Titan Quest 2 sure looks like that brighter, breezier action-RPG you Diablo 4 haters were gunning for
THQ Nordic releases first in-game trailer
Titan Quest 2! Now there's a name you can set your watch by. No colons, no bespoke jargon, no tortuous subtitles like "Gaia's B.O.U.N.T.Y." or "Hyperion's Wild Rumpus" - just the steadying prospect of a titanic quest that, who knows, may involve actual titans. The action-RPG beneath the moniker appears similarly straightforward: it's about following a plot thread through a mythological world in top-down view, smashing Ancient Greek giga-crabs and the like to obtain shinier, pointier varieties of gear. I'm sure I don't need to tell you that there's an endgame in which you farm monsters for crafting materials.
Like Pandora opening her box, but without the accompanying tidal wave of sickness, curses and death, THQ Nordic have released a new trailer that talks you though all of this in detail. Here it is...
... And here's a written overview based on a presentation I caught earlier in the week, for those of you too lazy to watch a video. At the heart of Titan Quest 2 is the Masteries system, Masteries being sets of abilities that work together to colourful effect. Players get to choose two Masteries, rather than picking a fixed class, and different combinations of Masteries naturally produce different playstyles. You can also modify abilities themselves, twiddling the stats and adding flourishes such as groundpounds or a soothing gust of permafrost.
Enemies, meanwhile, form a range of factions with their own abilities, tactics and corresponding loot drops. They'll work together to overwhelm you, encouraging you to experiment with your Masteries. You can, however, play the game in a less thoughtful way, with certain skills and abilities that let you barge through swinging. There are bosses, too. Clock that miniature dragon in the footage. Can you pet the dragon? Maybe after it's dead.
As for the buildcrafting odyssey that sprawls beyond the plot's conclusion, it's as you'd expect. Loot comes in different coloured rarities, and painting your loadout platinum (or whatever the top-tier colour proves to be) is surely a prospect more seductive than rolling the credits. There's also a crafting system, later in the game, which encourages targeted farming of enemies for materials.
I think all this will amuse both fans of the original Titan Quest and action-RPG players turned off by the grimdarkness of Diablo 4 or even the relatively sparkly Path of Exile. You don’t have to grind loot by the light of a guttering torch in the fleshy folds of hell. You can do so while knee-deep in the gossamer surf of the Aegean Sea. Look at those ruins and waterfalls! I can almost smell the sunlight bursting off the mosaics. I don’t really go for loot-driven games, myself, but the balmy splendour of this one has my interest. The big question is: will it be as greasy and sagging with live service trappings as Blizzard's creation? Learn more on Steam and GOG. There's no release date yet.