Summary
Diablo, what?
The Good
This game is addictive. Not quite in the 'one-more-turn, Civilization' sense, but close.
I played a demo of Diablo when it first came out and at the time did not enjoy it. So I never played it, and for years afterward tended to shy away from the genre that Diablo essentially created (except for a brief and bored foray into Dungeon Siege and a bewildered jaunt through Sacred). The reason I picked up TQ at all was a simple intersection of 1) I'm bored and 2) it was on sale for cheap.
Needless to say I was quite surprised at how it drew me in.
The graphics are spectacular, given the game design and format. The sound design is sufficient, though not spectacular.
What really piqued my interest though, is the sheer volume of STUFF to be had. Over the years I'd read much about the Diablo games' variety of loot and not paid much attention to it. Once playing TQ though, it became a near obsession to get more and better stuff. So I played the game like mad until I beat it. And then I played it again, which leads directly into what I didn't like about it.
The Bad
Repetition. Gobs and gobs of it. I beat the game and then was promptly invited to play it again on "Legendary" level. As I already noted I haven't played many games of this genre, the first being Dungeon Siege which I didn't finish due to boredom, and Sacred, which I did finish and have precisely the same complaint about:
Playing through the EXACT same game but with bigger numbers (hit points, weapon and character stats, monster stats etc.etc.) doesn't really qualify as "more game." Now I'll admit I played most of the way through it again with my original character, but quickly discovered some fundamental limitations of that character as I'd formed him that made it exceedingly difficult to proceed past a certain point. But I couldn't simply create a new character and play at the "Legendary" level, I had to start over at a lower level and work up to it. Again. So I never did get to see that wonderful, high powered stuff, because I sure wasn't going to play the SAME GAME four times. It replays EXACTLY the same each time, there is no deviation aside from character choices, and while there is a wide range of character advancement options, after 100+ hours of playing, they all blend together pretty well in execution... An arrow is a fireball is a whack on the head with an axe.
The Bottom Line
The story was mostly irrelevant, some drivel about a Titan on the loose, a chase through exotic locales, etc. etc. blah, barf, blah. Which is really quite odd when you consider that the writer is a chap by the name of Randal Wallace. Yeah, that guy. The one related to Mel Gibson's Oscar. The story in Titan Quest isn't bad in the same vein as "Killer Klowns from Outer Space" was bad, it's just..... inconsequential.
Ultimately, this game was a blast. The first time through, anyway. So if you're into hack n' slash, loot-heavy games your money is well spent on this one. Just get the expansion, too. It adds quite a lot of new loot immediately accessible in the original game.
