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[TheExodu5]

Well I had played a bunch earlier this year, but I stopped after my friend (who didn't have a good enough PC to run TQ at the time) wanted to play some D2.

Check here for some screenshots I took a few months back:
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=15446646&postcount=323

Anyways, I got back into it this past week. I went through all of Immortal Throne over the weekend, and all I can say is wow.

The areas and visuals are astounding. Immortal Throne in particular looks incredible. Some of the areas have a huge distance/height element to them, which helps give the game an incredible sense of scale when compared to Diablo 2 (not a knock against Diablo 2, as it's nearly a 10 year old game). The only negative I'd attribute to the locations is that they are very Diablo like. Act 2 is basically a carbon copy of Diablo 2's Act 2 (or maybe a hommage?).

This game has 72 class combinations, I believe, and most, if not all combinations, are viable (some more than others). It's really a nice change of pace from Diablo's cookie cutter class schemes. The ability to respec points really gives the player a chance to experiment with different skills without fear of screwing your character up.

What is a good Diablo clone without awesome loot? This game has it, and is the only Diablo clone that has been able to reproduce the awesome loot it had. This game has tons of rare gear, set pieces, and uniques. I believe there are higher level uniques (ala WoW [blues, purples]), though I have yet to find anything higher than blue. You also collect monster charms and essences used to "socket" your non-unique gear. The charms and essences are much more useful and better balanced than Diablo 2's runes, gems, and runewords. This game isn't built around rune combinations that use items with a 1/650,000 drop rate (Zod).

Some other nice design improvements over Diablo include:

1) Town portal ability. No need to keep town scrolls.
2) Much bigger inventory.
3) Inventory auto-sort button.
4) Potion hotkey. No need to manage your belt.
5) Transfer stash. All your character can access this stash.


The biggest knock against Titan Quest, and this is a big one, this game does not have closed online. That means no persistant characters, and no guarantee of non-hacked characters when playing online. That being said, if you're planning on playing with friends, this is not a problem. It does have it's advantages: the ability to use mods. We're using a fan-patch that fixes a few issues with the game, and we plan on playing through again with the 3x enemies mod at some point. The lack of closed online is the most glaring omission to this game, and probably really hampered it's success.

One thing to note: this game does not have randomly generated dungeons. While many would consider this a negative, I actually prefer it this way, as the areas feel better designed, and boss runs are more enjoyable this way.

I'm surprised to say it, but this game has surpassed Diablo 2 for me. My buddy, who has poured well over 2,000 hours into Diablo 2, has come to the same realization last night.

Anyways, just beat Normal last night, and I plan on taking this character to the end of Legendary. I'm sure I'll be re-rolling quite a few characters after than. Any GAFer that is willing to use Ventrilo for voice communication is invited to join my friends and I in our quest to conquer Hades!

I encourage any Diablo 2 fan to check this out. You're in for a treat.

 

[Stoney Mason]

I prefer Diablo 2. Titan Quest is a good game though and has certain advances obviously since it came out much later. As does Sacred 2.

 

[gregor7777]

I'd like to join you, but everytime I fire up my PC the mouse gravitates towards King's Bounty.

Maybe when I finish that up. I've played D2 to death, and I've always wanted to try TQ.

 

[nesmar]

i agree with you original poster.

 

[Concept17]

I can see this being true. My only problem was that I never had anyone to play it with, which is what made D2 so much fun.

 

[Yoshichan]

I disagree with the OP.

 

[Druz]

The hell does closed online mean?

 

[cw_sasuke]

TQ is indeed the better game, but D2 has still bnet and the neverending blizzard suupport/updates which keep it fresh.

 

[TheExodu5]

I can see this being true. My only problem was that I never had anyone to play it with, which is what made D2 so much fun.

Yeah, like I said, the lack of closed online is a huge knock against the game. It takes friends who are willing to play with you to really get what the game has to offer.

The hell does closed online mean?

In this case, Battle.net. It's an online service where your characters are stored, and servers are hosted, so that you can't (easily) hack your characters. The alternative is something like Open Battle.net, where characters are stored locally on your PC, which means they can be modified with impossible stats, gear, etc... Also, the network architecture changes in Open. In Titan Quest, you have a host, and clients. That means your connection is going to be reliant on your host. In D2, the servers are hosted by Blizzard.

