First Hour Review

This is a game that I have wanted to try for a long time, and finally,  I got around to it.  I have always had an interest in Greek mythology, and while it has influenced just about every form of fantasy since then, there are very few games that claim to draw directly on it. This was one of them.

0:00 - A succession of logos: THQ, Iron Lore, nVidia… Nothing I have not seen countless times before.

0:01 - The intro begins, a voiceover about the exile of the Titans, while showing a statue of Zeus

0:02 - A monstrosity emerges near the statue, presumably one of the previously mentioned Titans, although for some reason it seems to be something with snakes for hair, and a serpentine rear end… I would think that they were trying to go for a medusa, except that none of the soldiers hanging around the statue (Guarding it? Just trying to stay warm for the night? Playing scrabble?) get turned to stone, instead they engage in a straight-forward melee fight.

0:03 - The brave heroes vanquish their foe, but in a bout of heavy-handed symbolism, the Zeus statue is damaged in the fight and falls in a heap around the stony-faced soldiers.

0:04 - The intro ends with the words “Your gods will not save you!” While a statement like this might have been terrifying to an ancient Greek, it just sounds corny to my jaded twenty-first century ear.

0:05 - Select new game, and I get to create my character. My options seem to be to chose my gender and the colour of my tunic. I leave them on default, and chose the name Sculpus, since I think it sounds Greek enough to me. I like the fact that there are no character classes, it might help make the character more flexible.

0:06 - It seems that the default character is female… Interesting. I also get to select my difficulty, which goes from Normal to Epic to Legendary. I chose Normal, just not feeling that brave.

0:07 - A prophecy id displayed on the screen and read out in a gravely voice. Since I am too lazy to retype the whole thing, I shall summarize it below:

“Doom, Doom! DOOM! And somebody will help, really!”

0:08 - I start next to the river, where I presumably just got off the boat. Seeing  a man with a glowing symbol above his head, I decide to talk to him. His name is Corythus, and he tells me his village needs help.
Checking my equipment, I see that I am armed with the mighty copper knife.

0:09 - I run into a bunch of Satyrs, and dispatch them with ease. They seem to be heavily armed for Satyrs, I don’t think they would be my first choice for “beginner monster” from Greek mythology, but they make a nice break from Goblins.

0:10 - I see another distressed Greek, who informs me that his horse is in danger. Being an animal lover, I offer to go and defend it from the foul fate these Satyrs might have in mind with it… Considering what I know of them, it could be foul indeed!

I find the horse quickly, being attacked by two Satyrs and a boar… The horse is a lot tougher than it looks, dispatching the two satyrs with ease, while I handle the boar.

The Heroic Horse

0:11 - The Satyrs have dropped a copper knife and a leather breastplate. Going into my inventory to equip my new loot, I see that I am automatically wearing it. Its actually a nice touch

0:12 - I walk past a bunch of armed defenders of the village, nice to see that the villagers are not just sitting back and waiting for a heroine to save them.

Defenders

0:13 - finally at the village, I see two people wanting to talk to me, and I arbitrarily chose the one on the left. After a bit of whining about their lot, he recommends that I talk to Diomedes.

0:14 - A fat guy in a toga is standing in the middle of the village, and my instincts (and the tooltip) inform me that it is Diomedes, so I go to talk to him. More whining about their lot, but he does tell me about the Satyr Shaman nearby, who seems to be causing all the trouble.
Satyrs have shamans? I would think that they would not need them, considering that traditionally they all had a direct connection to nature, so a shaman would be a bit redundant.

0:15 - As Diomedes finishes his whining, a satyr raiding party attacks the village, and I help the defenders in dispatching the foul beastmen. I am glad to see that the NPCs actually put up a fight.

0:16 - I surprise a bunch of beastmen around a fire, and soon have a torch and a bow for my troubles. I decide that I feel like having some range, so I equip the bow (It does more damage than my knife, anyway)

0:17 - I see some carrion crows… And manage to take them out with one shot each, before they even get close to me.

Carrion Crows are real lightweights, aren’t they?

0:18 - I find a chest sitting in the middle of the forest, and it turns out to be full of healing potions. There are also some satyrs who try to make a pointed objection to me stealing their stuff.

The layout around here makes me think the satyrs have their own village… Village? The order of the world must really be turning upside down, since satyrs were always anti-civilisation.

0:20 - I see some skulls and totems, telling me that I am getting close. I also spot a group of four satyrs, who run away when they spot me. Nice to see that my reputation has been spreading.Having nothing better to do, I give chase.

0:21 - I see more satyrs, roasting a deer over a fire. One of them is a peltast, whatever that might be. He goes down like the rest.
I try to collect the stuff they dropped, and find out that my inventory is full already.

0:22 - Rearranging my backpack… There is actually space, I just carried things badly.

0:23 - I close the inventory screen, to find out that a satyr has taken advantage of my distraction, and attacks me. I punish his insolence.
He drops a pair of greaves, that I am apparently too weak to use.

