Titan Quest
From Age of Empires co-creator Brian Sullivan and Braveheart writer Randall Wallace comes an innovative action role playing game set in ancient Greece, Egypt and Asia. The Titans have escaped their eternal prison, wreaking havoc upon the earth. The gods seek a hero who can turn the tide in an epic struggle that will determine the fate of both men and gods. Are you ready for the quest? Explore the Ancient World – Unlock arcane mysteries as you journey to legendary locations Conquer Monsters of Legend – Battle mythical beasts in a story-driven campaign that will determine the fate of all existence Highly Customizable Characters – Build and customize your characters with 28 classes and over 1000 pieces of unique and legendary items to create the ultimate champion Online Multiplayer Gameplay – Challenge others to experience the story in fast-action, 2-6 player online cooperative gameplay
Steam User 75
Diablo what?
Path of Exile who?
Steam User 71
better than diablo
Steam User 65
better than Diablo 4
Steam User 63
BETTER THAN D4
Steam User 26
A game from the golden age, first released in 2006. This is a classic, revered and respected by many, and for good reason. This is because it deviated a bit from the standard ARPG formula, and for me, improved upon it all. And if you loved this, the original engine was obtained by Crate Entertainment in 2010, and you have Grim Dawn to look forward to.
For now, let me talk about the deviations. Firstly, you're not playing a single class. This introduced the mastery system- you start off as a level 1 blank slate, and are able to pick a mastery at level 2, and another at level 10- mixing any which you like. There are obvious synergies at first, many better than others- but with how gear works, even strange combinations can be made to work in late game. This allows extreme build variety, and for the time period- just look at how it compared to its previous major predecessor, Diablo 2. And unlike this titan of the genre, Titan Quest also has no cycles, seasons, or ladders. No worrying about gear drops unique to some barely changed variation of a game, content is accessible as you want it, and there's DLCs if you want more content. It's also from an age before "online only/games as a service" existed, so if you're tired of that from modern titles, here you go. Online when you want it, offline when you want it.
And even if you don't like that- the game's actually got an active modding community. There's several still functioning mastery mods, some better than others- and someone's even making a mega mod with unique models on the workshop. And if that's not enough, there's a whole Titan Quest forum site where you can find even more mods not on the Workshop. Integration is smooth and functional- if a bit strange when you get to "bounce mods", but it all works. The worst you might run into would be crashes with increased spawn mods, especially in multiplayer. Good news, NTcore has a 4 Gb patcher that can help with this. It is an old game, after all. It works for what it was made to do, and that wasn't 5x mob spawns.
As for the game itself- it's undoubtedly flawed. I like the difficulty for the most part, and the game's fun, but there's old/weird stuff. Ranged attacks and spells can't miss, but also can't crit. I've never looked as to why this is, but it's kind of odd with how powerful crits can be. And with DLC, there's weapon types which are just plainly better. Jian of a Thousand Cuts from the newest DLC, Eternal Embers, is an overloaded item, and while I love it, it's weird that a weapon with fast attacks hits harder than even very slow spears or maces. But that's kind of the thing- just like Diablo 2, there's items that you WILL love. Titan Quest items, especially legendary rarity, can be absurdly powerful for your build.
There are objective flaws due to age and the jank that comes from age as well. The default speed can seem low, and if you set it to the fastest speed, expect some control lock-ups now and then. It's rare, not sure what triggers it, but it can be frustrating. Sometimes releasing your mouse and clicking again unlocks you, sometimes the game just needs to take a breath. Also, watch your frame rate. Not like it's dropping but that some old games weren't made with caps. If you don't have a global cap on your framerate by something like Nvidia Control Panel, I'd recommend that, or using another program to apply a cap to this game specifically. It was rendering in 300+ frames, spiking almost to 1,000 for me. There's no reason for that.
Overall, if you're sick of modern failures, want a good classic to just relax with, this is an environment set in Greece, Egypt, the Orient, and with DLC, you can even go to Atlantis and Valhalla. Their worth is up to you, depending on how much you like the game. I personally still rate this game above Wolcen, Last Epoch, Path of Exile, Torchlight 2- it might hit your itch just right like it did me. And many others- again, this is a game made in 2006 that still has a loyal following. It did something very, very right.
Steam User 28
The main sponsor of my mental health in 2022.
Steam User 48
08/11/23 TITAN QUEST 2, LETS FUCKING GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO