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Sum-Up

In-depth analysis further down.


🟩 Pros
🟥 Cons



• Excellent variety of class building possibilities thanks to dual multiclassing and a plethora of skills for each.
• Decent overall variety of enemies, most of which have different behaviors and unique abilities.
• Good diversity of locations, all well-made and consistent, with many references to mythology and philosophy.


• Tremendously slow, unsatisfying progression, compounded with severe content bloating.
• Miserable bosses that hardly prove a challenge with any half-decent build.
• Top-tier vanilla class abilities are locked behind a DLC paywall.
• Boring exploration that features no events of any kind, limited randomization, and unrewarding secrets.
• Painfully-paced combat with outrageous cooldowns for an ARPG, unresponsive controls and ultra-jank melee.





🟨 Bugs & Issues
🔧 Specs



• Random crashes may occur when transitioning areas and make you lose progress.
• UI doesn’t scale well in 4K, making many elements too small.
• Barebones loot filtering system that doesn’t allow any customization past basic tier exclusion.


• i9 13980HX
• 64GB RAM DDR5
• RTX 4090
• NvME SSD
• 3840x2160





Content & Replay Value:
It took me, with another player in co-op, around 34 hours to complete Titan Quest on the standard difficulty (the only one available on your first run), taking extra time to finish all side quests and fully explore each area. The replay value is decent with the multi-class possibilities, however everything else stays the same on harder difficulties.


Do I recommend it?
No. Despite some good points, Titan Quest is, ultimately, a mind-numbing slog. It doesn’t do anything that countless other ARPGs have done before or after its time, and has no specific features or qualities that set its own identity.


Conclusion
An infuriatingly generic and poorly-paced ARPG: monotony and repetition soon overtake any and all enjoyment—its vast class-building simply isn’t enough to keep it afloat in an ocean of unambitious, boring design choices.


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In-Depth

Writing & Worldbuilding
Titan Quest’s ancient Fantasy setting, spanning from Greece to African regions and even higher planes of existence such as Hades (Hell) and Elysium (Heaven), is overall detailed, consistent and well-made visually and artistically. Despite its age, the visuals hold up well enough, and the ragdoll physics add some dynamicity to an otherwise very static combat feel. If you enjoy historical settings, you’ll feel right at home.
Given that deep, meaningful plots are never a priority in this genre, efforts have been made in other iconic titles to, at least, grant a semblance of interest to the various tasks at hand, take Diablo II for example. That doesn’t happen in Titan Quest, however. Whereas the main story is generic but serviceable, any and all side characters or quests are inconsequential—their middle school grade writing only worsens the dullness of tasks already repetitive by nature. You’ll find no interest whatsoever in any of the admittedly iconic characters you’ll meet, such as great ancient heroes and even demigods, all stripped of any pathos or epicness they may have had.
Exploration & Secrets
You’ll explore each area on foot, your only means of transport besides two-way portals that allow fast-travel to discovered locations, such as cities, to sell loot, use facilities and restock consumables—the standard ARPG fare. Notably, quest givers aren’t highlighted when it’s time to return a completed quest, so good luck remembering where “Generic NPC I Forgot The Name Of’’ is located. The average speed of your character is inadequate to traverse any area in a decent time; with how large each map is, you’ll find yourself walking more than fighting, since enemy density is subpar. You’ll often ask yourself when the current area will end, because you’re fed up with it already.
Each map has plenty of side-areas and dungeons that often host Elite or Boss enemies guarding higher-tier chests that have a chance to spawn the best loot. Exploring is worthwhile to mop up as much XP as you can, but not so much for loot since most chests, including “secret” ones, have miserable rewards. The satisfaction of finding a secret dungeon, clearing it and getting some actual good loot from it is almost always absent.
Combat System & Bosses
The combat gameplay, of course, will change based on your Masteries (classes) of choice, ranging from pure casters to summoners, melee specialists, archers, rogues, and why not, a mix of all the above. The amount of combinations is staggering, with a relatively cheap respec option available at any town for skills. The standard ARPG system of mana, health and related potions is in place, plus an array of consumable Scrolls that have a variety of unique effects, purchased for a high price or rarely found. Should you perish in combat, a feat not easy to achieve due to the generally tame challenge posed by your foes, an XP penalty is applied, having you return to your death-mark to reclaim it; nothing else is lost.
The cooldowns. Good lord the cooldowns. Of any ARPG I have played, Titan Quest takes the cake for the slowest, most infuriating cooldown timers. Whoever thought a 30 seconds cooldown on the basic Taunt skill for a tank (which doesn’t work properly half the time anyway) or even 60 second ones on caster skills were good ideas, should take a break from game development and play some Diablo II to see how it’s done.
Even if the enemy variety is good in a general sense, most maps overextend and bloat for too long, having you fight countless of the same fodder far past what would be ideal for this genre. The Elite and Boss enemies aren’t unique or meaningful enough to grant the needed diversity. Speaking of higher-tier enemies, unless you go against one that is twenty levels above you, you won’t have much problems dealing with them, at least on the default difficulty setting. Most of them are miserable, generic, and just don’t stand out enough from the crowd save for some different color or aura around them. I died a total of five times in the whole game, which isn’t a lot.
Character Progression
By killing enemies and completing quests, you’ll level up and receive 3 Skill and 2 Attribute points each time. You can also get these as quest rewards, alongside other unique bonuses like +% damage, but that’s a rare occurrence.
You’ll also loot charms from enemies and chests, which can be used on weapons to bestow passive traits that compound your build, and also reused by destroying the weapon to get the charm back and then put it on a better one.
Leveling up in Titan Quest is tremendously slow: by the end of the campaign, after doing everything, I was just level 37; the level cap is 75. That’s less than one level per hour, which may be fine for the last 10-20 levels in an ARPG, when your build is already shaped up, but it’s a depressing affair so early. Your gameplay evolves slowly, frustratingly so: your combat experience will stay the same for hours on end if you decide to focus on a few skills, which is the only way to make them worth using to begin with. Also, you’ll also have to spend skill points to increase your Mastery level and access higher tier skills, further sinking more points into passive stats instead of active skills that evolve your class’ gameplay.