Has anyone else bought Titan Quest?

[DeeBye]

There have been a couple of Titan Quest threads here in the past. The last one was in Griswold's Shop when the demo was released.

http://www.titanquestgame.com/

The official release date is not until June 28th I beleive, but I was browsing a local game store and saw that they had copies for sale a bit early. On a whim, I picked one up. I had already played the demo, and while it wasn't spectacular it also wasn't the worst demo I've ever played. It had some potential.

The system requirements are really steep for a game like this.

Minimum System Requirements

- Windows 2000 or XP
- 1.8 Ghz Intel Pentium IV or equivalent
or AMD Athlon XP or equivalent
- 512 MB RAM
- 5 GB free hard drive space
- 64 MB NVIDIA GeForce 3 or equivalent
or ATI Radeon 8500 series with
Pixel Shader 1.1 support or equivalent
- DirectX 9.0c compatible 16-bit sound card
- 8x CD-ROM drive
- Keyboard, Mouse


Recommended System Specification

- 3.0 Ghz Intel Pentium IV or equivalent
- 512 MB RAM (I think this is a typo and should be 1 GB RAM)
- 128 MB NVIDIA GeForce 6800
or ATI Radeon X800 series
- Soundblaster XFi sound card

I've only gotten as far as the demo covered (Sparta, about character level 6), but I can say that it runs a lot smoother than the demo did. Item drops are a bit more varied, which is good. The character classes and skills all look really interesting and I can't decide what ones to choose. I settled on a Stormcaller (mage class archetype) while eyeing the Chain Lightning skill.

Titan Quest makes no bones about being a Diablo 2 rip-off. Parts of it are so close to Diablo 2 it's almost funny. I personally don't really mind this because it makes the learning curve a lot more shallow for me.

Based on my limited gameplay:

PROS:
- almost an exact copy of Diablo 2's "paper doll" inventory and item management (hey, why mess with what works?)
- obscene amount of class and skill combinations
- the Greek mythology setting is a nice change from the action RPG norm
- nice battle tempo, everything is fast-paced
- unlimited instant Town Portal skill so selling off your hard-earned phat lewt isn't a pain
- built-in Quest Editor, which I have yet to toy around with. I can see this being a lot of fun.

CONS
- limited inventory space with no stash
- no randomization of the map
- lousy random item drops with regards to quality of the item versus the level of the enemy that dropped it. The whole item droppage system needs a huge overhaul.
- limited multiplayer, expect no Battle.net-type closed servers

[kandrathe]

I finally caved in and spent $150 to install more RAM and a new 300GB HD so I thought I'd go ahead and wait 20 minutes to DL and install the TQ demo from Fileplanet. I freed up 33% off my primary drive (mostly game .mdf files for CD free bliss) and I'm still only using 4% of the new one.

Also, I'm finally just trying out DSII (also DII like). Last night I got to the end of Act II, and didn't have the patience at 2am to take down the dragon.

[Sirian]

The system requirements are really steep for a game like this.

I pimped the deuce out of my ride last December, so system specs are no issue for me. (I've been playing Oblivion on high detail). I went ahead and ordered this game, won't arrive for a couple of weeks. I'll check back in once I've played.

Oh, and Hi. "I'm new.";)This seems like a relatively cool place. Maybe I'll check back in now and then.

(Does it really say "waiting on Diablo 3" on the LL front page now? ... :blink:... Heh.)


- Sirian

[Jester]

I pimped the deuce out of my ride last December, so system specs are no issue for me. (I've been playing Oblivion on high detail). I went ahead and ordered this game, won't arrive for a couple of weeks. I'll check back in once I've played.

Oh, and Hi. "I'm new.";)This seems like a relatively cool place. Maybe I'll check back in now and then.

(Does it really say "waiting on Diablo 3" on the LL front page now? ... :blink:... Heh.)
- Sirian

:huh:

:blink:

:unsure:

:w00t:

-Jester

[Chesspiece_face]

:huh:

:blink:

:unsure:

:w00t:

-Jester

my thoughts exactly.

[DeeBye]

I went ahead and ordered this game, won't arrive for a couple of weeks.

A couple of weeks?!? I can't wait that long. Won't anyone play Titan Quest with me right now? :(

[NiteFox]

I'm considering it. Installing the demo right now, as a matter of fact.

