Titan Quest

Titan Quest is an action role-playing game set in the pre-Roman Ancient World: these include Ancient Greece, Egypt, and the Silk Road leading through Asia. Players take control of an avatar: players are able to choose gender, name and tunic color. The three-dimensional world is navigated through an overhead third-person view, with the player character being controlled with the mouse through a point-and-click interface, while abilities are mapped to keyboard buttons. The environment is obscured by a "Fog of War" effect which blacks out unexplored environments on the minimap. Optional text tutorials for gameplay elements are unlocked progressively throughout the game and can be viewed at any time.

As they progress, players gain experience points through defeating enemies and completing quests for non-player characters (NPCs) scattered around environments: these raise a character's experience level, which grant access to fresh skills and points that can be used to upgrade character attributes such as health and energy levels, dexterity, intelligence, or strength. If the player dies, they respawn at rebirth fountains scattered through the world, although they lose some accumulated experience points. Quests are divided into Main Quests related to the central narrative, and side quests unique to particular areas of the world. Other NPCs can be found in towns and cities that act as Merchants selling equipment and items: these can be both bought and sold. Player characters have multiple equipment slots, which can take armor for limbs and torso, weapons or shields, and accessories that grant passive boons.

Titan Quest begins with a narration, detailing how the Titans once ruled the primordial darkness before the light of the Olympian Gods appeared: after a great war, the Titans were exiled and imprisoned, and the Olympians ushered in a golden age. An unknown time later, a trio of lesser Titans known as Telkines broke the conduit linking Olympus with the mortal world, and summoned armies of monsters to prepare for the release of the Titans. The player character begins their quest at the village of Helos, where beasts are destroying the local crops. Fighting their way through Greece, they learn of Telkines from a group called the Order of Prometheus.

After defeating the first Telkine beneath the palace of Knossos, the player travels to Egypt and attempts to restore the connection between Earth and Olympus. The ritual fails, and they must defeat a second Telkine. The player then pursues the final Telkine along the Silk Road to China. Pursuing the Telkine to the Wusou Mountains, the player is too late to prevent the release of the Titan Typhon, who travels to Olympus to destroy the gods.

Titan Quest was the brainchild of game designer Brian Sullivan: while he was working on Age of Empires, which sported a Grecian setting, he came up with the concept of creating a similar game while including the region's mythology. The concept work for Titan Quest began in 2000, when its developer Iron Lore Entertainment was formed by Sullivan and Paul Chieffo. The two brought together a skeleton team to create a demo with which to find a publisher. During this time, the game was described by producer Jeff Goodsill as being "on the drawing board".

The creative leads on the project were Sullivan, Chieffo, programmer Max McGuire, and artists Rich Sullivan and Josh McHugh. According to Sullivan, the pre-production process lasted over a year. Iron Lore's January 2004 pitch to THQ was successful, and development began once they had secured a contract in 2004. The initial staff up to that time was just nine people working in a small office area: when production started and further staff were hired, the team size grew to 38, which included temporary and late development additions.

On its release in the US, Titan Quest debuted at #3 in the dedicated PC game charts. In the UK, the game debuted at #25 in the multi-platform charts. In a later interview, Arthur Bruno stated that the title had sold "surprisingly well" despite a slow start, with combined sales for Titan Quest and Immortal Throne reaching over one million units by late 2008. It also continued to sell well on Steam, though exact figures were not given.

Titan Quest received positive reviews upon release: aggregate site Metacritic recorded a score of 77/100 based on 51 critic reviews. com enjoyed Titan Quest while noting that it stayed within genre traditions: he rounded off his review by saying "While it may not break, or even dent, any new ground, Titan Quest features a beautifully realized game world based on a tried-and-true core mechanic, with tons of replayability". Jim Rossignol of Eurogamer said that, while it stood high among its contemporary peers, Titan Quest did not evolve the genre enough for him to really enjoy it. GameSpy's Miguel Lopez praised the visuals, gameplay, character customization and editing tools.