Titan Quest, storywise?

JemyM

Okay, now roll sanity.
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I have twisted feelings about "Diablo Clones". While I have played a few of them (Dungeon Siege, Sacred, Throne of Darkness) only Dungeon Siege 2 stood out of the crowd thanks to the numerous sidequests, NPC's with personal behavior/quests/attitude as well as alot of background story.

"Titan Quest" arrived when I had a few too many games to play, so I skipped it in hope that I would not look back later on. Now I am drained and look for games I might enjoy anyway. Im the kind of person who play RPG's for the storyline, the adventure and the exploration, so as long as that's ok I can overlook flaws with balance/mechanics. By first sight Titan Quest appears to be just a diablo clone without much of a storyline where you just need an excuse to fight through an endless horde of nameless foes.

I wanted to ask, if someone played it, how is Titan Quest storywise? Can you recruit henchmen, companions or a party? Is there any depth to the game beyond combat mechanics?
 
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There are no companions to recruit though if you play the right class combo, you can have a LOT of summons that last forever and some that don't last very long but are VERY powerful. The story is pretty good if you take the time to talk to all the NPCs laying around the towns you go through. The same guy who wrote Braveheart wrote the story. *shrugs* It's not an immersive story like Planescape but it's not a horrible one either.

The game is very Diablo-ish but I liked it. If you liked Diablo, you'll like this one a lot. If you're looking for Planescape or Gothic or NWN, you need to play other games.

My suggestion: Do NOT patch past version 1.15 as version 1.20 (the latest version) makes the game VERY difficult and nerfs some pretty fun character combos. Go to http://titanquestvault.ign.com/View.php?view=Other.List&category_select_id=2 for patches. :)
 
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I had to pass on this, I tried playing it but got to the first town/camp and uninstalled. :(
Maybe I didn't give it enough of a chance, but to me I had much more fun with MageKnight even though its not a great game by any measure.
TQ just seemed so hollow, it seems to me more like a good Coop game could be fun and it has maybe the best graphics of all the Diablo clones but MK actually had some potiental for some depth and succeded to some degree.

Most common complaint with MK was the camera, which I believe is fixed with the most recent patch.
The charater I played was the Vampiress which made the game fun.
The story is intresting up to about halfway but passable compared to many of this style games.
So if you want story and as much depth as you can get out of a Diablo style game I perfered MK. :)
 
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I liked Titan Quest very much the first time through. I've attemted to give it a second try with different character setting but it failed to make me think it is worth it.

The game is real Diablo clone in that it even does not try to hide that it copies many things nearly directly. But I would say that it is the best Diablo clone I've ever played.
 
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In my opinion there is way too little story in Titan Quest. You simply go from town to town, fighting monsters in the wilderness between them. In each town there might be a tiny bit of the main story revealed - but then you're sent off to fight monsters for a couple of hours again. If you're looking for a game with a story my suggestion is that you pass on this one :)

EDIT: Just remembered a game that might have what you are looking for: Divine Divinity. If you haven't played that gem yet then I suggest you give it a try. The graphics might look a bit dated these days (it's from 2002 and in 2D) - but it's the best hack'n'slash RPG I've ever played! Lots of combat and character development, but also a huge open world with a solid main story and lots of side quests. Again - give it a try!
 
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The world is interesting actually, since it's based on old mythologies; you get to meet some old legends in the world. In my opinion, TQ is definetly the best Diablo clone so far, and offers far more character development options than D2 or other similar games.

The new system where you can combine two trees into one class at level 8 is great, really opens up for a lot of different combinations.
 
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txa1265, I liked both of your reviews alot. :)

I liked MK for the more story based adventure though things did seem very disjointed and rushed out for the holidays.
I also enjoyed it for reason I think your kids and wife didn't. ;)

I really enjoy the fact women can be portraied as strong, sexy and herions, much of it if not all Medieval Fantasy Art has always been that way, maybe based on Joan of Ark?
I have no problems with it in this context or nudity in general but I don't support with my dollars the way women are portraied in games like GTA series, since that is intended as abusive, demeaning and derogatory.

I certainly understand not showing it to younger kids whom might not understand, since kids say the funnyest things to there friends. ;)

The story in TQ never pulled me in, even though I was looking forward to the Mythology.
I think MK has a better story (when refering to story in these type games I mean more like B Movie good, not Shakespeare good ;) ) than TQ but as good as TQ looks I like MK's looks and art style better, you could zoom in on the characters and see some real detail, including some diverse enviroments, especially the Japanese style level with the plum (?) trees.

There is not doubt it was shipped at least 3 months early as seems to be the case with most games this year.
It might be my imagination or is it getting worst every year?