My system is just about the recommended specs for the game, 'cept the processor which is a 1.8GHz.

I've been curious about this game for a while now, so if the demo doesn't run too horribly, I might pick it up.

Edit: Okies, the demo runs... good, at 800x600 with all graphics detail keyed to minimum - It still looks pretty damned awesome, everything except the low-detail shadows. I would kill for an option to disable them completely - From experience, I know that shadows are extremely system resource-intensive, and killing them helps in most cases. So as punishment for not being able to run shadows at full depth, we get jagged and distracting abominations instead. Wonderful:rolleyes:

Otherwise, my (admittadly short) experience was pretty good. Combat flowed, the scenery was gorgeous, and since that it <strike>ripped off</strike> borrowed so much of it's interface and combat style from Diablo II, I could just leap in slaughter some satyrs. And, damn, does the scenery look impressive; while flinging arrows at an unfortunate enemy in long grass I could swear that the passing of the projectiles caused the foliage to sway in its path.

Schlepping the character and inventory screens together was confusing, and for some reason I doubt I'll ever get the hang of it. Much of the character editing eludes me at this moment, but this is the sort of thing I like to learn by leafing through the manual.

Oh, inventory management. Having spent so damn long playing Guild Wars and its "A breastplate occupies the same amount of space as a tooth and a sword and a shield and 250 ingots of iron" it's somehow good to be back to essentially playing Tetris with weapons. Unfortunately, the automatic inventory placing seems to be closer to Diablo's "left to right across the top, then start a new row" than D2's "top to bottom heading right", if that makes sense. 2x2 items stack up next to each other rather than the second item being placed beneath the first. Anyway, that annoys me, since it requires constant inventory checking and slotting helms into a more sensible arrangement.

Another gripe I have is this: Remember arriving at the Rogue's camp? Remember the people that were there? Remember Gheed, Charsie, and co? For that matter, remember Tristram and her people? I do. Now, can you remember anyone in Helios? Thought not. I hope that the game's trend for faceless NPCs doesn't continue, but part of me knows already that even when I've reached the final outpost in the game I still wouldn't have met a single memorable character. Blizzard injected a fair bit of humanity into even incidental characters, and let's face it, even if you never made regular visits to Wirt's Emporium o' Crap, you can still remember the li'l cripple from your first meeting. You can even remember most, or at least some of the bosses of Diablo. King Leoric had a story, as did Blood Raven, Nihlathak, Bartuc... The list goes on.

With Titan Quest, we've just got Generic_Panicky_NPC_07 running around and Generic_Panicky_TownElder_01 who tells you to go into the woods and show Localised_Monster_Boss_02 just how sharp your axe is. Include a faceless shopkeep, and a few overly-talkative NPCs designed to give you some filling in on the story but never get through more than half of it before the player walks away in disgust and you're done. We're hardly talking Kurast Docks here, are we?

I'm thinking that the devs should have spent a shade less time hiring graphics designers and maybe hired a few more skilled writers.

I guess I'll stuff this game into my 'maybe' pile.

[Merlinios]

Oh, inventory management. Having spent so damn long playing Guild Wars and its "A breastplate occupies the same amount of space as a tooth and a sword and a shield and 250 ingots of iron" it's somehow good to be back to essentially playing Tetris with weapons. Unfortunately, the automatic inventory placing seems to be closer to Diablo's "left to right across the top, then start a new row" than D2's "top to bottom heading right", if that makes sense. 2x2 items stack up next to each other rather than the second item being placed beneath the first. Anyway, that annoys me, since it requires constant inventory checking and slotting helms into a more sensible arrangement.

Nit: Diablo original items were slotted across the bottom of the inventory, I believe. At least, the 1x1 stuff was (potions for the naked mage). I suppose the Tetris style items are okay. Guild Wars certainly simplifies the system a lot, at the expense of some reality. Not sure if that's good or bad. I just don't want another Baldur's Gate. Weight was...annoying.

