Krakn3Dfx
December 16th, 2007, 12:19 PM
There was a time that Diablo II almost earned me my first divorce. That time was the week Diablo II came out. I had taken the week off to spend with my part-time daughter, who was over for some of her summer break, and we were supposed to go out and do all kinds of cool stuff. Unfortunately for all involved, I picked up D2, and it consumed me with the wrath of a thousand suns, which pissed off my wife completely and utterly. While I did take my daughter out for a few of the days to do stuff, I will have to admit I did play entirely too much of the game, and it's something I still hear about today.
The comparisons to Diablo II when it comes to Titan Quest are all over the place, and are not at all unwarranted. The game is addictive as hell, with me constantly working towards the next mob to see what green or blue might drop that will add more int. to my level 23 Theurgist.
The game has dozens of classes to choose from, mixed and matched based on whether or not you choose a single mastery or 2 masteries to mesh together. Warrior, rogue, archer, druid, templar, and ranger are just a few of the choices when it comes to how you want to play the game. Some like to be on the front line with a mace in each hand, some want to hang back and heal while they fling arrows or fireballs at the undead, and the game gives you that, just like in previous isometric ARPGs like Diablo II.
The graphics in the game are great, and I still find myself after a few months of playing admiring the way the grass parts when a wild boar is making a beeline for you or the way the water ripples and splashes when you run through it. There are times when you'll run up a small path just to find yourself at a dead end, but usually that dead end is accompanied by a beautiful view of a fast moving river or deep, snowy canyon. There are also some great weather based effects in a few of the towns, such as the edge of a dust storm whipping around the plaza of a city, blowing things around you. The overall feel is very immersive and you can tell the artists did their jobs with a lot of love when it came to this game.
If you add the Immortal Throne expansion, or buy the Gold Edition, which has both, you get an extra mastery, as well as a new act to go with the existing 3 acts in the game. You also get hundreds of new items to pick up, a scroll recipe system that I haven't really done anything with at this point, but hear is pretty nice if you can collect all the things you need. With the original and the expansion, you're probably looking at around 30-40 hours of gameplay, depending on how thorough you are in looking for side quests and caves to clean out for XP and loot.
This game isn't exactly new anymore, but I wanted to throw it out there as a great game that brought a huge bit of nostalgia to me as a fan of the Diablo series. TQ brings everything to the table that Diablo did, and adds on lush, changing environments as well as a huge upgrade in graphics. Everyone who complains about the 800x600 limitation in Diablo II need only play Titan Quest at 1680x1050, it's amazing looking.
All that said, the game doesn't come without its share of problems. No secure online servers means that you're bound to come across the occasional speed or weapons hack cheater that will zip around at level 3 with some level 50 equipment and 100% speed increases, grabbing everything before you can. That's why I generally only play with people I know online, and I've gotten about half a dozen people to buy the game and start playing it, so I can usually get a group together.
Also, there are a few quest bugs that are introduced with the Immortal Throne expansion. It would be nice to think Iron Lore will eventually fix these, but based on what I've read in other forums, it's not likely at this point, as the publisher THQ has pretty much abandoned the title from a support standpoint. There's also this weird "rubber banding" issue where you'll be running somewhere, freeze for a second or two, and then the game go really fast until you make up the time from the freeze. It's annoying, but for most people it doesn't happen that often, and it's tolerable.
Overall, TQ is an excellent title, and I'd highly recommend it to anyone who gets into action RPGs that hasn't tried it out yet. The Gold Edition is only $30, which is a steal for the original game, expansion, soundtrack, and the mini art book that it includes. Hope to see a few people from here online sometime, my server is usually called Krakns Server, and the password is Nitefall if you see it.
Have a good one.
The comparisons to Diablo II when it comes to Titan Quest are all over the place, and are not at all unwarranted. The game is addictive as hell, with me constantly working towards the next mob to see what green or blue might drop that will add more int. to my level 23 Theurgist.
The game has dozens of classes to choose from, mixed and matched based on whether or not you choose a single mastery or 2 masteries to mesh together. Warrior, rogue, archer, druid, templar, and ranger are just a few of the choices when it comes to how you want to play the game. Some like to be on the front line with a mace in each hand, some want to hang back and heal while they fling arrows or fireballs at the undead, and the game gives you that, just like in previous isometric ARPGs like Diablo II.
The graphics in the game are great, and I still find myself after a few months of playing admiring the way the grass parts when a wild boar is making a beeline for you or the way the water ripples and splashes when you run through it. There are times when you'll run up a small path just to find yourself at a dead end, but usually that dead end is accompanied by a beautiful view of a fast moving river or deep, snowy canyon. There are also some great weather based effects in a few of the towns, such as the edge of a dust storm whipping around the plaza of a city, blowing things around you. The overall feel is very immersive and you can tell the artists did their jobs with a lot of love when it came to this game.
If you add the Immortal Throne expansion, or buy the Gold Edition, which has both, you get an extra mastery, as well as a new act to go with the existing 3 acts in the game. You also get hundreds of new items to pick up, a scroll recipe system that I haven't really done anything with at this point, but hear is pretty nice if you can collect all the things you need. With the original and the expansion, you're probably looking at around 30-40 hours of gameplay, depending on how thorough you are in looking for side quests and caves to clean out for XP and loot.
This game isn't exactly new anymore, but I wanted to throw it out there as a great game that brought a huge bit of nostalgia to me as a fan of the Diablo series. TQ brings everything to the table that Diablo did, and adds on lush, changing environments as well as a huge upgrade in graphics. Everyone who complains about the 800x600 limitation in Diablo II need only play Titan Quest at 1680x1050, it's amazing looking.
All that said, the game doesn't come without its share of problems. No secure online servers means that you're bound to come across the occasional speed or weapons hack cheater that will zip around at level 3 with some level 50 equipment and 100% speed increases, grabbing everything before you can. That's why I generally only play with people I know online, and I've gotten about half a dozen people to buy the game and start playing it, so I can usually get a group together.
Also, there are a few quest bugs that are introduced with the Immortal Throne expansion. It would be nice to think Iron Lore will eventually fix these, but based on what I've read in other forums, it's not likely at this point, as the publisher THQ has pretty much abandoned the title from a support standpoint. There's also this weird "rubber banding" issue where you'll be running somewhere, freeze for a second or two, and then the game go really fast until you make up the time from the freeze. It's annoying, but for most people it doesn't happen that often, and it's tolerable.
Overall, TQ is an excellent title, and I'd highly recommend it to anyone who gets into action RPGs that hasn't tried it out yet. The Gold Edition is only $30, which is a steal for the original game, expansion, soundtrack, and the mini art book that it includes. Hope to see a few people from here online sometime, my server is usually called Krakns Server, and the password is Nitefall if you see it.
Have a good one.