Titan Quest 2 Hands-on - It Differs From Diablo 4, but Early Access Worries Me

Our hero in Titan Quest 2 starts a bit like the one in Path of Exile - as a castaway washed up on the shore. The difference is that here we are not an exile - and that TQ2 is beautiful. The sunny coast, where we begin our journey to glory, combined with atmospheric music, effectively takes us back to times when being a hero was somewhat less complicated. At least it did not require a season pass.

Onward, Bucephalus, for glory and exp!

This aesthetic pleases me a lot, it's good that Grimlore Games are distancing themselves from gore and body horror known from Diablo 4 (probably to create a contrast to the misguided aesthetics of the third Diablo). Ultimately, Titan Quest did not attract the players with being even more bloody and brutal than Diablo 2, but rather by combining very enjoyable gameplay with images, characters, and names that each of us knew from one source or the other.

Let's not kid ourselves - nobody really played Titan Quest for the plot, so the materials don't particularly focus on it either. You're the hero and you have a mission - you'll learn everything important along the way. In this context, the character of Areion, our mount, whose voice we could hear shortly after starting the game, might be interesting. A voice - because this divine horse can talk. This idea intrigued me quite a bit, because I like situations where our hero has someone to talk to from time to time, or when someone comments on current events (as long as they don't make annoying jokes, but this doesn't seem likely).

Mix at will

So far, we haven't had a chance to ride a horse, but we did get to see two of the planned eight masteries in action - warfare and storm. TQ veterans don't need reminding, but I'll explain to the rest - masteries are the equivalent of character classes, or more precisely - a constituent of a character class, because the real magic happens when we combine the powers of two masteries. The developers seem to focus on strategizing and finding synergies between different features, as this is how the development of our attributes - strength, agility, and knowledge - looks like. On the UI screen, they are placed at the three vertices of a triangle, and the values of the features located on the adjacent vertices determine the value of the new feature - for example, by developing dexterity and knowledge, we increase the damage dealt by poison (which neatly translates into a "rogue" build).

What's more - you can also adjust and improve individual skills (up to 5 modifiers for an active skill and 3 for a passive one). Speaking of passives - we will use separate skill points to improve them. No more thinking about whether we're saving up points for a new skill or taking that passive boost we can afford.

Exercise caution

The developers provide players with many tools to solve problems - but at the same time, they try to maintain the pace of gameplay they intended. They explained that we should not really expect hordes of monsters flooding the screen; enemy groups are supposed to be smaller, but better coordinated, and the player will not be able to simply dash around the screen (the number of possible dodges has been limited to two, followed by a cooldown). This is important because the creators want the player to pay attention to where they are currently located, because for example, stronger monsters can often immobilize a hero, which can quickly lead to death. Here's a little fun fact - after defeat, we get a fast travel point leading to exactly where we were killed.

Titan Quest 2 has atmosphere. It seems familiar, feeling almost like a home. Sun-soaked maps encourage you to look under every bush, and sometimes solving a minor environmental puzzle (not added to the journal) will be rewarded with loot. I'm glad that these maps don't seem to be overloaded with all sorts of loose stones, pots, boxes, and other interactive objects, that in Diablo drop tons of junk loot. It's hard for me to judge based on the demo version prepared for gamescom how often loot will drop here, but the developers promise that it will still be thematically and logically linked to the enemies who drop it.

Isn't it too early for early access?

It's time to address potentially the most controversial issue - the content with which Titan Quest 2 will start in early access will not be staggering - the creators estimate that it will offer 12 hours of gameplay. Naturally, doubts arise whether this is not too little, whether the game is pushed into early access prematurely - and will not be prematurely killed before it can reach its potential. Because there are plans - and not just for the next masteries and opponents! The developers showed us how the day and night cycle affects the appearance of individual locations (it's impressive!); they also mentioned that perhaps the day and night cycle could affect the behavior of specific creatures - maybe we will get such system. Someday. However, we will certainly be able to transmog items. The multiplayer remains in the realm of "we want to, but it's too early to talk about it". For now, however, the creators emphasize that their priority is to build solid foundations, i.e. the proper gameplay loop.

After all, we don't need a game that will have a budget bigger than Diablo 4 or a skill tree more complex than PoE. We just need someone to create a pleasant, satisfying adventure in sunny ancient Greek, which finally has a chance to be as beautiful as in our memories.