Anyway, I'm not sure I want another game that plays like Diablo, and especially not one that plays like Diablo II. Diablo II may be the 'best' time-waster known to man, but ultimately, it is that. Other games have been known to give me a feeling of satisfaction, or start some adrenaline (no FPS here, though), but I don't think Diablo II ever did that once I went through the first time. Though it be blasphemy, the game eventually just degenerated into a treasure hunt. Diablo original was slightly better. It degenerated to "How much can I cripple my character and still win?" The answer was obviously "As much as the game will let me as long as I have positive nonzero mana and life." Even the weird variants in Diablo II (barring live-off-the-land and such) are item based (Dream Enchantress). The bottom line is...the games are very good at what they do, but I'm not sure if I need another, prettier copy of it when I could just go play Guild Wars (I guess that's WoW for most of the forumites here.).

Maybe this game is amazing. Since I'm on dial-up, there is no shot at all of me getting the demo. But all I've seen so far is "This is Diablo, but different."

So I guess the question is: Is there a reason to buy this if one already owns Diablo/Diablo II and prefers real nostalgia to some mutated form of it that costs money?

--me

[Wyrm]

Tried the demo even though my processor doesn't even come close to meeting the sys reqs and it still ran fairly well. To me, it felt like Diablo, only slower. The action/combat was slower and the pace of the story wasn't really blistering either. I think part of it is the lack of mass-killing ability like what D2 had (and the ability to actually run i.e. FRW boots). I've only tried a warrior type in the demo, but I somehow doubt it has a Frozen Orb or Nova in it. Only hitting 1 enemy at a time with the AoE every now and then fits more into MMORPGs and the like where you have around (usually) 4-6 other people beating on them with you, not a hack and slash single-player game.

Graphically, the game didn't really impress me; there weren't enough contrasts making some things blend into the background. The locales are nice enough, but after playing Guild Wars for over a year, 3D isometrics don't really cut it anymore.

Music was good, sound effects were decent, ambience was nice, nothing that really struck me as above average.

Gameplay wise, it was a little jagged. That's probably my fault due to my processor not being up to snuff, but there was a bit too much in the way of clipping and lack of fluidity (which seems to be a problem with just about every Diablo clone out there unfortunately). The lack of randomly generated levels really kills it in terms of replayability. In Diablo, even though you pretty much knew exactly where to go and where quest items were more than likely going to be, there was still a certain freshness to the game knowing you weren't going to be playing the same exact map every time.

Overall, I'd give it a 7/10. Something I might think about getting when it hits the bargain bin, but it's after a long list of other games.

[DeeBye]

Tried the demo even though my processor doesn't even come close to meeting the sys reqs and it still ran fairly well. To me, it felt like Diablo, only slower. The action/combat was slower and the pace of the story wasn't really blistering either. I think part of it is the lack of mass-killing ability like what D2 had (and the ability to actually run i.e. FRW boots). I've only tried a warrior type in the demo, but I somehow doubt it has a Frozen Orb or Nova in it. Only hitting 1 enemy at a time with the AoE every now and then fits more into MMORPGs and the like where you have around (usually) 4-6 other people beating on them with you, not a hack and slash single-player game.

You're not seeing nearly enough of the game with just the demo. There are mass-killing skills, and they are available to every character. I've only played as a Storm class and Spirit class so far, and both of them have some pretty beefy mass-killing skills. My Spirit guy uses a summoned "Liche King" and a "Ternion" staff attack that can empty a screenfull of enemies in a couple of seconds (I should record some gameplay if I can find the time).

I know that the other classes have their crowd-destruction methods too. Nature, Earth, Spirit, and Storm all have summonable creatures that can dish out lots of damage. Rogue has some cool traps that can tear through things. The Warfare class that's in the demo is probably the weakest in terms of mass-killing, but coupled with a nice secondary he's damned near impossible to kill.

The demo ends before you can try it out, but at clvl 8 you have the option to dual-class without restriction. The system is fairly similar to Guild Wars in this regard. The class and skill combinations are almost unlimited, and I can think of some pretty unique builds already.

(Also, faster run/walk, faster attack rate, faster cast rate, and faster skill cooldown all appear in Titan quest either as skill effects or on items)

Here's a picture of my Theurgist (Spirit class with no secondary as of yet) with his trusty sidekick Liche King. He's only lvl 18 now, so I'm barely into the game yet. Sorry for the unavoidable jpg compression artifacts:(


If you're interested in seeing some of the cool class/skill combinations, there's already a Titan Quest Skill Calculator online.