 

[MDSLKTR]

In before bad art and too many colors.
Never got around finishing it, the jerky framerate made me want to drill a hole in my brain. But one day i will.

 

[Truant]

Good until my broken Necro/Fighter guy couldn't kill the final boss inside the Minotaur maze. I cursed the developers that night, and I've read reports of strange things happening in their offices at night.

 

[roxya]

TQ technically does stuff better, but gawd, the game is such a bore.

 

[Woo-Fu]

Sacred 2 is better than both of them... and yes I've played all three of those games this year. Then again, the distinction doesn't mean much when quite possibly the most important thing for games like these is ongoing developer support. As far as I can see the only reward you get for making a better diablo than diablo 2 is a going out of business party.

 

[gregor7777]

The hell does closed online mean?

In D2, everything happens on battle.net. They hold all the cards.

All of the characters are stored on their boxes.

 

[BlazingDarkness]

I prefer Diablo 2, but Titan Quest is a very nice game too, i recommend it.

 

[bounchfx]

I'd certainly fucking hope so considering it came out way after.

oh.. i've played it. and it's good. but nostalgia makes me still like d2 more.

 

[TheExodu5]

Sacred 2 is better than both of them... and yes I've played all three of those games this year. Then again, the distinction doesn't mean much when quite possibly the most important thing for games like these is ongoing developer support. As far as I can see the only reward you get for making a better diablo than diablo 2 is a going out of business party.

Sacred 2 is a completely different game. Sacred 2 is much closer to an isometric World of Warcraft than it is Diablo. The gameplay is completely different.

Personally, I'm not a huge fan of Sacred 2 (but I realize why some people like it so). I don't like how skills are acquired, and the balance around skill runes. I also don't enjoy the controls. The main issue though, when playing multiplayer with friends, is that the quests are absolutely bugged. We can be doing the same quest, but we'll somehow get unsynced in our questline after a while, which means we can't continue onwards.

Sacred 2's strength (and weakness), lies in it's massive open world and vast array of quests.

Titan Quest has Diablo 2's linear act approach.

 

[Spirit of Jazz]

TQ technically does stuff better, but gawd, the game is such a bore.

Have to agree with this, also the lack of decent online kills it. Though I do think it has the best skill system I've seen in a game.

 

[eznark]

I agree on Titan's Quest but only because it so closely holds to being an updated Diablo. I'm having trouble getting into Sacred 2 myself.

 

[TheExodu5]

From what I've played of TQ's demo, it's a pretty fun Diablo clone but there's something missing. And by that, I mean enemies becoming hamburger meat after I blow them into pieces.

Oh, that's just because TQ has a decent learning curve. Trust me, it gets very difficult later on.

Even playing 3 player multiplayer, I have around 35 deaths on my character. That's just on Normal difficulty. Have yet to encounter element immune monsters that will appear later on.

Have to agree with this, also the lack of decent online kills it. Though I do think it has the best skill system I've seen in a game.

It really does. It's incredible how pretty much any of the 72 class combinations can be viable. And they all play differently (or fairly differently).

Anyone who hasn't played it before though, once you play it, you'll be floored how this game is just like Diablo (besides the art style). It really is an updated Diablo in Greece. While it does demonstrate a lack of originality, it's really not a bad thing.

 

[spats]

Titan Quest was nice, but you cannot create a wall of bones in Titan Quest.

Edit: Ok, I might aswell write something worthy. As much as I love Diablo, it's not the perfect hack'n'slash. The tetris inventory can be a real pain, and there is very little variation with each playthrough. Things that TQ managed to fix to some degree. Maybe I'll reinstall it and try to reignite my enthusiasm for it.

 

[Woo-Fu]

Titan Quest has Diablo 2's linear act approach.

You can play Sacred 2 as linear as you want, stick to the main quest line if that floats your boat. I play all three of the games exactly the same way. Go out, farm loot/exp, move on to the next area when my character is ready/I'm bored with the current area. I really don't see how having more options makes it a completely different game. These are rogue-likes mated to graphic interfaces, with the hardcore mode that is typically default in a rogue-like being optional mode in some of these games.

Most of the bugs in Sacred 2 have been patched out of the PC version. 2.43 is much, much better than the game was at release.

On top of that, almost every advance to the genre present in Titan Quest is also in Sacred 2. The notable exception is that town portal is has a limit on where you can return to after portaling back to town. They're changing that in the Blood&Ice expansion, you'll be able to portal to any of the mark points in the game.

 

[TheExodu5]

I played 2.43. Still have the quest de-sync issue online, which basically makes it unplayable for my friends and I in multiplayer.

Also, while I realize that it can be played linearily, I like to be guided more.

Not saying it's a bad game at all. It just doesn't suit my playstyle quite as nicely.

 

[Leezard]

From the OP, this sounds like the Eastern Sun mod for D2. It accomplishes just about everything in the OP except for town portal ability. Still, a Diablo clone could be worth looking into. I may get TQ if D3 is too far away.

 

[Pimpbaa]

Titan Quest is a great game, but it is not better than Diablo 2. And certainly neither is Sacred 2 which is a amateurish pile of shit which for the life of me cannot figure out why gaf was hyping it. God I'm still pissed at buying that game at full price.

 

[Woo-Fu]

I played 2.43. Still have the quest de-sync issue online, which basically makes it unplayable for my friends and I in multiplayer.

Yeah, I can see that being an issue for people who only do that online. I typically do area adventures or boss runs, both of which have no reliance upon pre-made quests.

 

[Almak]

I liked Titan Quest (its expansion as well). Its a treat, especially considering the variation in the locations you get to visit. I'd be hard pressed to choose my favourite between D2 and TQ but I suppose I would have to lean towards D2 in the end. Me and a friend of mine had just to much fun playing it co-op.

 

[Artadius]

Having played thousands of hours in these types of games... I'd rank em:

1. (best) Diablo 2 modded with Eastern Sun
2. Titan Quest modded with Fan Patch and TQDefiler+
3. Titan Quest vanilla
4. D2 + exp. vanilla
5. Sacred 2
6. Huge drop off here to other clones in the genre. Nothing really comes close to the above five.

TQ was VERY well done and I'm sad that Iron Lore is no longer around. I hear they have licensed the TQ engine for a new game with their new company though.

You really can't go wrong with any of the above to hold out for Diablo III. We all know that game will be in a different league than the rest.

 

[TheExodu5]

Having played thousands of hours in these types of games... I'd rank em:

1. (best) Diablo 2 modded with Eastern Sun
2. Titan Quest modded with Fan Patch and TQDefiler+
3. Titan Quest vanilla
4. D2 + exp. vanilla
5. Sacred 2
6. Huge drop off here to other clones in the genre. Nothing really comes close to the above five.

TQ was VERY well done and I'm sad that Iron Lore is no longer around. I hear they have licensed the TQ engine for a new game with their new company though.

You really can't go wrong with any of the above to hold out for Diablo III. We all know that game will be in a different league than the rest.

Nice post.

What exactly does the Eastern Sun mod add? I'll have to check it out for sure.

Also, I just installed the fan patch last night in TQ (a necessity, after the lag fest Tower and Crystal Rooms glitch). I have TQ Defiler...but I just used it to respec my second master (as my friend ended up carbon copying my masteries!). What do you find Defiler most useful for, and how does it enhance the game for you, without cheating?

I'd like to join you, but everytime I fire up my PC the mouse gravitates towards King's Bounty.

Maybe when I finish that up. I've played D2 to death, and I've always wanted to try TQ.

1) Go buy Titan Quest Gold on Steam
2) Download Ventrilo
3) Get a microphone/headset if you don't have one
4) Join the fun!

 

[TheYanger]

TitanQuest may have a bazillion more skills or whatever, but most of them are boring as hell. You've got 'strong melee attack' 'strong ranged nuke' etc...the variety in abilities is just NOT there. Don't get me wrong it's a fun game, but the classes BARELY play very differently beyond a certain point. d2's strength is in all of the crazy stuff you can do if you choose to.

 

[Kuro Madoushi]

I'd certainly recommend TQ + expansion if you're looking to get your Diablo fix.

I dunno...nobody really went into explanations as to why D2 is better, maybe it's just nostalgia, cause I bought a CDKey online and just dled D2 recently and I must say the experience isn't quite the same. Granted, it's unfair to compare the two since D2 is much older, but I will say that TQ with all the little mods you can get with it is freakin awesome! My shoulder hurts after playing it so much.

