Preview Titan Quest prelove from GameSpy

[Saint_Proverbius]

Tags: Titan Quest

<A href="http://pc.gamespy.com/">GameSpy</a> has written one of those <a href="http://pc.gamespy.com/pc/untitled-iron-lore-rpg/706949p1.html">previews</a> of <a href="http://www.titanquest.com">Titan Quest</a>.
<br>
<blockquote>As a result, I find myself a simple first-level -- er, person - standing in the middle of a beautiful field of wheat outside of a town in Greece. One of the residents of that town had an exclamation point over his head, and I've played enough RPGs to know what that means -- he's got a quest for me. Sure enough, a tribe of Satyrs have raided the village, killed a few people and taken some others into the woods for some sort of nefarious purpose. My job, of course, was to kill everything that moved and when I'd killed enough, I'd have saved the village.</blockquote>
<br>
Wouldn't it be nice, just once, to have a rather simple situation like this played out to where the player could deduce the problem on his own rather than the contrived, <i>I have a quest for you!</i> thing? You see a bunch of cop cars with their sirens on outside a bank, do you really need ask someone if it had just been robbed?
<br>
<br>
Thanks, <b>Prime Junta</b>!
<br>
<br>
Also, per <b>Role-Player</b>, there's now a <a href="http://www.3dgamers.com/dlselect/games/titanquest/titan_quest_demo.zip.html">demo</a> of this game ready for consumption.
<br>
<br>

 

[GhanBuriGhan]

Wouldn't it be nice, just once, to have a rather simple situation like this played out to where the player could deduce the problem on his own rather than the contrived, <i>I have a quest for you!</i> thing? You see a bunch of cop cars with their sirens on outside a bank, do you really need ask someone if it had just been robbed?

Very true. Why do designers adhere to the classic quest structure 99% of the time? Just confront me with an interesting situation and let me deal with it. I think RPG's can even learn something frim FPS in that respect - smart level design can be just as effective as a bit of dialogue and a journal entry to draw you into an interesting situation. Breaking through that mold would also facilitate emergent gameplay by putting more emphasis on random encounters that the player can react to.

 

[FrancoTAU]

Yeah, i wish there was a bit more subtlety with the quest giving. It's one thing to spell out what the main quest is or when you have something like Guild Quests/Job Board. But if you're just farting around a village or city I'd rather you could do some deductive reasoning.

Ultima VII was really good about sneaking in dozens of quests around town without smashing you over the head with it.

 

[Mefi]

If people had difficulty finding Caius in Morrowind, there looks like little hope of a major release where they leave you to figure things out for yourself.

 

[Davaris]

Wouldn't it be nice, just once, to have a rather simple situation like this played out to where the player could deduce the problem on his own rather than the contrived, I have a quest for you! thing? You see a bunch of cop cars with their sirens on outside a bank, do you really need ask someone if it had just been robbed

Its the old accommodation of the lowest common denominator thing.

 

[Section8]

I'd like to see the notion of quests challenged more often. Something that would amuse the hell out of me, but probably not many others, would be a system where NPCs aren't automagically aware you've done what was asked of them. Then the onus is on the player to convince the NPCs, whether they've done it or not.

 

[7th Circle]

I'd like to see the notion of quests challenged more often. Something that would amuse the hell out of me, but probably not many others, would be a system where NPCs aren't automagically aware you've done what was asked of them. Then the onus is on the player to convince the NPCs, whether they've done it or not.

It would also give the opportunity to bluff the "quest giver".

 

[LlamaGod]

I'd like to see the notion of quests challenged more often. Something that would amuse the hell out of me, but probably not many others, would be a system where NPCs aren't automagically aware you've done what was asked of them. Then the onus is on the player to convince the NPCs, whether they've done it or not.

It would also give the opportunity to bluff the "quest giver".

I think these used to be called "dialog options". It's a shame everyone has stopped using them.

 

[MacBone]

If people had difficulty finding Caius in Morrowind, there looks like little hope of a major release where they leave you to figure things out for yourself.

I've talked to at least three people who tried the game, spent about an hour wandering around Seyda Neen, and gave up because they couldn't figure out what to do next.

That said, I'm stuck in the Clerk's Ward in PS:T, so I'm much the same way, I guess. I have clues and a bloody handkerchief, but that's about it.

 

[Naked_Lunch]

Don't you have to go the Brothel for Slating Intellectual Lusts and match up the blood with someone there?

 

[MacBone]

Yeah, that's where the blood came from, the whole maternity issue. Nothing new from the Festhall or any of my companions. I've gone back and talked to a lot of NPCs and resolved some other quests, but I can't seem to find anything new about the MQ. I'll probably look up a walkthrough, but I was trying to avoid doing that.

 

[kingcomrade]

That said, I'm stuck in the Clerk's Ward in PS:T, so I'm much the same way, I guess. I have clues and a bloody handkerchief, but that's about it.

You need to be more specific, there's a lot of steps in that quest.

 

[MacBone]

Right. I accessed Ravel's sensory stone in the Festhall, talked to everyone in the Brothel, received the bloody handkerchef, and found and read the dodecahedron in the Festhall. So I have the key, and I think I know where the portal is, but Ravel says I have to know how to use the key to open the portal, and I haven't discovered how to use it yet.

Ravel says to "go to the place of forges and steel," which is probably either the Godsmen's Foundry or the Siege Tower. I've been back to each place several times and looked for new dialog options, but I'm getting nothing. (Well, I did get something from the golem, but I probably should have gotten that the first time I visited.) At the foundry, I talked to every unique NPC - maybe I need to try the generic NPCs?

Edit: Of course, there may be something going on with the sensory stones at the Brothel, but I haven't been able to access 'em yet.