Titan Quest was probably a decent ARPG back in the days, however, I wouldn't recommend it to anyone who has already played Grim Dawn. Being a huge GD fan I decided to give TQ a try for a change, hoping for a similar experience. Boy, was I wrong! If anything, it felt like early GD alpha... There is no "gravity" to hitting your enemies or getting hit, feeling like you're fighting a cardboard army (with a cardboard hero). The sound design is boring, leveling takes ages (even at the very start), the inventory is too small, forcing you to go to town to sell stuff every 5 minutes... I asked for a refund as I don't think I'll be coming back to this (after reaching level 4 with my hero).
Although the game is set in an interesting environment I quickly lost interest. For an ARPG it is very dull, you engage group after group with the same monsters and use the same hit and run tactics. The story is mostly an excuse for travelling from A to B, then from B to C and so on. The game is somewhat difficult but that just adds to feeling of a chore.
Graphic and effects are old and not so eye pleasing even if they aren´t ugly.
This game done right is another game that is available on GOG, the Van Helsing Final Cut. That is a true gem whilst being very similiar to Titan Quest. Grim Dawn is another alternative even if not as good as Van Helsing.
I would only recommend this game to someone who likes a slow paced ARPG set in a different environment and likes to fight similiar mobs in large areas (that aren´t really worth exploring). The character progression mostly add small bonuses to existing stats which is a bit underwhelming.
6 of 5 must play.
5 of 5 great story great gameplay.
4 of 5 great story average gameplay.
3 of 5 average story average gameplay.
2 of 5 play only if it's your favorite genre.
1 of 5 play if you have nothing better to do.
0 of 5 play if you're a masochist
-1 of 5 avoid
Titan Quest Anniversary Edition scores 5 of 5.
Titan Quest Ragnarok scores 5 of 5.
Titan Quest Atlantis scores 5 of 5.
If you care about the story element in your RPG this isn't for you. The story of this game is literally this: "The bad guys escaped from their bad prison place and you need to stop them".
Aside from lacking a story, I found many gameplay issues as well:
First the game forces you to start at normal difficulty which is extremely easy and boring if you have any experience with hack n slash. All of the enemies and bosses on normal difficulty are extremely easy except for one cerberus who was only difficult because it was 12 levels above the character for some reason. After I completed the normal difficulty I was so bored that I didn't want to play anymore. The enemies are so easy that you don't even need to collect the high level items which kind of demotivates you to play.
The merchants almost always only carry stupid items so there's nothing to spend your money on which is pretty demotivating.
There are only 2 or 3 types of quests - "retrieve the item", "defeat the boss" and "find a npc". Very repetitive.
Not a great variety of enemies, as you traverse the game you keep fighting the same satyrs and centaurs and skeletons and you seem to be expected to replay the same zones over and over to farm for armor sets etc. Yeah, no way.
I completed the whole game with just 4-5 spells, I didn't even bother to unlock the secondary class. Yeah I get it, once you beat the game on Normal you are supposed to go on higher difficulty and unlcok more items and spells, but honestly it's just too boring to replay.
The game seems to be designed to encourage you to replay it over and over at higher difficulties to collect all the sets and unlock all the spells., but honestly with enemies being so easy, quests so boring and story non-existing I found it hard to complete the game the first time so replaying it is out of the question. I am definitely not buying the expansions.
Lets start off with whats gonig for it. It has an interesting setting with different mythologies represented, visually looks attractive and has good class variety.
There is a story here and side quests here, but their implementation is such that theyre just placeholders for rewards and direct progression, nothing more. Which is fine, the game is not really about that.
Problem is the gameplay here doesnt work.
If you make the mistake of picking two not very compatible classes in the beginning, then you will end up with an inefficient character and have no way to reset him. The grind here is pretty big and its not that fun. After 20 hours I realised I screwed up my character and cant use gear properly. I also have only 2 active skills close to level 30, everything else is passive.
Next problem is the relevance problem. That being, why use the 12% electricity resistance ring, when you can use the +50 health ring? Based on the enemy variety and randomness it is usually a much more efficient choice. There are no zones where a certain stat build is efficient, enemies are constantly random and thus making most loot worthless.
The enemies arent particularly interesting either. You have swarms, tanks, mages and variations in between. If there were zones where you can fight certain enemies consistenly with specific strats, then certain gear, skills and approaches would have a point. Otherwise you go for the most effective generic build.
On top of that there is a balance issue. In the same area I can face enemies 10 levels lower or higher than me. In act 3 the enemies become way more deadlier. There are also some technical glitches as well.
I honestly dont understand why this game is rated so high. I tried it a long time ago and didnt get into it. Thought maybe I didnt understand something or didnt get far enough into it. But no, its just bad. Its not complete trash, but I cant recommend wasting your time in it.
