Titan Quest

aka: Titan Quest HD, Titan Quest: Deluxe Edition
Moby ID: 22901
Windows Specs
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Description official descriptions

It is believed that at the dawn of time, there was a great war between the Titans and the Gods. During this war which spanned many centuries, humanity was born and stood beside the Gods. At the war's conclusion the Gods were victorious and the Titans were banished to the great darkness. Now the Titans have escaped and spread their evil over the ancient world of Greece (and beyond). A hero arrives in this time of need to fight the Titans and bring peace to the world once more.

Not unlike Diablo or Sacred, Titan Quest is a hack 'n' slash action RPG in which the player creates a character and level up by killing thousands of monsters based on real mythologies of ancient Greece, Egypt and Babylon. At the beginning of the game, the hero has no profession, but upon reaching level 2, a choice is given between eight unique "masteries". Upon reaching level 8, access is granted to a second mastery. This allows the choice of creating a warrior who is good magician or a necromancer who can also kill his enemies quietly. These skill points can be rearranged at will (for a nominal fee) by visiting a certain NPC in each act.

Up to 6 friends can play in multiplayer in the cooperative mode through the entire game.

Spellings

  • 泰坦之旅 - Simplified Chinese spelling

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Credits (Windows version)

203 People (193 developers, 10 thanks) · View all

Lead Designer
Executive Producer
Producer
General Manager
Director of Technology
Art Directors
Associate Producer
Lead Gameplay Designer
Lead Content Designer
Lead Engine Programmer
Lead Game Programmer
Design
Programming
Senior Concept Artist
[ full credits ]

Reviews

Critics

Average score: 78% (based on 43 ratings)

Players

Average score: 3.8 out of 5 (based on 65 ratings with 5 reviews)

A Fun Diablo II-style RPG, surpassing Diablo II in some areas, and falling short in others.

The Good
The class advancement system is by far the best of any of the Diablo-style games that I have played. You get to combine two different classes (from a wide selection) into one of many hybrid character types. I also liked that I really felt like I got a real improvement when I leveled up an ability. The ability increases are usually linear and not diminishing like in Diablo II, so most of the time, it really matters whether you have 1 point or 5 points in an ability.

The graphics were also excellent compared to other games I've played in the genre. This actually caused some problems before they patched the game a few times, since performance sometimes suffered in intense fights. After the patches, though, these problems were mostly solved. I really enjoyed the physics effects, too. It's fun to get a critical hit and watch your enemy fly back from the impact.

Titan Quest also gets rid of a lot of the boring parts of games in this genre. You don't have to manage Town Portal scrolls, identify scrolls, or potions, for example. The caravan, where you can store unused but valuable equipment, is sharable between characters, so you don't have to resort to opening multiplayer games just for the purpose of trading items between your characters unless you never throw anything away.

Finally, the game is tuned to be a little more forgiving than Diablo II. The best items in the game are much more attainable than in Diablo II, where some items were nearly impossible to find even if you played 5 characters to level 99. In addition, single-player and multiplayer were created equal. There were no multiplayer-only items like in Diablo II. This is great for people like me, who don't want to play multiplayer that often.

The Bad
My main criticism of Titan Quest is that the game is too easy, especially in the Boss fights. Don't get me wrong, some of the bosses are quite tough until you learn how to fight them or you get the right resistances, but none of the bosses are as challenging as those in Diablo II. This is especially true of the randomly-generated bosses. Some of the random bosses in Diablo II were truly fearsome. In Titan Quest, they just take more hits to kill.



The Bottom Line
Titan Quest is a beautiful hack-n'-slash RPG that is very entertaining, even if it is a bit easy.

Windows · by Droog (460) · 2008

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.

Windows · by agamer (24) · 2009

Chop bonk chop stab zzz

The Good
I’m going to put this out there and say that the graphics are utterly charming. There is a crispness to them, and the attention to detail such as swaying corn and fluttering birds. This, coupled with some beautifully ambient sound effects, can make simply leaving your character standing still in the wilderness a really soothing experience. With all the effects cranked up water looks great too. As an aside it was sitting looking at these scenes for a few seconds that made me turn off the computer and haul my housemates down to the beach for a random excursion. Not that that has anything to do with the game or anything…

The main thing that really attracted me to the game was the setting. Anyone who watched Troy or knows a thing or two about legends and ancient history will be pleased with the aesthetics of the weapons and armour, although the Egyptian armour often looks silly. While many infamous heads from legend pop their heads in to say hi, they’re rarely much more than things to bonk on the head.

Yup… that’s about all I can manage.

The Bad
Imagine this was a movie. Better yet imagine if the big-thighed protagonist were you. What the hell are you actually doing? You rampage across the countryside, silently bashing absolute hoards of creatures over the head again and again and again, never tiring, never sleeping, day in day out.