When it comes to having a Coop style Diablo hack and slash though I think TQ wins hands down, its more about mindless mass slaying with your freinds. :)
 
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I second the Divine Divinity suggestion. If you haven't played that one (Beyond Divinity isn't too bad either) you should. Just searched and it's cheap too. $9.99 at Amazon.com
 
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"In my opinion there is way too little story in Titan Quest. You simply go from town to town, fighting monsters in the wilderness between them. In each town there might be a tiny bit of the main story revealed - but then you're sent off to fight monsters for a couple of hours again."

I agree with this. Titan Quest is basically Diablo with much better graphics and different settings. Also, in Diablo there were several very different-type monsters from the type which raise their own dead to spawn their own offspring and Titan Quest has very little of this. That said, I was able to finish Titan Quest -- which is saying something because it is a long game -- so even though I'm much more of a big fan of "real" rpg's I did enjoy Titan Quest overall.
 
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I'm no fan of action "RPG"s, which IMO aren't RPGs at all, having MUCH more in common with gauntlet than any self-respecting RPG, so take my commentary with that in mind.

Also, just to dump my specs here for any performance comments I may make:
AMD A64 x2 4800+, 2G DDR-400(2-2-2-7), eVGA 7600GT KO(clocked at CO speed out-of-the-box), WD 238G SATA2 16M cache Caviar
Can do Oblivious(benchmark/stability tool for me) forest scenes at 28-42fps, 36fps avg. @ 1024x768, all high details, no self shadows(still look borked/ugly to me), HDR, all extras turned on, no config tweaks, no mods. 50fps X2 4xAA. 38fps X3 2xAA. (X series benches are from the builtin/addon benches, and are the final average fps.)

In my opinion there is way too little story in Titan Quest.
Plays almost exactly like D2 without randomized dungeons, yet having better graphics, slightly more complicated/flexible skill tree/class system, and equivalent ph4t l00t. Story is entirely non-memorable, as a matter of fact from playing through the first chapter and a-half or so a few weeks back, I cannot remember much of it... Much better than DSII, so far IMO.

EDIT: Just remembered a game that might have what you are looking for: Divine Divinity. If you haven't played that gem yet then I suggest you give it a try. The graphics might look a bit dated these days (it's from 2002 and in 2D) - but it's the best hack'n'slash RPG I've ever played! Lots of combat and character development, but also a huge open world with a solid main story and lots of side quests. Again - give it a try!
For an action oriented game DD is great! Lots of quests, decent ph4t l00t(I guess), miscellaneous dialog responses that IIRC actually give different results. Graphics are meh, more like D2, but perfectly fine for me. I, surprisingly, am actually having fun with this action "RPG" although I've take a break from a few weeks back when my char hit Verdistis(sp?).

If you want more RPG AND story than action, yet still have an action bent, try NWN2. Even though the default AI is garbage(!), and the camera is crap(is/was MK's camera worse?) the game is nice. Drags at points, and the obsessive number of "cut scenes" doesn't help, yet I'ver almost finished chapter 1 and am still playing. If you zoom close in the graphics are better than NWN1, but if you keep zoom at max out(like I do) they look the same IMO. Rules are fairly close 3.5e, especially if played at hardcore or higher difficulty, unfortunately death, again, is a meaningless event unless the entire party dies. Minor technical glitches here and there as well. My numerical rating of the OC would be 7-8. The toolset is a bonus as, hopefully, we can expect some decent fan modules, and online playable persistent multiplayer worlds ala NWN1.

If you want more action, better graphics, and yet still have a story, there is G3. Granted there are a number of bugs, but they really only end up breaking a few minor quests and can in many cases be worked around if you putter around, or at least I've found that to be true of the demo. The LOD blurring of distance views is awful, but, again, can be worked around by tweaking configuration files. BEWARE: From other snarfings around the web it would appear that a semi-uber system is really needed to play on high details, but my system copes fairly smoothly at 1024x768 and high settings(haven't bothered to check actual fps yet as I haven't touched since I got NWN2), but I haven't tried 1280x1024 yet. (Saving/loading takes FOREVER for me... major blah, along with the slow panning 1st person camera. Bugs: if you've played a Piranha Bytes game before, you know the drill, if you haven't they'll patch it until it's mostly good, eventually.)

IMO
best bet for long term play value: NWN2 (user modules potential plus online worlds)
best bet for shortish term(40+h), eye candy, play once plus story: G3
best bet for uber D2 fan: TQ, Sacred Gold
best bet for D2 fan that wants a story and doesn't mind old graphics: Divine Divinity

MK: If you go by forum activity or lack thereof, MK is already dead, yet is still sold @ $50...

@txa1265:
WOW! You were GENEROUS in your MK score/review.
 
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cutterjohn
"is/was MK's camera worse?)"
At least to me, yes even now.
MK's camera just was forced to move since it didn't folow correctly, but NWN2 camera still won't fade out on many objects so it constantly slams you up close and far away in areas never functioning correctly at your choice of setting.

Yeah I see low of $44 and high of $60 thats insane, if they would lower it to $29 it would be a seller, well maybe. ;)
 
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