Titan Quest Review - PC

If the current trend continues, ancient Greece will soon supplant World War II as the favorite stomping ground for game players.  And we’re ok with that. When it was released, Titan Quest rode high on the wave generated by that gaming tsunami known as God of War. And now with all things Greek in full swing (thanks to God of War 2 and 300), Iron Lore has freshened up their aging title with an expansion pack.

Titan Quest: Immortal Throne doesn’t offer up any radical changed to the tried and true gameplay found in the original game. Titan Quest is a Diablo clone through and through. What sets it apart from the many other pretenders to the throne is that Titan Quest is actually a good game.

Go To Hell

Immortal Throne knows that although you shouldn’t mess with success, you can certainly tweak it a bit. The most obvious addition to the game is a brand new forth act which takes the player into Hades to battle… aw heck, you know where this is going. You’re going to slice and dice your way through hundreds of foul beasties from ancient Greek myth are you’re going to like it. To help players feel a sense of progression while stomping around this new area, the level cap has been raised by 10. 

Fans of Greek myth should be pleased at the depiction of hell.  You’ll hit all the hot spots you learned about in grade school.  And yes, it’s all very pretty to look at. The Titan Quest engine still looks dashing.

All this extra questing will be ready for you as long as you have a saved character that has already completed the first three acts. If you’re starting with a fresh character, you have to start all the way back at the beginning of the game. But it’s not all that bad because there are other additions and changes that Immortal Throne offers that affect the entire span of the game, not just the final act.

Nightmares and Dreamscapes

New characters can now enjoy tinkering around with the Dream Mastery discipline. It’s got a smattering of status effects, raw power upgrades, and some fun spell attacks. This makes it a pretty good companion to any of the other disciplines.

You’ll also encounter some new faces on your journey.  There are a couple of new vendors that help add some much-needed functionality and purpose to the game. The caravan can store your spare items so you can pick them up from any town in the game.  And for the power players who are running several different character classes through the game at one time, you can use the caravan to trade items between them. Nice!

For players who have a lot of gold burning a hole in their tunic, you can opt to spend it on artifacts. This uber-equipment doesn’t come cheap, and it’ll take plenty of extra effort on the part of the player. In Immortal Throne, artifacts are built from recipes and items that you’ll need to find by bashing lots and lots monsters in the hopes that they’ll drop what you’re looking for. It’s a fun extra little sub-game that helps give the incessant slaughter a little more meaning.

Remember the Titans

If you’ve already finished up Titan Quest and are looking for a reason to dive back in, Immortal Throne offers plenty of new stuff throughout the entire game to encourage veterans to role up a new character and start hackin’ and slashin’. If you’re new to Titan Quest, Immortal Throne is worth picking up as well because of all the additional content that integrates well into the original game. A really classy expansion.

Article by: Greg Bemis
Video produced by: Rob Manuel