Titan Quest 2 Preview
I have one pretty specific request for any Diablo-style action RPG. The combat mechanics have to be engaging and cool. Just stick a hook in my mouth with the core gameplay loop and let it rip, truly. Titan Quest 2, at least so far, easily clears this essential challenge. While the game is still very much in an early access stage, what I’ve seen so far is quite promising.
An Auspicious Start
Nemesis is here to destroy the world, and you, destiny’s sturdiest hobby horse, must rise to defeat her. If you’ve played the original Titan Quest, the blessing system will be familiar. You choose two blessings, create a custom character class, and it’s off to the races. At this point, there are exactly three of them to choose from. Again, we’re in pretty early days at present. But, you can still do some fantastic customization with such limited options.
Every new level nets you active points, passive points, and divinity levels. This is a huge improvement over the first game, which gave you a single point pool spread between all of these same systems. On top of that, you can respec whenever you want for a handful of gold coins. I spent hours testing various build combos to find the absolute deadliest ones. You can even achieve synergy between blessings, which rules.
So Many Possible Builds
I tested playing with both a keyboard and a controller. Gamepad support is already fairly robust, with only a couple of functions requiring a keyboard and/or mouse. I found dodging much easier with a controller, which mostly reveals what I grew up using. Actual combat flows nicely and feels excellent. Plus, the boss battles I encountered struck a nice balance, challenge-wise. The healing system is intuitive, and stat assignment feels structured yet robust. I’m not sure about the story, however.
By which I mean I’m incapable of absorbing the narrative from a Diablo-style ARPG. The writing seems decent, and the cutscenes are pretty cool. But I get terrible tunnel vision when playing games like this. The dizzy dance of character progression causes everything else to fade into dusty black and white, like a monitor on the fritz. The larger setting – mercurial gods and vicious monsters rampaging through the ancient world – feels grand, epic, and a little enchanting. But it’s all secondary for me, gorgeous drapery framing a relentless grind that I can’t stop.
While I’m thrilled with the mechanics I’ve seen so far, I’m impatient for more. There’s only about 10 hours of campaign content to play through right now. You’ve only got three classes/blessings to choose from. I found a decent list of sidequests, but not enough to meaningfully extend my playtime. If you want to get in on the ground floor of Titan Quest 2, this is perfect. But your money won’t get you anything like a complete experience at this time.
Very Early Access
After spending several hours with Titan Quest 2, I’m impressed. The setting is lovely, the combat mechanics are excellent, and the battles are engaging. On the other hand, the game feels decidedly incomplete at this stage. The devs have promised a regular schedule of updates, and this is already a major upgrade over the first game in a number of ways. But any kind of final judgment will have to wait until the 1.0 release. I’m excited to see what Titan Quest 2 turns into with time, especially given how polished it is already.
***Code provided by the publisher for preview***