I’ve always had trouble with RPG’s in my head (though calling this an RPG is misleading), namely the principle of a group of people (occasionally made up of sassy teenagers) ganging together to go and massacre entire species of sentient animals, often by simply standing in front of them and swinging their weapon once, then stealing their clothes to sell for minute profit. Titan Quest has taken this formula completely to heart. It is, as it were, the embodiment of it.

Yet you really need to take a step back and observe what you’re doing. We’ve all played Diablo II, and this is essentially ‘Diablo: The Sunny Years’. We’ve all seen how addictive, though not necessarily fun, it can be.

But where are you going with this?

The principle driving force in RPG’s is the advancement system, although this is another idea that has always seemed peculiar to me. In Morrowind I started off with a certain numerical representation of my strength, lets say 20, presumably similar to what an average person can bench press, or whatever. By the time I stopped playing I had 100 “strength”. 100 what strength? Am I five times stronger than I was? Am I incapable of lifting something someone with 101 strength can?

The idea of advancing in Titan Quest is similar, but utterly flawed. The goal is to presumably get stronger in order to carry better weapons to do more damage. Yet from the very beginning, armed with a knife made of jelly and throwing custard pies, I slaughter the enemies with ease, often with one hit (save the occasional boss character, who you just hold the mouse button on for a bit). I continue to kill enemies throughout the game with one hit. Have I advanced?

Sure there is a choice of magic and archery and various buff spells and whatnot, giving you an option for replaying a game that got boring ten minutes in. But these do nothing different, save for some spangly effects, than just bonking the monsters over the head. Click, dead. Click, dead. It’s almost as bad as Dungeon Siege. One of my favourite things to do in the game is killing the crows (crows?!?) as they just leave a puff of black feathers and a disembodied “crawk”. Oh how I tittered.

I’ve mentioned Diablo, and much of its influence lingers here like morning-after breath on a girl who’s renewed your subscription to beer goggles.

There are the same non-descript, randomised weapons, each factoring up in newer, swishier models in tiny damage increments. Yet rather than the “Sword of the Badger” and other daft paraphernalia found in Diablo, these are Bronze, Copper, Iron etc. But what’s the difference between hitting someone over the head with a Bronze or Iron mace??!? A lump of rock will cause significant concussive damage to anyone wearing the thickest armour.

As in Diablo the enemies respawn upon reloading a saved game. Yet the town I emancipated from the terminally weak hoard of enemies, now reincarnated in the field next to the town, is ignored by the locals, who spout their repeating phrases of thanks for infinity. Also the Greeks speak in a Russian accent.

There are technical failings also, aside from the occasional crashes I suffered.

The hoarding aspect of Diablo was its main reason for playing. Yet Titan Quest’s makers somehow deliberately mar it here. There is no auto-sorting inventory, leaving you to carefully arrange each piece Tetris-style. The button you press to highlight the items literally piled around you doesn’t work, rarely showing every item. Even worse was the idea to include a physics engine! Profitable items such as rings are almost life-size for the character, therefore invisible to the player, often tumbling away into thick grass or hidden underneath the torrent of useless weapons and armour. And they truly are useless. The majority of objects will sell for pittance, even a big lump of Iron armour.

The game is relatively seamless and quick to load, but for some reason the occasional cave and indoor area would suffer awful stuttering.

But worst of all of this is that Titan Quest is boring. It takes you nowhere, does nothing new, and does established things badly. It is probably the most soulless game I’ve ever played.


The Bottom Line
If some of you terminal hoarders need another dose, you're presumably still replaying Diablo II. Otherwise there is zero I can say to encourage you to buy this. Unless you like men in skirts of course.

Windows · by Curlymcdom (44) · 2008

[ View all 5 player reviews ]

Trivia

Copy protection

The game includes a hidden security check to battle piracy. Users playing the game using a modified executable have the game crash in the first cave. This however also damaged the game's reputation as illegitimate users reporting this issue on forums made the game appear bug-ridden. The PR department was not able to fully turn this around, especially as the code did not work perfectly and legit users were also sometimes confronted with the crash.

Online servers

The game's online servers which were hosted on GameSpy were scheduled to shut down on 31 May 2014 in the wake of GameSpy's total closure.

An alternate server was added specifically for the Steam version in a beta branch on 24 February 2016.

Awards

  • Games for Windows Magazine
    • March 2007 - #6 Game of the Year 2006
  • PC Powerplay (Germany)
    • Issue 02/2007 – #4 Best Game in 2006 (together with 1701 A.D.)
    • Issue 03/2007 – #2 Best RPG/Adventure in 2006 (Reader's Vote)

Information also contributed by PCGamer77 and Sciere

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Contributors to this Entry

Game added by MDMaster.

Android, iPhone, iPad added by firefang9212.

Additional contributors: Unicorn Lynx, Sciere, eWarrior, Cantillon, Patrick Bregger, garkham, Plok, firefang9212.

Game added July 5, 2006. Last modified March 6, 2024.