After seeing D3, I do believe Blizzard will reclaim the crown, but for now TQ > D2

 

[TheExodu5]

TitanQuest may have a bazillion more skills or whatever, but most of them are boring as hell. You've got 'strong melee attack' 'strong ranged nuke' etc...the variety in abilities is just NOT there. Don't get me wrong it's a fun game, but the classes BARELY play very differently beyond a certain point. d2's strength is in all of the crazy stuff you can do if you choose to.

You must be missing something.

For example, I'm playing a Prophet now. I use Squall to DoT the enemies and kill archer aim. I went dream for melee CC with Sleep and Distored Reality. I use Thunderball for mid-range stun when I'm overwhelmed, and Lightning Bolt + Chain Lightning is my main damage skill.

I could switch Dream for one of the other 7 masteries for loads of extra perks. I could have went nature to have an army of wolves + healing. I could have went earth for a Core Dweller and dual element damage for immunes. I could have went defense and made a melee enhanced Paladin holy-shock type character.

You can do a hell of a lot more with skills and classes in Titan Quest than you can in Diablo.

These are the Sorceresses you can make in Diablo:

Fire sorc (useless in Hell solo)
Lightning sorc (useless in Hell solo without Infinity)
Blizzard sorc (great for farming, but can't Hell solo)
Meteorb (decent hybrid that can Hell solo, but terrible damage output means you're useless as a high end character)

Titan Quest gives you a lot more freedom, and allows you to make builds that are actually viable in higher difficulties.

I'd certainly recommend TQ + expansion if you're looking to get your Diablo fix.

I dunno...nobody really went into explanations as to why D2 is better, maybe it's just nostalgia, cause I bought a CDKey online and just dled D2 recently and I must say the experience isn't quite the same. Granted, it's unfair to compare the two since D2 is much older, but I will say that TQ with all the little mods you can get with it is freakin awesome! My shoulder hurts after playing it so much.

After seeing D3, I do believe Blizzard will reclaim the crown, but for now TQ > D2

Diablo 2's advantages come in the following forms:

1) Art style and atmosphere (subjective, though it is more original)
2) Mythology (subjective)
3) Music
4) And the most important: closed online

Purely from a gameplay perspective, TQ really is the evolution of D2.

 

[Woo-Fu]

TQ/IT was soulless. Technically it was very well done but there was just no spark there. Grab the unofficial fan patch if you do play it. There is also a mod out there for 3x bosses to give it a bit more challenge.

My haruspex was untouchable by anything other than AoE when I last played, made it kind of boring.

I suppose my biggest disappointment with the game was the loot sets. Takes forever to get one short of doing lots of online trading and even when you had it they weren't any better than randomly generated items.

 

[Leezard]

What exactly does the Eastern Sun mod add? I'll have to check it out for sure.

There's a changelog here:
http://homepage3.nifty.com/miyoshino/es/es3top.htm

The changelog is outdated though, so there is a bit more new things. Nothing major though, I believe.

 

[Nardonicus]

how about Loki? Is that even worth playing?

I picked it up at Big Lots yesterday for $6.00, mostly out of curiosity.

After spending about an hour patching it up and getting it to run on Vista 64, I only got to play for about 30 minutes. Hard to form an opinion on it yet, but I don't see it being nearly as good as Diablo or TQ.

 

[Dipper145]

Got Titan Quest looking for something that could meet how great Diablo 2 was. I was so dissapointed. It was okay for the first couple hours, then I quickly got tired of it.

It was okay while it lasted, but got boring pretty quick. Didn't really enjoy it that much. The thing that did it for me was the online business. It's really just not the same without a good closed online system. That is what made Diablo 2 so great.

 

[TheExodu5]

My haruspex was untouchable by anything other than AoE when I last played, made it kind of boring.

Yeah I hear they're total Hammerdin-like OP. :lol Tempted to make one just for farming.

My Prophet is certainly a very involved character, and a critical mistake, like missing a few melee rushers with my Distorted Reality, can lead to a very early death. I die in like 3 shots. :lol

 

[MisterAnderson]

I just started and am loving it so far. I'm a Stormcaller/Dream (I think that combo's called a prophet or something...) I'm only level 10 or so though. Would love to play online sometime let me know if anyone would like to.

 

[VoteForPedro]

Having played a bunch of Titan Quest on Steam earlier this year I have to agree with the OP. TT is awsome, I still have my harbinger waiting to do a second run through the game.

