Titan Quest came out back in 2006 on PC, and now in 2018, THQ Nordic have brought this classic ARPG to the Nintendo Switch. But how does this 12-year-old game translate to the Switch?
Titan Quest has already become available for PS4 and Xbox One earlier this year, to mixed reviews, and those versions of the game came with game breaking bugs. While the Switch port isn’t free of all bugs, it didn’t have any game breaking ones. I did run into some frame-rate issues when the the action got heavy but nothing that stopped me from playing the game.
Your adventure in Titan Quest sees you start off in Greece, and from there you fight Titans and monsters from Egypt through Asia. Most of your time in Titan Quest is spent grinding to level up, fighting monsters and completing quests, oh, and collecting a lot of loot, although most of it you’ll never use or want, which will lead to you spending a lot of time going through your inventory to sort out all the junk you have acquired. While THQ Nordic have done a good job of trying to simplify the menu option for consoles, it feels like a lot of work to get to where you need to be and sorting out your gear. As you level up your character, you can choose from branching upgrade paths that act like class systems. You can put all your experience into one or split them and combine the two; I went for a melee and ranged skillset so I could both take out enemies from a distance with my bow and slaughter them with my sword up close. There are some auto-save points throughout the game, but you’ll mainly be saving your game by passing rebirth fountains.
The trouble with a lot of remasters or ports coming out these days is how to judge them properly. If it’s a game you played when it first released, you might want it to play just how you remember it, but if you’ve never played it before, then some of the mechanics might just seem dated. Unfortunately, this is how Titan Quest feels for me. Your character creation is very basic: You pick a gender, name and a colour……that’s it. Further customization comes from the equipment that you gather. Your character will auto-run to engage with enemies, which can be annoying when you’re surrounded and trying to break up the pack. When you move the character yourself, it’s like there is an invisible grid where you character is headed as he will move to a certain point, even if that’s not where you wanted him to go.
THQ Nordic have updated the graphics from its original release on PC, and the environments look great, but it’s a shame they didn’t improve the animations for when your character is fighting since they look stiff and almost motionless. Although the voice work is great in Titan Quest, there are times when you just want to skip ahead through the dialogue and read the text instead, but the text is far too small to read.
Titan Quest fills a gap in the Nintendo Switch at the moment with no similar types of games, like Baldur’s Gate or Diablo, coming to the system anytime soon. If you played Titan Quest when it first came out on PC and you’re looking for some nostalgia, then this game might be the perfect fit for you. On the other hand, if this is your first stab at the game, then be prepared to play a game that feels like it’s lagging behind modern games of this genre.
Developer: Iron Lore Entertainment
Publisher: THQ Nordic
Platform: Nintendo Switch
Release Date: 31st July 2018
For more information on Titan Quest, check here
For another review on a game available for the Switch, check out our review of Sonic Mania Plus here