[Wyrm]

You're not seeing nearly enough of the game with just the demo. There are mass-killing skills, and they are available to every character.

I figured as much, and tried out the earth mage a bit (note: when every skill is a fire skill, naming the skill line earth might not be such a great idea): with the Lava Orb skill that seemed to do some decent AoE damage and felt a lot like D2's Meteor (only you couldn't fire it with a tree in the way), which is fine.

Something I noticed with the demo was that magical projectiles vanished on me a lot. I'm hoping that's just a problem on my end because of my lackluster system. I'd really like to be able to hotkey the skills to the various clicks (a la D2) rather than the system of skill slots that it currently uses: I wound up putting my 2 spells on different weapon setups and then using the weapon switch to go between them.

Anyways... Like I said before, I'll think about getting it when it goes to the bargain bin, but I'll need a computer upgrade first, and it's behind a few other games on my list.

[Occhidiangela]

I pimped the deuce out of my ride last December, so system specs are no issue for me. (I've been playing Oblivion on high detail). I went ahead and ordered this game, won't arrive for a couple of weeks. I'll check back in once I've played.

Oh, and Hi. "I'm new.";)This seems like a relatively cool place. Maybe I'll check back in now and then.

(Does it really say "waiting on Diablo 3" on the LL front page now? ... :blink:... Heh.)
- Sirian

*Jaw hits floor*

Did that cute little sorcie (in your sig) get a free bowl of soup with that hat? :lol: Nice to see a "new" m_Ember. :w00t:

Occhi

[DeeBye]

(note: when every skill is a fire skill, naming the skill line earth might not be such a great idea)

It makes sense to me, seeing as how most of the skills have a lava and rock theme :)

Something I noticed with the demo was that magical projectiles vanished on me a lot. I'm hoping that's just a problem on my end because of my lackluster system.

I've never had this kind of issue. It must just be you :D

Also, I'm starting to realise how much item customizability is in this game, and how much of an impact it has. Completed Relic sets socketed into various gear have an enormous effect on your character. Completed Relic sets get a bonus mod, and that bonus is (as far as I can tell) random. Getting the right bonus mod on the right Relic set socketed into the right item can create some pretty godly equipment. I am using a pretty ho-hum fire staff, but the Relic set I have in it is a Prometheus' Flame which adds 27 burn damage over 3 seconds and +5% fire damage. I got really lucky with the completed set bonus mod (+20% fire damage / +10 fire damage), which turns my meager 23 base fire damage staff into an absolute monster.

[DeeBye]

Woot Leetskill has a new friend!



The big guy with the "screw you" sword is an Outsider. He kicks all kinds of ass, but he's only around for 30 seconds after he's summoned. Very helpful in boss fights:)

I've also chosen a secondary skill mastery for Woot Leetskill - Nature. This changes him from a Theurgist (Spirit only) into a Soothsayer (Spirit + Nature). I chose Nature due to the Heart of the Oak skill. It's a buff that increases life and run speed, with some pretty cool upgrade effects. Regrowth (healing skill) isn't entirely unwelcomed either. Woot Leetskill has massive energy regeneration to fuel his Ternion staff attack skill, so a little spent on a healing skill every now and then equals a big reduction on the number of healing potions that he needs to carry around.

[Artega]

Looks fun. I'll snag the demo in a bit and give it a whirl. If it's like Diablo II, I'll definitely buy it, but likely not until it hits the bargain bin (World of Warcraft is suddenly fun again now that I've hit Lv.45 and can now effectively tank Zul'Farrak, and Maraudon's only two levels away.)

[Kevin]

...snip...

I guess I'll stuff this game into my 'maybe' pile.

You summed up my thoughts pretty well. I'm going to ramble about a few points some more though.

Combat is more fun than in D2 so far. I've toyed with a couple of things you can do in the demo and being able to net a mob then being able to destroy it at range is something you just couldn't get out of D2. There were some imporvements there.

The Tetris inventory and very limited inventory annoyed me though. Not really know how valuable gold would be (would it be pointless to try and horde gold or do you want every piece you can get to buy stuff) I went the route of pick everything up and sell it. This had me spending something like 30-40% of my "play" time is either picking stuff up, re-arranging my inventory, or as part of the trip to and from town to sell to the vendor. Sure back and forth from town is a little easier than Diablo since the town portal doesn't make you track a reagent (scroll) but eh. Worries about no outside of inv storage cropped up as soon as I started to see the relics and totems. Oh good I have 1/3 of 3 different relic sets so I'm gonna lose 9 slots to these things or feel I'm really sub-optimizing. Hmmm.