 

[BrokenSymmetry]

The biggest knock against Titan Quest, and this is a big one, this game does not have closed online.

This. If only THQ would have given Iron Lore the budget to set up closed servers, online play would have really taken off, and the online community for this game would have been much, much bigger.

 

[TheExodu5]

I just started and am loving it so far. I'm a Stormcaller/Dream (I think that combo's called a prophet or something...) I'm only level 10 or so though. Would love to play online sometime let me know if anyone would like to.

Yeah that's what I am. It's a nice combo.

If you're willing to use voice communication through Ventrilo, you can join my buddies and I.

Having played a bunch of Titan Quest on Steam earlier this year I have to agree with the OP. TT is awsome, I still have my harbinger waiting to do a second run through the game.

Well my buddies and I just reache Epic, if you wanna join.

 

[Woo-Fu]

Yeah I hear they're total Hammerdin-like OP. :lol Tempted to make one just for farming.

Hunting has good evade/damage avoidance, stacking dream on top of that probably is overpowered. After that it is just a matter of getting the right randomly generated loot. Can take awhile to find the best bows since there are only a couple mobs who drop them. Then again, some would say that is what ShopMI is for.

Better yet is never having to drink a blue potion except perhaps on the bosses with drain attacks.

 

[TheExodu5]

Well my friend is a Brigand (Hunter + Rogue) who relies on a bow, so I think I'd want to make a melee character. Dream's teleport ability seems nice, which was my main draw to it. I figured I'd go hunting and use a spear. Viable?

 

[Haman Karn]

Thread title is misleading and does not reflect the content of the OP.

Titan Quest is great fun but simply doesn't have the lasting appeal that Diablo 2's closed online brought.

 

[Terrordactyl]

Thread title is misleading and does not reflect the content of the OP.

Titan Quest is great fun but simply doesn't have the lasting appeal that Diablo 2's closed online brought.

This is the truth, Diablo II has yet to be rivaled IMHO. Can't wait to get D3 and start collecting SOJ's again.

 

[Vorador]

Well i'm currently playing trough Sacred 2 and is a ton of fun. Maybe too easy on normal difficulty, but the huge map and lots and lots of stuff to do make it worthwile.

 

[Terrordactyl]

Well i'm currently playing trough Sacred 2 and is a ton of fun. Maybe too easy on normal difficulty, but the huge map and lots and lots of stuff to do make it worthwile.

It's actually good? my friend keeps telling me to borrow it from him. I just don't feel like playing a 2 Worlds caliber game. Maybe I'll read up on it.

 

[TheExodu5]

Thread title is misleading and does not reflect the content of the OP.

Titan Quest is great fun but simply doesn't have the lasting appeal that Diablo 2's closed online brought.

I made my points clearly, and stated that this is in terms of friend play.

The game is better designed and balanced overall. The loot isn't centered around game hackers and duped currency (which is the only way many of the runewords in D2 are made).

This is the truth, Diablo II has yet to be rivaled IMHO. Can't wait to get D3 and start collecting SOJ's again.

I rather abolish item currency and have D3 make gold actually worth something.

 

[Ettie]

Agree OP, loving this game right now, playing through a LAN storyline with the wife.

Quick questions: How do you auto-sort inventory? How does the healer select a party member without physically clicking on the player in the field? My sweet little wife turns into a mean bitch of a cussing sailor when she can't find me in a crowd of mobs. No fun. We tried Shift clicking the health bar, and Ctrl clicking, both no good.

 

[TheExodu5]

Agree OP, loving this game right now, playing through a LAN storyline with the wife.

Quick questions: How do you auto-sort inventory? How does the healer select a party member without physically clicking on the player in the field? My sweet little wife turns into a mean bitch of a cussing sailor when she can't find me in a crowd of mobs. No fun. We tried Shift clicking the health bar, and Ctrl clicking, both no good.

1) there's a button above the inventory (though not in the stash) that will stack items from left to right, or from top to bottom if you click it again. It's a way to make space.

2) I'm not sure. It might be an interface oversight. Maybe a mod can change this.

My only main problem with the interface is that you select a skill and cast it with the mouse. I'd rather have the option of doing it like in D2 where you select a skill and it sets it to your right click skill.