As someone who has bounced off of a number of action role-playing games (RPGs) – most recently Diablo 4 – I wasn’t quite sure what I would get out of seeing Titan Quest 2 at Gamescom 2024, but regardless, I ventured in undeterred. What I saw – and heard from the development team – may be enough for me to peek my head into the action RPG’s doorway once again, and it might just stick.
For those unaware, Titan Quest was released all the way back in 2006 on PC as the only title developed by Iron Lore Entertainment (whose employees went on to found Grim Dawn developer Crate Entertainment). Given that I thought buying Disney's Chicken Little for the PS2 was a great idea back in 2006, I was not playing action RPGs (ARPGs) then, so I went into this with zero expectations.
End of the line
And yet, right away, the developers at Grimlore Games (of Spellforce 3 fame) piqued my interest by telling me that Titan Quest 2 is an action RPG that focuses on the story, not one that’s about rushing to the endgame so that you can grind in repetitive seasonal realms. While I understand the allure of games’ endgames, hearing that was an immediate point in Titan Quest 2’s favor for me. The slight caveat is that there will still be an endgame of sorts according to the developers, but the 30-hour campaign (the Early Access one will be around 12) and storyline is the main event.
The other aspect of the Titan Quest 2 demo that interested me was the assertion that everything in the game is handcrafted; there’s no procedural generation involved. For those who found Diablo 4’s generated dungeons to be a touch too repetitive, this is great news. It also allows for little secrets to be scattered around the map, something that was shown to us multiple times throughout the 30-minute presentation whether that be a hidden non-player character who might give you a quest, or a treasure chest spotted in the distance.
Clash of the Titans
When it comes to combat, I’m more of a Devil May Cry person than a Dynasty Warriors person. I get the appeal of mowing down waves and waves of creatures in the pursuit of loot, but given the choice, I’d rather have less crowded encounters with smarter enemies. Once again, this is something that stood out to me in Titan Quest 2. Not once during the demo did I see a wave of goblins fly our way but rather small groups of combatants that can still beat you down if you’re caught unaware, but not a silly amount either.
In terms of the actual fighting and leveling though, you’ll feel at home if you’ve played action RPGs in the past. Click to start your basic attack pattern, and then you’ll be using your active skills (spells, special attacks) at the right time to maximize damage. You have four main attributes (Agility, Might, Vigor, and Knowledge) that each feed into secondary ones (Fitness, Cunning, and Resolve), and a familiar scale of item rarities (that being color-coded loot with common, rare, magical, etc.). I was shown a 30-minute chunk of open-world gameplay that seemed to take place early on in the adventure, so the character wasn’t quite a beast yet.
Weapon designs are said to be variable based on where you find them and which enemies are using them. One example we were shown was that a specific enemy’s club had been adorned with their headgear – nothing mind-blowing, but a nice little bit of detail nonetheless.
Speaking of aesthetics, this is one of the areas where I hope the full game improves from the preview. Given the Ancient Greece setting, there’s obviously a lot of the architecture and theming you would expect (pillars, temples, statues, etc.), but it all felt a little bit generic. While the game does have good graphics on a technical level, with areas having nice detail and depth, the places I was shown are all very beige. This may not be entirely fair considering I’m basing it on a 30-minute chunk, but so far the style isn’t quite doing it for me and I’m hoping will get a boost during Early Access and before the game’s full release.
Titan Quest 2 is set to go into Early Access on PC this winter - with a full release, also coming to PS5 and Xbox Series X|S next year - so it might not be long until we all can get our hands on it.
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