Travel to Ancient Greece with a slight Diablo 2 deja vu
Titan Quest takes place in the Ancient world going through several locations - such as Greece, Egypt and the Orient - that seem rarely explored in the Medieval oriented scene of RPGs. The similarities between TQ and Diablo 2 are most obvious in the environments. Not so much that TQ blatantly copies Blizzard's title but in the sense that some of the environments and the order in which they appear looks ridiculously similar. For example the second Act of TQ takes place in various locations in Egypt which reminds the player of the second Act of Diablo 2 - where the hero travels simply put to the East. Though there are no mad summoner's or desert scarabs in TQ the similarity is astounding and cause occasional Déjà Vu. Also later on - in the TQIT expansion the player finds himself first in swamps lurking with speedy creatures called Pygmies which reminds suspiciously of Act 3 in Diablo 2. There is no point in making a list of all similar environments but those may cause seasoned Hack-and-Slash RPG fans to dismiss the game as a mere Diablo 2 clone.
With this point discussed lets venture into what the game does that makes it stand in the crowd.
The game packs a solid 40-50 hours campaign on a single play-through and then there are the two higher difficulty settings. The main storyline is interesting and does keep the player engaged to continue forward but a few twists or turns here and there might have been useful. There are also a ton of side-quests that are pretty standard for the genre (go there; then kill that monster to get this item) but those are very smoothly integrated in the linear gameplay as those take place in side-paths, caves etc. that the player would scavenge anyway for experience and loot.
Upon starting the game the player only chooses his gender and color of the tunic and the actual class selection takes place later on. Further on he/she can choose up to 2 from 9 different professions which when mixed produce some various skill combinations. There can be some quite bizarre ones as the professions cover quite a wide range of classes (from mage and archer to warrior and rogue). I however feel that many of the skills (and class combinations) are close to useless. Some have very limited use such as targeting only a particular group of monsters or providing questionable boosts whilst still requiring a substantial number of skill points. In any case the player's imagination is the limit and the built system for relocation of skill points (improvement that came with TQIT) helps to balance the issue so long as the character has the money to pay for the service.
The graphics are indeed a step forward from the time of Diablo 2 featuring a 3D environment with zoom options. Also a very nice eye-candy is the fact that all the equipment that is being dropped by the monsters can be seen worn by them though in my opinion when zoomed out at maximum (thus providing the best view of the battlefield) the player will not be able to focus these details. Furthermore considering the harder difficulty than other games the player is unlikely to just hang around and stare at the monsters. I have encountered a few issues with the graphics in 2 different editions of the game (standard and Steam copies) which are still annoying. The indoor-outdoor transitions sometimes does not work leading to blackness of the screen for a few seconds which causes gameplay to suffer. The realistic gravity also causes some trouble as items and monsters can fall in holes of the ground but the player can still see them. Also some monster models maintain moving parts after being killed or get stuck in environment objects are some small nuisances that can be annoying for someone enjoying the otherwise beautiful game.
As for actual game-play - the game is difficult. It does keep you on your feet all the time and there are always challenges regardless of the class combination you chose. The player has to consider not only the standard 4 elements (fire, ice, lightning and poison) as a danger factor but also additional 5 ones that include bleeding, stun, skill disruption etc. and both types are prominently used both by regular monsters as well as bosses. The monsters range from the standard skeletons and zombies to specific monsters from the Greek mythology such as Centaurs, Satyrs and Cyclops and even more relating to the Ancient land the player is currently occupying. The bosses are also very close related to the Greek mythology and (Spoiler) several very difficult monsters appear only in the higher difficulty settings such as the Manticore in Egypt and Skull Dragon in the Orient sections. (End Spoiler).
An interesting novelty of the game is its treatment of enchantments to the items. Instead of sockets and gems the game uses pieces of 'essences' of a certain god. For example the Essence of Heracle's Might (that is the Greek name of Hercules) adds strength modifier to the item, while the Essence of Zeus' Thunderbolt adds lightning damage. Because these essences are pieces from a whole unit the player must first collect and assemble certain number of them in order to harness the essence' full power. These are used also in the other novelty – the Arcane formulas. When a formula is completed it produces an artifact that is worn as part of the equipment. Another fine touch is the fact that the weapons change their name and appearance in higher difficulty levels thus creating a sense of progress; the essences turn into embodiments of the deity they represent and furthermore their efficiency increase though they don't change appearance; same goes for the arcane formulas which are again separated in levels (Lesser, Grand etc.) and appear corresponding to the difficulty level. The downside to this is that both the players' stash as well as its shared stash counterpart can quickly be filled with these rare items and essences to the point that in second or third playthroughs different players can 'inherit' the loot in such quantities that collecting such items becomes close to pointless.
The audio of the game is superbly done, music is both tragic and heroic and in my opinion hints at the ancient Greek tragedies nicely. The sound effects are also impressive and there are some differentiations between the sounds some items make - for example the wooden and metal shields have different sounds when hit. However the sounds that rare items make might have been different which would have also added something special to their unique look. Monsters sound realistic when being destroyed, the player's choice of a hero screams when hit and the heartbeat that is heard when in low health is a great touch. The spoken dialog is of very high standard in all characters without being overly dramatic but the complete absence of the hero' voice makes him a bit blank.
With all this said this is an exquisite game which though borrows some elements from predecessors like Diablo 2 is definitely a must have for Hack-and-Slash RPG fans. The gorgeous setting that reminds of a Greek drama, the good length of the campaign and quality of the game in terms of details as well as the new system of enchantments should well compensate for all similarities to Diablo 2 that may cause Deja Vu moments for veteran players.