacred. This game blows it out of the water. Very good graphics, and story line keep the game interesting. I've played now for many hours and can't seem to stop. who ever finished this game in 3 hours must be superman. There is no way (even if you don't do side quests, which by the way would gain you no experience points and you would be too weak to fight anything and survive).
As far as crash issues, I have experienced a few, but never lost anything in the game. It automatically saves everything.
And like several other people have stated make sure you have the latest patch installed. At this moment I think it is v1.11.
I recommend this game to anyone who liked Diablo or Sacred.

I purchased this game 4 days ago and I have yet to stop playing! I've not had any of the problems that have been stated by other reviewers. Nor have I seen the "2 hour" long game play another reviewer had mentioned. I've played 4 days for about 5 hours a session and I have not even scratched the surface of this epic game.

Graphics are outstanding even on old graphics cards! The requirement is only 64M video card. I have a 128M video card and it is nice to see a beautiful game that my aging card handles like a champ!

Storyline is pretty good. I really love all the ancient myths that are used in this game! Thats all I can really say about that.

Game play is very similar to Diablo games and this is great if you like cracking some monster skulls, however, if thats not your bag you may want something else.

OVERALL: very fun / very addictive