Titan Quest

[magerette]

I don't mind a bit of hack and slash, I'm just not sure I'm prepared to do it all again (the same levels) because I played the wrong game. Too bad I didnt know the expansion was like Gothic II's NOTR where you had to restart. Had I known that I would have clearly played Immortal Throne. Live and Learn I suppose.

Yeah, it's the satyrs that get me. The place is just swarming with low level mobs all the way, and it does get old. You have to be focused on the item thing and the character building because it does tend to become a blur of endless grind after awhile. I completely understand how you feel, in fact when Mike(txa1265) reviewed it, he did the exact same thing you did(because the xpack wasn't out when he started playing) and used one of my save games for IT because he didn't think he could handle the grind of starting over from scratch.

Oh well—maybe you'll feel like coming back to it someday when the need for mindless slaying surfaces.

 

[Thrasher]

I just figured it out myself that IT is best from the start.

I can't believe I played through DII 3 times on successive difficulty levels to advance my Flashdancer through hell. It is VERY rare that I replay a single game.

 

[ToddMcF2002]

I'll give Immortal Throne a whirl with a more magic focused character after I've played a bunch of other titles. I'm pretty mired in Risen for now and I still need to finish Two Worlds.

 

[Relayer]

Started playing this again myself last night (portable HD crashed months ago, had to reinstall). Still think combat is way too easy (in the beginning anyway).

And way too much loot dropping... boss fights are no problem at all with the ton of health potions I was able to afford.

Lovely graphics though, someone should reuse this engine, it's awesome.

 

[magerette]

Started playing this again myself last night (portable HD crashed months ago, had to reinstall). Still think combat is way too easy (in the beginning anyway).

And way too much loot dropping… boss fights are no problem at all with the ton of health potions I was able to afford.

Lovely graphics though, someone should reuse this engine, it's awesome.

Yep—I hope Crate Entertainment (Iron Lore survivors) have the rights to it—I've always imagined how much I would have loved NWN2 if it looked and played anything like this engine.

The game gets more difficult in the last Act(Hades)—dramatically so—and at subsequent difficulty levels, of course. Agree about the loot—to allay the tedium, I recommend setting the options to only show higher level items in the drops, and not picking up anything that isn't above average.

 

[Icefire]

I think if you hit the "z" key, it will show everything lying on the ground. Hitting "x" will only show yellow and above, and potions, runes, etc. No junk items will be shown at all.

 

[Relayer]

I think if you hit the "z" key, it will show everything lying on the ground. Hitting "x" will only show yellow and above, and potions, runes, etc. No junk items will be shown at all.

Yep, 2nd time around I'm doing that, only picking up good stuff.

Still, some mini-boss battles that would probably have been tough to pull off are a cakewalk when you have 20 potions. It's all about outlasting the opponent, no real strategy.

 

[Relayer]

Ok so instead of picking my enemies off 1 by 1 (Hunter) I realized that jumping into a group, kamikaze style and meleeing away is a hell of a lot more fun.

Had a few close calls with death that way and came really close to running out of health potions with enemies still on me.

Am I artificially inflating the difficulty in the game in order to enjoy it?
Maybe. But it sure is fun. And exhilarating.

I should try doing it without armor!

 

[magerette]

There *are* people who do that, I think. And a lot of other wild and rather innovatice hardcore stuff:
http://www.titanquest.net/forums/challenges/

At this point when I go back and play, I usually have several characters building just to try out, or old ones to advance, so when I get bored with one style, I switch to another--plus you get way more chances at scarce item drops that way, which feeds my obscene greed and desire to have ALL the toys.

 

[Thrasher]

Good idea. I'll probably create a few to share drops and experiment. Although i prefer to focus on one character at a time to minimize repetition.

 

[Relayer]

Wow, so how BIG exactly is this game???

I was in what I presumed to be the last town/last dungeon in Greece. Boss seemed a little underwhelming but I figured, good, game finished. Now I can move on to Drakensang full time but now I'm in Egypt???

That's a good thing I guess (I really hate short games)… but it's starting to get a bit dull about now.

I guess I would have known the game wasn't over if I'd been paying attention to the story but honestly I'm just skipping them. Oh well.

 

[magerette]

It's fairly big, but it never really changes. You have Greece, Eqypt, and China in the original TQ; the expansion(Immortal Throne) adds Hades--which has a brief skip through Rhodes, the River Styx and the Elysian Fields before you get to Hades proper. Each act/area has an end boss, and each difficulty level unlocks a few more.

And yeah the story is pretty secondary. Meh, even.

 

[JDR13]

Anyone who can finish any of these Diablo clones is a stronger gamer than I am.

 

[txa1265]

Anyone who can finish any of these Diablo clones is a stronger gamer than I am.

I find aRPG's sort of like RTS ... I like them every now and again, but I can only do so much of it at a time.

That said, playing Borderlands and Torchlight simultaneously it is surprising to me how while doing so many of the same things that Torchlight monolithically does just about all of them better!

After those I need a nice break, so playing the Elven Legacy add-ons has been good ... now more turn-based RPG stuff and zombie killing will round it out

 

[JDR13]

Torchlight is definitely a well polished title, and I can easily understand how fans of that type of game would like it. I made it down to the the 8th or 9th floor before I got bored. Despite the extra glitter, it's still basically the same clickfest again - kill, collect loot, upgrade, repeat.

The cartoonish art style was also a big turnoff for me, but I realize that a lot of people like that style.

 

[txa1265]

Torchlight is definitely a well polished title, and I can easily understand how fans of that type of game would like it.

Why would you waste your money in a genre you obviously don't like?

 

[xSamhainx]

for the same reason probably that I end up inevitably buying another TBS game - I think this will be the one to finally turn me. This will be the title, it has to be good. My friends like it, it's got good reviews. Maybe this one is different.

Nah, put me to sleep just like all the last ones! 30.00 down the tubes!

 

[Relayer]

I find aRPG's sort of like RTS … I like them every now and again, but I can only do so much of it at a time.

Same here.

I find RTS games more enjoyable being that the key word is STRATEGY, very little of which is required for Diablo clones - this alone makes them more entertaining.

The similarity though is usually the repetition involved

Still, I would have like TQ a lot more with the following changes:

1) Enemies drop ONLY potions and gold 85% of the time, which is auto-looted.
2) Guaranteed gear drops ONLY from bosses.
3) Enemies 35% more difficult and attacking/moving 25% faster.
4) Treasure chests not scattered everywhere. Amount reduced by 75%, and ALWAYS guarded by super tough enemies - loot in them really worth the risk.
5) Wild animals and stragglers can repopulate but enemy camps should NOT respawn or only respawn after a long time.

 

[JDR13]

Why would you waste your money in a genre you obviously don't like?

Honestly, I just wanted another new rpg to play this year. I had Risen, Dragon Age, and.....um....well.... Torchlight was pretty much all that was left. In retrospect, I probably should have given Drakensang another try.

 

[Relayer]

Honestly, I just wanted another new rpg to play this year. I had Risen, Dragon Age, and…..um….well…. Torchlight was pretty much all that was left. In retrospect, I probably should have given Drakensang another try.

Playing Drakensang now, made it to the 2nd town and enjoying it so far.
The pace is a bit slow but not in a bad way.

Hate that your character only ever has 1 line of dialogue, occasionally 2 to choose from, worse than Oblivion actually but the writing is actually good, they did a great job with localization and met some interesting characters already.

How is Risen?