Titan Quest

The game Titan Quest is in the action role-playing game (RPG) genre, with an adjustable isometric player view. It has one expansion pack: Titan Quest: Immortal Throne. The Titan Quest Gold Edition is a version that includes the original game and the Titan Quest: Immortal Throne expansion pack. Both the game and its expansion were developed by Iron Lore, which later went out of business.

Titan Quest is an Action RPG often deemed to be a Diablo II clone, only with better graphics. While the former claim is not exactly true, the game does have a similar playing style as its predecessor. Being programmed in a much later date than Diablo II, Titan Quest uses 3D graphics, has its action set in mythological Greece, Egypt and Orient, and is rated the best Diablo clones.

For gamers who want to start playing Titan Quest and the Immortal Throne expansion, both can be had in the combined Titan Quest Gold Edition pack. As of April 21st, 2009, the Gold Edition sells for about $10 on online stores like Amazon.com - a sixth of the price of buying the original Titan Quest and the Immortal Throne expansion separately.

Overview
Players take the role of a hero and fight against natural and mythological monsters and evil-doers, all in three acts (four with the TQIT expansion) including Greece, Egypt and Silk Road. The game was conceived by Age of Empires co-creator Brian Sullivan and features rag-doll physics, full lighting effects, day-night cycles, authentic ancient world mythology, modern 3D graphics, unique treasures, fast gameplay, and a world editor for players to rapidly create their own custom worlds, mods, and quests.

There is an official printed strategy guide available, although it can now only be found used on Amazon, eBay etc.

Features

 * Thirty-Six Classes, pick from one of eight, then another, if you wish. (28 Hybrids, 8 additional classes for those who do not wish to use their other class)
 * Mythical Hero armor and weapons.
 * Creatures and beasts based on myths and tales.
 * Three Acts with real world locations, Four with the TQIT expansion pack.
 * Three difficulty levels, Normal, Epic and Legendary. Each grow harder, but more rewards are found with a higher difficulty.
 * On-Line play where you can trade, compete and play together.
 * Thousands of unique items you can find along your journey.
 * Powerful modification tools.

The game has a loot system where monsters can only drop items that they were using. After the player kills the monster the player can pick up the monster's items. If you are about to get a rare drop, you will see the monster holding the item, and therefore the monster may be harder to kill than usual, dealing more damage for example since it has an legendary item.

Reception
At June 2010 the initial release of the game scores "77" on Metacritic. The primary criticisms in the initial reviews were of the unwieldy inventory system, sluggish performance on some types of systems, and the game was sometimes deemed by some to be too much like Diablo II. The expansion pack Immortal Throne fixed most gripes and issues, including performance speed and inventory management, as well as adding new features such as Travelling Traders to the original game. Immortal Throne was well received and praised for its high level of polish - at June 2010 it has a 80 score on Metacritic.

Plot
As opposed to most games based on mythology, Titan Quest is based on the end of the communication between the Gods and Humanity. The main character (whose name and sex is chosen by the user) begins the quest on a dirt road near a small village named Helos. The town and all of Greece have been overrun by beasts and creatures that are terrorizing the countryside wrecking harvests, burning farms and olive groves, invading villages and cemeteries, etc.

After being sent on a mission to Delphi by the Spartan general Leonidas, the hero finds Centaurs, Satyrs, Minotaurs, Gorgons, Demons and Skeletons relentlessly guard the way to prevent the hero from reaching the next village or town. Battling from one rebirth fountain to the next through miles of infested countryside and caves, the hero earns a brief reprieve in the fictional historic recreations of Delphi, Athens, and Knossos. In each town or village the hero passes through the storyline is expounded through interaction with non-player characters.

The cause of the havoc is eventually gleaned from the representatives of an organization called "The Order of Prometheus." A mythical lesser Titan called a Telkine has apparently destroyed the communication "conduit" used by the ancient priests and oracles to contact the Gods. After defeating the first Telkine in a fierce battle under the palace of Knossos, the hero then travels to Egypt in an attempt to reconnect communication through rituals hidden in a sacred scroll. But the rituals fail and the character has to fight another Telkine in the Valley of the Kings along with Egyptian mythical creatures in and around Giza and the Nile.

The search for the final Telkine takes the hero along the Silk Road to the Orient, battling Yetis, Myrmidons and the Terracotta Army along the way with stops in the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, the Himalayas, Mongolia, and the Great Wall of China. Chasing down the final Telkine proves difficult as the ememies grow eminently more powerful.

Reaching the Jade Palace in China, the Yellow Emperor warns the hero that the Telkine has made its way to release the Titan Typhon from his earthly grave. At the Wusou Mountains the hero discovers that Typhon has made his way to Olympus. After killing the final Telkine, the hero must travel through a portal to reach Olympus and battle Typhon. Upon reaching Olympus and defeating Typhon, Zeus the king of the Greek Gods, thanks the hero for their courage and talks about the break in connection with the gods.

The game then has an "Epic" level and then a "Legendary" level in which the monsters and battles in the storyline become significantly more difficult.

Mods and fan patches
First-time players should make sure they install the official patch to 1.30. This will allow the application of the unofficial fan patch. Other major mods are: the Camera Mod Collection which allows camera rotation and a slightly wider field of view if required; and a major total-conversion mod called Lilith: The Will of Demon which has been very well received by fans.

Compatibility
Titan Quest and its expansion pack both run perfectly on Windows 7. The game has always been able to run in widescreen, at high resolutions (e.g.: 1920 x 1200). Basic anti-aliasing can be added in-game, or stronger anti-aliasing can be forced via the Nvidia/Ati control panel.