Company News Titan Quest: Bringing the RPG to its next level with action

[DarkUnderlord]

Tags: Iron Lore; Titan Quest

Remember those Iron Lore guys who <a href="http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/thq-director-blames-piracy-for-iron-lore-closure">blamed piracy for their downfall</a>? Well <a href="http://www.masshightech.com/stories/2008/12/29/weekly10-Iron-Lore-vets-demo-Black-Legion.html">word is they're back as Crate Entertainment</a>:
<br>
<blockquote>Iron Lore ran out of cash last February while trying to duplicate the success it had with Titan Quest, a computer RPG, with an offering on the Microsoft Corp. Xbox 360 gaming console. That project, dubbed “Black Legion,” is now out to game publishers in a demo, after two former Iron Lore employees quietly formed their own gaming company, Crate Entertainment, and bought the rights to it.
<br>
<br>
“One of our real goals is to take the solid game play we established in Titan Quest and repackage it to make it sort of grittier and more appealing to the mainstream audience,” said former Iron Lore lead designer Arthur Bruno, who founded Cambridge-based Crate with Eric Campanella over the summer. The Black Legion developers are using facilities at Demiurge Studios, through a cooperative arrangement with the Cambridge company, Bruno said.
<br>
<br>
Often derided as “hack and slash,” or “rat pellet” games, the outcome of combat in PC-based action RPGs like Titan Quest, Diablo or Dungeon Siege is usually statistically determined. Such treasure hunting and statistics-based character progression can be addictive, Bruno said — but console players demand more sophisticated action. “We’re trying to evolve the action to something that will bring the RPG to its next level,” he said.</blockquote>
<br>
"We’re trying to evolve the action to something that will bring the RPG to its next level."
<br>
<br>
"We’re trying to evolve the action to something that will bring the RPG to its next level."
<br>
<br>
"We’re trying to evolve the action to something that will bring the RPG to its next level."
<br>
<br>
Nope, no matter how many times I say it, it still doesn't make any sense.
<br>
<br>
Spotted @ <a href="http://www.gamebanshee.com">GameBanshee</a>

 

[elander_]

Role-playing is about playing a role, talk shit and kick butt. We don't need no stinky stats.

 

[PennyAnte]

We’re trying to evolve the action to something that will bring the action RPG to its next level.

Edited. If he had said bring the "ARPG," with TQ being one, to it's next level, would that really have been anything to get all nerd ragey over?

 

[Wyrmlord]

"statistics-based character progression...demand more sophisticated action"

I am sorry that our number crunching in PC games is below the standards of the high quality, intelligent, and sophisticated action of console games.

 

[aries202]

I don't understand how Black Legion (the sequel to Titan Quest) can have more mainstream gameplay. I mean the combat in Titan Quest were just 'click-click-click'. And yes, your abilities, stats and skills do count in Titan Quest. It is an RPG after all where you develop your character thorugh leveling up your skills, attributes etc.

And what is more 'sophisticated action'. Action like VATS in Fallout 3, the action like in Gears of War, Halo or Far Cry?

 

[bozia2012]

IBR TQ bashin'

 

[racofer]

Not to mention TQ was incredibly system hungry for no apparent reason.

 

[Wyrmlord]

Not to mention TQ was incredibly system hungry for no apparent reason.

You remember the explanation given by the Titan Quest person?

"Your own system is already having resources eaten up with all the spyware, malware, and other lingering programs while you play the game. But no, it's ALWAYS the game's fault."

I have literally never seen a developer rage like that, and put up a finger on everyone ranging from the gamers to the publishers to the critics.

 

[racofer]

Priceless.

 

[coaster]

Tried to play TQ twice but just got so bored. Linear, clicky, tedious grinding drivel, just like DS. At least I managed to finish Diablos 1 & 2. But the only ARPG I feel remotely like playing again is Divine Divinity, am still hoping they won't fuck up the sequel (glossing over the Beyond Divinity debacle).

 

[Andhaira]

Console rpg's are more sophisticated??

Uhm yeah okay. When the consoles can produce anything comparable to RoA2: StarTrail (which took up only 26MB of diskspace) please let meknow 'k.

 

[JarlFrank]

I actually liked TQ for being a good Diablo Clone. But it raped all kinds of mythologies. And... more sophisticated action?
Say goodbye to stats, then. You won't be able to miss an enemy in their next game, since there won't be to-hit-rolls. You won't have an armor class, you will manually block and dodge. That's what "more sophisticated action combat" for console players means. It will probably be some God of War clone.

