Titan Quest is an action-RPG developed by Iron Lore, it plays in the vein of
Diablo or Torchlight and is a decent tie-over until Diablo 3 comes out.
The expansion, Titan Quest: Immortal Throne, adds a few new features that,
quite honestly, you sort of wish were added to the original game to begin with.
The expansions main features (besides the extra areas which are common to
expansion packs) are the new “Dream” Mastery as well as a higher level cap
(though prepare for A LOT of grinding).
The game itself is decent, it's storyline is decent but I know very few
people who actually play an action-RPG for it's “storyline” and only few
action-RPGs have half-decent storylines anyway.
For gameplay, it's alright, there's actually very little to say because it
doesn't stray that far from other action-RPG games, there's very little in the
way of innovation with the possible exception of the Mastery system, which is a
bit like the Talent trees of Diablo but a lot more flexible.
My main problems with Titan Quest is the long duration coupled with the
environments. The environments themselves are stunningly designed, but you'll
end up either seeing the same scenery for hours on end, or you'll see
environments and areas you've already seen (dungeons and tombs are rather
generic). Action-RPGs are already a grind-fest and the only thing they really
have to differentiate them is their storyline and environment, Titan Quest is
decent on both these counts but it could have done with some fine tuning
(storyline wise, you'll hear many of the same voice-acting over and over).
Overall, it's a very decent game and it's fun when you just feel like
cleaving a bunch of random monsters in half. It's storyline is not as in-depth
as other role-playing games but it's character creation isn't bad (the Mastery
system is incredibly flexible and very well-designed in most areas, in my
opinion).
I recommend this game to anyone who loved Diablo and is wanting to try out
something before Diablo 3 comes out.
