Titan Quest II - Greek mythology action-RPG sequel by SpellForce 3 devs

[rubinstein]

Hopefully there's a bisexual threeway romance in this one too.

add twinks to the mix and you pretty much summed up ancient times

 

[Lacrymas]

Both Zagreus and Thanatos are twink-adjacent already ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

 

[KeighnMcDeath]

It ain’t even close to Train Simulator

 

[CountNemo]

The screenshots look good. If they get the itemization right, I'll be there to play it. I haven't played TQI, is the itemization good in that game?

 

[Hobo Elf]

The screenshots look good. If they get the itemization right, I'll be there to play it. I haven't played TQI, is the itemization good in that game?

Itemization is one of the things that TQ (and GD) do best of all ARPGs imo, especially if you enjoy sword and board characters (the mechanics and itemization for shields are very rich in TQ+GD). But whether or not TQ2 has the same kind of itemization remains to be seen. It is made by a different team after all and they may have their own ideas.

 

[CountNemo]

The screenshots look good. If they get the itemization right, I'll be there to play it. I haven't played TQI, is the itemization good in that game?

Itemization is one of the things that TQ (and GD) do best of all ARPGs imo, especially if you enjoy sword and board characters (the mechanics and itemization for shields are very rich in TQ+GD). But whether or not TQ2 has the same kind of itemization remains to be seen. It is made by a different team after all and they may have their own ideas.

hopefully they try to emulate the original instead of trying to re-invent the wheel with bloated "systems" like every AAA RPG studio tried to do.

 

[Lacrymas]

The biggest hurdle in hack and slashers is making us care about it after having completed the campaign. PoE's and Last Epoch's "mapping" isn't it, imo. Grim Dawn is pretty good in this respect because it has a bunch of end-game content that is actually challenging.

 

[Zlaja]

The biggest hurdle in hack and slashers is making us care about it after having completed the campaign. PoE's and Last Epoch's "mapping" isn't it, imo. Grim Dawn is pretty good in this respect because it has a bunch of end-game content that is actually challenging.

I prefer the old-school approach, where you simply replay the campaign with tougher monsters and better loot. I'm sick of this 'end-game' horseshit.

 

[Lacrymas]

While I appreciate the sentiment, that gets old pretty fast and it depends on the quality of the campaign, which is usually subpar in these types of games.

 

[Zlaja]

While I appreciate the sentiment, that gets old pretty fast and it depends on the quality of the campaign, which is usually subpar in these types of games.

I didn't need 'end-game' content to enjoy the likes of D2, TQ and Sacred 1, and those are my favorite games in this genre. You can't reduce the campaign in these type of games to a prolonged tutorial, like they're fucking MMOs or something.

 

[Sensuki]

I'm also perfectly fine with the "Diablo 2" format for the campaign. That's what Titan Quest was, and I think trying to use a newer (less good) genre convention would be a mistake.

 

[Lacrymas]

You need some kind of challenge content because you've essentially beaten the game once you complete the campaign on the hardest difficulty. Why farm more items when there's nothing to use them for? GD's Crucible, roguelike dungeons and Shattered Realm are great for this. Even TQ has that one endgame dungeon you need keys for.

 

[Hobo Elf]

The campaign is the challenge as is the case in D2 and TQ. Modern ARPGs suck ass with their campaign = brain dead easy tutorial, grind = REAL game approach.

Why farm more items when there's nothing to use them for?

I guess you don't? The whole point of random item drops was to add spice to replays, not make it an endless hamster wheel grind. I really don't understand this idea that you have to be able to grind forever in a game. Just enjoy and move on.

 

[ArchAngel]

Maybe they make it more RPG like similar to Spellforce games but with no RTS parts. I would like that. With lots of quests, subquests, cool companions and stories.

 

[wideman]

This is cool. All new H&S games are really online based, borderline mmo's. Maybe this can fill in the gap for people who like to hack it solo.

I, for one, am pretty excited to see how the game unfolds. I don't mind end game 'mapping'. Adds a nice gameplay loop where you can casually flex your character for 30 mins, and not care too much about the story, world etc.

 

[Sensuki]

You need some kind of challenge content because you've essentially beaten the game once you complete the campaign on the hardest difficulty. Why farm more items when there's nothing to use them for? GD's Crucible, roguelike dungeons and Shattered Realm are great for this. Even TQ has that one endgame dungeon you need keys for.

