Publisher: THQ
Developer: Iron Lore (http://www.ironlore.com/)
Genre: Action Role-Playing
Released: June 26, 2006
Players: 1 (Single Player Mode) / 1-6 (LAN / Online)
Price: $49.99

Minimum System Requirements
1.8 GHz Intel Pentium 4 equivalent or AMD Athlon XP or equivalent
512 MB Ram
64 MB NVIDIA Geforce 3 or equivalent or ATI Radeon 8500 series with Pixel Shader 1.1 support or equivalent
DirectX 9.0c compatible 16 bit sound card
5 GB free Hard Drive space
8x or faster CD-ROM drive
Keyboard, Mouse
Windows 2000 or XP


Being a fan of legend and myth, I could not wait to get my hands on Titan Quest. Finally, I was going to take on Satyrs, Centaurs, Harpies, Cyclops, and Gorgons (think Medusa). Even though I knew I was playing another Diablo knock off, I still was excited about Iron Lore’s new action RPG.

Installation

I knew this was going to be a lengthy install, 5 discs is not a quick load and play. Then I read the first 5 lines of the manual; “Installing Titan Quest is easy.” So with those words still lingering I place the first disc in my drive and waited, then the 2nd disc….and so forth. About 15 minutes later I was ready, just restart my computer and I would be in the land of Greece fighting my first mythical creature. But, as all things are not as they seem, I could not find the desk top icon, nor any icon that led me to believe Titan Quest was successfully installed. I finally found it hidden in many sub files. So with great anticipation I clicked on the Titan Quest icon…….nothing. “Could not find the proper files”, was the error I received. I tried a couple tricks I knew and still nothing. I had to un-install and install again. This time it was a success, Titan Quest’s Greek helmet was sitting there on my screen.

Character Creation

I was surprised at the character creation screen. From the previews, and all the talk, I was half expecting the depth of “City of Heroes / Villains” or at least comparable to WoW, but this is the most basic I have encountered in the past few years. There are three steps; name your character, choose your gender, and finally decide on a tunic color. This is definitely the first of many simplistic designs to the game. After you gain your first level increase you are allowed to choose one of 8 skills as your primary focus. These are: Spirit, Hunting, Rogue, Storm, Warfare, Nature, Earth, and Defense. Once you reach level 8 you are allowed to choose one of the remaining 7 as a secondary skill. This at least allows some character development, rather than kill and gain experience points. Based on your decisions of what two skills you put together, you can be a melee fighter, attack and run, or take on the enemy from afar with your magic and arrows.

Gameplay

Game play is fantastic in its simplistic style. Anyone with a mouse and index finger can move threw this game. There are no difficult key combinations, though you can use key binding to make other options and game play selections even easier. This is your basic button mashing, hack and slash, kill everything in site as you make your way from one mini-boss to another. Though you may decide to create your character to be the attack from far, spell wielding and watch them die a miserable death type. Either way you choose to go, Titan Quest allows you to move freely from one action to the next with out missing a step in game play. For those who want to move quickly threw the game, I recommend bypassing all the side quests. They get you some gear and weapons you will not be able to get any other way, but not necessary. If you want to just run threw this game, kill everything that moves, gather your loot, sell it off for better equipment, and start the process all over again…..this is going to be one for your top 10 collection. And lets admit it, who does not love to see how fast you can run into a 15 monster ambush, and come out as last man (woman) standing.


Graphics

The graphics engine is as good as it gets. When I watched the intro, and entered into the world of Titan Quest I half expected to run into several problems with the game play. Minus some minimal skipping, I was impressed with how smooth everything ran. Whether I was attacking a single satyr or 10 zombies, the game still ran smooth. Then adding the changing of night and day, amazing lighting effects from either casting spells, or having them cast at you, I was never disappointed.