While the mechanics of making the character and building it up seem to be an improvement on D2 I'm left a little empty at just the two models to choose from.

And as mentioned it's all so forgettable. I had some excitement at the Greek setting, the ability to help tie into some of the stories of that mythos. So far I've heard some doofus talk about Hekulese (Hercules) but I never got put into one of those adventures or stories.

But the game play seems to have to much time that isn't play anymore. I've got WoW to take up all my game play time that has me not playing. While I saw the potential for a lot of fun while out there slaughtering even the combat was too easy. The mini bosses didn't even have a remote chance of hurting me, I never got below 75% health anywhere in the demo, the was no Blood Raven or LEB rare that provide a real challenge or had me really wanting to be able to use some of that mobility I had with nets and stuff. If they took 4+ hits I'd just shoot em a few times swap to the spear and shield and smack em the rest of the way down. So I started to have the fear that challenge would come in the form of frustration. 30 minutes of yeah whatever followed by a one shot. The whole genre suffers for this.

The other combat issue was you couldn't quite get the camera range right and that the not all directions of travel are created equal for being able to spot the mobs. At least in D2 you wouldn't get aggro by something that was behind your little health bars and you couldn't see it because it's feet were the only thing visible and they are the same color as the cave floor. The visible area just felt a little too small. And yeah D1 and D2 suffered from this at times but not like this one did.

So yeah it looks like it could have some fun in it. Heck even Sacred had some very fun set-ups but I can't see me getting it until it's $10 or less.

[DeeBye]

The Tetris inventory and very limited inventory annoyed me though.

There is a patch for the full game that addresses the inventory stack thing, and later on in the game storage bags are earned through quests. Like D2, you'll never have enough storage for all the stuff you find.

Not really know how valuable gold would be (would it be pointless to try and horde gold or do you want every piece you can get to buy stuff) I went the route of pick everything up and sell it.

Money can be important because later on vendors sell things worth buying, and there are Mystics that will allow you to buy back spent skill points for gold. Potions also get incredibly expensive in higher difficulties.

I had some excitement at the Greek setting, the ability to help tie into some of the stories of that mythos. So far I've heard some doofus talk about Hekulese (Hercules) but I never got put into one of those adventures or stories.

Later on in Greece you'll battle Gorgons (including Medusa), a Cyclops, and the Minotaur in Minos' Labyrinth. After Greece you travel to Egypt and visit places like Memphis, the Giza plateau (including the Sphinx and the Great Pyramid). Tying various mythologies into a game like this is pretty neat, in that everyone has at least a passing familiarity with the stories and creatures.

[Maitre]

There is a patch for the full game that addresses the inventory stack thing, and later on in the game storage bags are earned through quests. Like D2, you'll never have enough storage for all the stuff you find.
Money can be important because later on vendors sell things worth buying, and there are Mystics that will allow you to buy back spent skill points for gold. Potions also get incredibly expensive in higher difficulties.

Riddle me this, tunic'd crusader... after visiting the "official website" I'm thouroghly unimpressed by the amount of info available on item types, game play, etc. I checked the skill calculator that you linked to previously and found it interesting to think about the type of character I might like to play, but I had to crawl around the "Gamebanshee" site that it linked to to find a listing of the skills along with their stats. I guess that site would be the equivalent of the Arreat Summit, but is there a fan site analagous to the LL or AB? I'm guessing there hasn't been enough elepsed gameplay since release to develop a full strat based community, but have you come across any consolidated source of info on what's working and what's not?

[Ashock]

In a month, this game will be history.


-A

[DeeBye]

I guess that site would be the equivalent of the Arreat Summit, but is there a fan site analagous to the LL or AB?

The Gamebanshee site probably has the most game info, but the semi-official titanquest.net forums (currently in the midst of s server change) has some technical and skill discussion forums. Game devs post there frequently.

There might be better fansites out there, but I haven't been actively looking for them. I'd rather play Titan Quest than read about it.