Again, perfectly fine with the Epic and Legendary type upper difficulty levels with better drops, and bosses exclusive to those levels.

 

[Lacrymas]

Why farm more items when there's nothing to use them for?

I guess you don't? The whole point of random item drops was to add spice to replays, not make it an endless hamster wheel grind. I really don't understand this idea that you have to be able to grind forever in a game. Just enjoy and move on.

Not forever and it won't be a grind if it's challenging. Random items spicing up replays might've been the idea when developing Diablo 1, but a lot of itemization after that points to different goals. Set items for example. There's no way to get a complete set without some kind of grind. Crafting as well, there's no way to get enough items to craft a bunch of stuff. Besides, there's no way for the game to be challenging if you can complete everything with minimal gear, hack and slashers aren't exactly know for their intricate gameplay.

 

[deama]

I'm somewhat excited for this, but with the upcoming POE 2, and POE1 dominating the genre, I'd be pretty dissapointed if they went the traditional ARPG route, they should definitely try to experiment with it, in somewhat big ways, not just like "combine two masteries and change your fate!" Type of thing where it doesn't really do much in the grand scheme of things.

That set, if they are going to make it somewhat generic, I'm hoping at least they'll have a good story/narrative, like what they made with the recent spellforce games.

 

[deuxhero]

I thought Pillars of Eternity was shit.

 

[Hobo Elf]

Why farm more items when there's nothing to use them for?

I guess you don't? The whole point of random item drops was to add spice to replays, not make it an endless hamster wheel grind. I really don't understand this idea that you have to be able to grind forever in a game. Just enjoy and move on.

Not forever and it won't be a grind if it's challenging. Random items spicing up replays might've been the idea when developing Diablo 1, but a lot of itemization after that points to different goals. Set items for example. There's no way to get a complete set without some kind of grind. Crafting as well, there's no way to get enough items to craft a bunch of stuff. Besides, there's no way for the game to be challenging if you can complete everything with minimal gear, hack and slashers aren't exactly know for their intricate gameplay.

They also gave you a shared stash when they introduced sets in D2 with the intention that you'd build up your set among multiple playthroughs. Runewords obviously were a base mechanic in LoD, but lots of cube crafting recipes and uber bosses were end game grinds they added a lot later to cater to the growing fanbase of people who wanted some endless chase to grind for. And as I've mentioned before on the Codex, LoD 1.10 is the basis for modern ARPGs, i.e the beginning of the decline. An ARPG with the design philosophies of a pre-1.08 D2 is what I and many people here want. A game where beating the campaign is an actual challenge that you overcome and then reroll to try again with a different character or play something else until you get the itch again.

 

[Lacrymas]

But I want shiny gear that makes my char look cool or enable specific builds.

 

[Hobo Elf]

I dunno, man. Go and play with Barbie dolls I guess.

 

[Lacrymas]

I actually did play with Barbie dolls once when I was a child but I found it sad.

 

[ADL]

I'm somewhat excited for this, but with the upcoming POE 2, and POE1 dominating the genre, I'd be pretty dissapointed if they went the traditional ARPG route, they should definitely try to experiment with it, in somewhat big ways, not just like "combine two masteries and change your fate!" Type of thing where it doesn't really do much in the grand scheme of things.

That set, if they are going to make it somewhat generic, I'm hoping at least they'll have a good story/narrative, like what they made with the recent spellforce games.

Agreed. If Path of Exile II is half as good as it looks and maintains that slower, methodical combat well into endgame then it will have ruined every other aRPG on the market for me. Path of Exile included. Making Greek Diablo 2 again with hybrid classing isn't going to be enough for me... Not that I expect this to be Greek D2 given the open world/mount stuff they're doing.

Now's the time to be experimenting with aRPG conventions and moving away from one button build "gameplay".

 

[Lacrymas]

Neither TQ nor GD revolve around one button builds. Not that there aren't one button builds, but they are surprisingly rare because mobs are tough enough to force you to use defensives once in a while. I'm almost certain the marketing for TQ2 says it will feature the mastery system again. Which is great, I think TQ and GD's build systems are the best in this genre and invite a lot of creativity, especially when paired with interesting itemization. PoE2's gameplay does indeed show promise too, but I'm not hopeful they'll keep it up for long. Zoomers wanna zoom zoom. There is a bigger chance of that happening, though, since PoE1 and 2 are going to be separate games, so why have the exact same combat for both? Seems self-defeating to me.