Titan Quest
Review
A remarkable game, filled with wondrous sights, great lore, and rewarding gameplay
by jdarksun
reviewed on PC
Apollo's Music
Auditory effects are quite well done in Titan's Quest, from the roars and cries of various beasts to running water and howling wind, from the crackle of lightning to the solid 'thunk' of a mace's impact. The music is also rather remarkable, soft enough not to intrude while capturing the atmosphere of the visuals and the current level of tension. It was so good that it seemed to come too infrequently, with lasting stretches of musical silence. This setting can be changed, allowing the music to come more frequently (though not constantly) and nearly turning it off entirely.
The interface is somewhat uninspired, and its functions are rather minimal. A view of the character's face (often helmet-clad) takes a small portion of the upper left hand corner along with health and mana bars; the compass and current zone name cling to the upper right. The very bottom of the screen is taken up by ten quick slots, an indicator showing the effects of left-click and right-click, and various sundry things. Most of it is used so infrequently that it simply takes up screen real estate - half of it could be cut and not missed. It's not something that can be turned off, but it doesn't really crowd the screen. Still, the option to minimize it - stripping away the portrait, and everything in the lower bar but the quick slots - would have been nice.
Ares' Rage
Items in Titan Quest, as in all Action RPGs, are essential to survival. Various qualities of items drop, from Broken to Legendary (which are so rare that this reviewer did not see one of). The game provides the player with three hotkeys to display the items on the ground - 'All Items', 'All Non-Broken', and 'All Non-common'. This is great for trying to sort through the inevitable crap that is dropped by the NPC grunts that throw themselves at your swords, spears, bows, and spells... but it lacks an auto-loot button, something that is sorely missed by the end of the game. Additionally, the good items that drop seem a little geared away from the character. While there quickly becomes a plethora of magical items, good rare ones are always uncommon, and this reviewer found maybe eight in 26 hours of gameplay - most of which were unusable by the character or unwanted. On the other hand, the few that were usable remained good for the majority of the game, so maybe this was a fair trade.
Sadly, all is not perfect. The controls feel slightly delayed, causing the character to make a few attacks after lifting off the mouse button, and the sensitivity is such that melee characters will frequently run past their intended targets. Some unusual terrain causes pathing glitches for the AI, and often they can become stacked on an odd rock outcropping... and sometimes on each other. There's also some minor 'range' issues where melee characters will not properly close with a target, standing a step or two outside of range where it swings merrily away hitting only the air. The game has its share of glitches as well - quest rewards that promise experience and a powerful item, or multiple items, yet only delivering on one or the other. Once or twice a quest reported as completed before it was, though the reward for it was still given when speaking with the appropriate NPC after actually completing it.
While Titan Quest only crashed once on this reviewer's PC, his wife did not fare as well with hers, suffering a few lockups as well. Further, the game will infrequently seize during periods of intense disk activity, which is rather unusual. Something about the way Titan Quest handles shadows or lighting is also unusually hard on the PC, causing stuttering or periods of low framerate during dusk and night. Switching between the overland map and underground portions also caused these periods of poor performance, which was compounded by the difficulty of entering these relatively small places due to the slight delay on the movement controls. It also runs a little long during some periods, particularly in Egypt where there's only so much you can do with desert scenery.
But perhaps the biggest, most glaring flaw is the ending. After a beautiful introduction cinematic, you get nothing from defeating the final boss. You are ushered on your way out the door with nothing more than a voice-over and some text. Coupled with the ease at which I slew it made for a very unhappy ending to what was otherwise quite an excellent game.
Hades' Final Word
Titan Quest is a remarkable game, filled with wondrous sights, great lore, and rewarding gameplay - but it is also imperfect, filled with enough little bugs to annoy, and an end that disappoints. While it is still a good game, a little more polish, some editing, and an ending cinematic appropriate for such a visually splendid game might have made Titan Quest outshine even Zeus himself.
8.0
fun score
No Pros and Cons at this time
