Titan Quest Anniversary Edition

So, after about level 10 in this very enjoyable ARPG/Diablo-clone, I noticed loot drops diminishing considerably. I thought it was a balancing choice of some sort, so I ignored it, until I realized that loot did drop, I just couldn't pick it up because it was locked behind DLC. This was in the core game. I went through the entirety of the Parnassus caves without a single loot drop. Ornate, Quality and Majestic chests dropped nothing but health potions and spare change. Now, nobody plays these types of ARPGs for their robust combat systems or rich storytelling; loot drops are at the heart of these games. Loot's the carrot at the end of the stick and the means to develop your character. The devs most certainly know this. They're trying to force you to buy the DLC (Ragnarok, at the very least), to have a decent experience with the game. Mind you, outside of a sale, this is a game that costs 20 Euros and you're getting it with blatantly inaccessible content. The DLCs cost *at least* as much per piece. I think the most annoying thing for me is the simple fact that when I bought this game, it was sold to me as the update to an old, quite well-liked game; when in fact all it is is a platform for new, overpriced and invasive DLC.

Owned this game originally on CD, then brought on Steam, now have it on GOG... so very glad to have a GOG-place where I can get it all in one place! Thanks, GOG!

At the beginning it was just like other addictive, lootfest-RPG's: "One more level and Im going to sleep. One more dungeon and Im turning it off. One more quest and Im done for today." However, the more you play, the more repetitive and meaningless it gets. What is the point of collecting and selling all that loot when you're sitting on 10 million gold and there is nothing you can buy for it? Why exploring the world when you encounter the same enemies, same camps, same patherns? If you saw one of them, you saw them all. The game offers good replayability in choosing character with different masteries (you can choose 2 out of 8, with every mastery having different set of active and passive abilities, combining them as you like), but honestly I dont see myself going for another run. Titan Quest could have been a blast back in 2006 when it came out, but nowadays there are too many RPG's that do the same thing better.

You know the drill: you move forward, click and kill! The enemies reappear if you exit the game and re-enter. There are fountains on your way, which serve as a checkpoint. So if you don’t want to do any farming (by replaying an area), you have to reach a fountain before you save and exit, and some of them have a distance of over an hour between them, which is quite long. This saving method is the only negative I’ll say for the game, as there were times that I had to turn off the PC and leave, forcing me to replay an area afterwards, and times when I had about 40-45 minutes available, but I couldn’t play, as I was wondering where would the next save be and if I manage to reach it before I have to stop! Full voiced, but there aren’t any dialogues! They are actually NPCs’ monologues, as your hero doesn’t respond anything. Small inventory space initially, but later it expands. Thankfully, you can teleport to the merchants anytime, and return to where you were, by the same manner. Very beautiful environments, with vivid colours. I couldn’t have enough of the game’s locations! You can see the real-life time by placing the mouse cursor on the upper left corner of the screen! I hadn’t seen this feature in any game before! I guess the developers knew that your time will fly quickly, and wanted to protect the player from missing out on real life important obligations! (However, they still implemented THAT saving method!) The Immortal Throne expansion begins right after the main game and the enemies seemed to be more densely placed. 68 hours for main game and another 32,5 for the I.T. exp.. Someone can say that you repeatedly do the same thing over again, ok, but traversing the ancient lands, solving people’s problems and fighting monsters, yes, the game makes you feel like a mythological hero of the old world! You can read my reviews of the other expansions, on the same date as this one. I didn’t buy the Eternal Embers expansion, as I’m not for such high difficulties.

Titan Quest and Immortal throne were never properly finished/patched due to Iron Lore's financial difficulties and eventual bankruptcy. That said, the game is highly enjoyable and fans have done a remarkable job of patching the game and adding content. My issue is specifically with the Anniversary Edition. The "rebalancing" was poorly planned and implemented- just for example the sword Mindrazor still has the same name but does not mind control as it originally did. Why not remove or rename it? Many of the original bugs are still present (RNG for instance) and the loot drops were never fixed. Identical items frequently appear in the same area or even the same container. I'll remove this piece of garbage and use the gold edition.