0:24 - Finally I found the shaman… He is about twice the size of the other satyrs, and it takes me a lot running around to dispatch him, and I get rewarded by him dropping a ton of stuff when he dies… Too bad I need to rearrange my inventory again to pick it up.

The Battle with the Satyr Shaman

0:25 - Having managed to pick up the stuff, I find out that I cannot use any of it.
As I walk around the corpse-strewn battleground, I get a notification that I have gone up a level, and can now raise my skills. I decide to put points into dexterity and intelligence. It seems like the right thing to do.

0:27 - My character does seem to have a wealth of phrases to say she cannot carry any more… Obviously the developers expected it to happen a lot. Didn’t they realise that half the fun of Diablo-clones is collecting tons of loot and selling it to get better weapons and armour?

0:28 - Rearranging my backpack again… Why can’t I turn things sideways?

0:29 - I see a glowing rock, and as I approach it, I see that it is a shrine of healing. I am really glad the shaman did not think of using it during the fight!

I am healed!

0:30 – Kill more boars and carrion crows.

0:31 - Back at the village, the corpses from the last battle still litter the bridge. I thought they should have cleaned it up by know, its a bit of a health hazard. I really hope they get their water from upstream.

0:32 - Diomedes seems to have already heard of my victory, but says he now needs me to go to Sparta to get reinforcements.
He also rewards me with some coins… Which means only one thing: Time to go shopping!

0:33 - I see a man surrounded by stalls, and with a bag over his head, so I decide it must be the shopkeeper.
The shopping goes well, although the lack of drag and drop for items is a bit annoying, I rather have to pick each item up, and then click when I want to put it down, rather than just releasing the mouse button.
I sell of all the stuff that I don’t have a use for, and never expect to.

0:34 - I have bought a better bow, some health potions, and a copper bangle.

0:35 - On my way out of the village, I talk to a couple of villagers as I walk by, all of them expressing gratitude for what I have done. The dialogue is actually fairly well written.

I also see a portal, which will allow me to travel quickly, should I find another one… Glad to see all the Diablo tropes are here.

Cool portal activation sequence

0:36 - As I walk out through the gate, I see a man running into the village, with an exclamation mark over his head… This can mean only one thing: Sidequest! So, I talk to him, and he tells me about a friend of his, Tellis, trapped in a cave by satyrs.
Not wanting to tell him that his friend is most likely dead by now, I tell him that I will try to find him.

0:37 - More satyrs

0:38 - Even more Satyrs, one of them drops something called “The Knife of Destruction” Of course, I cannot use it.

0:39 - Seeing what looks like a good place, I decide to turn off the path, slaying some carrion crows and boars along the way.

0:40 - I run into some more satyrs, guarding a chest full of stuff I cannot use yet.

Chest

0:42 - After another battle, my inventory is full again, so I decide that I will just pick up stuff that is useful or expensive.

0:43 - I come to a cliff, and I see a brush harpy below me. Finally another monster! Alas, I cannot get to it from here, and I cannot even shoot it with an arrow, so I look for a way around.

0:44 - I am attacked by a satyr archer! Nice to see them using strategies other than melee. I find an old chest near him, and find an old battered chest, which contains a very nice bow… That I cannot use yet.

0:45 - I find a cave guarded by two satyrs, they run inside as soon as I see them, and I follow.

0:46 - I expected a loading screen at this point, but the screen just shows the interior of the cave as I go in… Nice!

0:47 - I face a satyr trapper… He is surprisingly tough, I thought trappers laid traps, not fought?

0:48 - I see some glowing satyrs in a side cave.

0:49 - I am quickly surrounded and killed. I find myself back at the fountain of life, where I find out that I take an experience penalty for dying… As if leveling up did not take long enough!
As I walk off, I notice that it is getting dark. Night is actually well implemented, with things looking darker, while still visible.

0:51 - On my way back to the cave, I run into more satyrs.

0:52 – I get back to the cave, and stopping for a second to control my terror, I step inside. I see one of the glowing satyrs got separated from his fellows, and turns out to be no match for me by himself.

0:53 – I dispatch the glowing satyrs one by one… They should have stuck together.

0:54 - I find a chest in their lair, once again full of stuff I cannot use.

0:55 - I find Tellis, it seems he managed to survive somehow. He thanks me profusely… and then stays where he was… I would think that he would want to get out of there as soon as possible.

0:56 - I hit level 3! I can actually use some of my stuff now!

0:57 - I emerge out of the cave into some fresh air.

0:58 - I find another rebirth fountain, and a doorway with torches, which come on as I approach them.

0:59 - More boars

1:00 - I finally find the harpies I had seen earlier. It feels good to have another monster to fight.

Conclusion: I felt a bit disappointed with Titan Quest, while it looks pretty enough, it is just a standard Diablo clone, with very little new things to offer. I found it repetitive in the extreme. It does not make good use of the Greek setting at all. It does have nice touches here and there, but overall its unremarkable.

Would I play it for longer than an hour? No… Although mildly entertaining, there are too many other good games out there.