 

[Worm King]

What exactly is the problem with trying to diversify, innovate and make your game identifiable from the great gray mass that are the ARPGs? Add some C&C, different starting locations based on races, allegiances or basically anything that won't make your game suck in theory.

 

[JarlFrank]

What exactly is the problem with trying to diversify, innovate and make your game identifiable from the great gray mass that are the ARPGs? Add some C&C, different starting locations based on races, allegiances or basically anything that won't make your game suck in theory.

Yes but they want to dumb it down for the console crowd. That's what they're basically saying. Adjusting the game for consoles doesn't mean adding meaningful gameplay elements, it means making it even easier to play [like removing everything that is intellectually challenging, for example stats] and adding MOAR AKTSCHUN.

 

[aries202]

I actually liked TQ for being a good Diablo Clone. But it raped all kinds of mythologies. And... more sophisticated action?
Say goodbye to stats, then. You won't be able to miss an enemy in their next game, since there won't be to-hit-rolls. You won't have an armor class, you will manually block and dodge. That's what "more sophisticated action combat" for console players means. It will probably be some God of War clone.

Are you sure about this ? In Call of Duty 4 (the demo at least) I missed several enemies. And this game does not have stats like any rpg has. In Oblivion, you manually block and dodge. You do the same in Morrowind. And in The Witcher as well - at least in part.

 

[Shannow]

Say goodbye to stats, then. You won't be able to miss an enemy in their next game, since there won't be to-hit-rolls. You won't have an armor class, you will manually block and dodge. That's what "more sophisticated action combat" for console players means. It will probably be some God of War clone.

Sorry, but that is nonsense.
Gothic 1/2...

Since this will be console anyway I don't really give a fuck, but on aRPGs in general:
Do you really consider "clicking" enemies to death to be superior to interactive actions like dodging, blocking, moving, use of combos, etc?
Gothic 1/2 are the only a"RPG"s I played on the computer where I understood where the "action" came from. A system that improves and expands upon that groundwork could not only incorporate stats it could actually make aRPGs worth their while. And it would probably work better on consoles. This is, of course, not going to happen with this game but that doesn't mean that it isn't possible.

Oh yeah, and the Iron Lore pussies are the whiniest little bitches since whiny bitches.

 

[MetalCraze]

I actually liked TQ for being a good Diablo Clone. But it raped all kinds of mythologies. And... more sophisticated action?
Say goodbye to stats, then. You won't be able to miss an enemy in their next game, since there won't be to-hit-rolls. You won't have an armor class, you will manually block and dodge. That's what "more sophisticated action combat" for console players means. It will probably be some God of War clone.

Are you sure about this ? In Call of Duty 4 (the demo at least) I missed several enemies. And this game does not have stats like any rpg has. In Oblivion, you manually block and dodge. You do the same in Morrowind. And in The Witcher as well - at least in part.

Is it a coincidence that all those games have incredibly shitty combat?

 

[Kane]

But it raped all kinds of mythologies

How the mythological hell can you rape mythologies? That's like saying LOTR raped fantasy because it is fantasy.

 

[The_Pope]

Dumbing down titan quest is genuinely impossible, so any change at all would have been making it more sophisticated by default.

 

[MetalCraze]

I thought that dumbing down Command & Conquer was impossible too.

or Fable.

 

[mondblut]

Do you really consider "clicking" enemies to death to be superior to interactive actions like dodging, blocking, moving, use of combos, etc?

Umm... yes. As long as combat is mostly decided on invisible dierolls while you click on monsters, I still can see how the "RPG" part is in these "ARPG" abominations. When it is decided by blocking and hopping and tekkening and mortalkombating around, it is no longer there.

I never blocked a single time in morrowind, or gothic, or twitcher, or M&B. Never. Because it's still an RPG, albeit a sodomized one, and my character's HP and AC were out there to decide whether I survived an enemy attack or not, why would I bother with combotwitching? And if there is no HPs and AC, where's the RPG in there?

A game can be an RPG and action hybrid, but it can't be an RPG and fighting hybrid. And I am not interested in fighting games, kthxbye.

 

[BearBomber]

A game can be an RPG and action hybrid, but it can't be an RPG and fighting hybrid. And I am not interested in fighting games, kthxbye.

 

[Andhaira]

You Must Defeat SHeng Long to Stand a Chance!!

 

[mondblut]

Do players have to kill DM to win a module, or just beat him up senseless?

 

[DraQ]

You do the same in Morrowind. And in The Witcher as well - at least in part.

False