Titan Quest: Immortal Throne

"If you liked Titan Quest you will LOVE Immortal Throne !"

FOREWORD

Having derived so much enjoyment from the original Titan Quest, I virtually began salivating when I heard that there were plans afoot to release an official expansion pack for it ... I rushed out and picked up a copy as soon as it arrived at the shops ...

Was it worth my drool ? Or was it just a pile of pants ?? Read on ...

OVERVIEW AND OBJECTIVE OF THE GAME

Immortal Throne is the first (and we would hope not the last) official expansion pack for Titan Quest on the PC. It is set immediately after Titan Quest ends, and adds one additional act to the game for you to explore - Hades, the Greek Underworld.

Your new nemesis is Hades, who has decided to make his play for even more power and, specifically, dominion over the mortal realm (having witnessed Typhon's failure to usurp the power of the Gods of Olympus thanks to you). Therefore it is up to you to put a stop to his evil plans, and save the world (again) !!

Immortal Throne boasts a number of new features, including the addition of a brand-new school of training - the Dream School; a clock; pet behaviour; new weapons and armour, and a few others besides (but we'll come to those in a bit).

GRAPHICS - 9/10

Graphically the game is the same as Titan Quest, with a few nice new effects thrown in for good measure, especially where the Dream School of training is concerned. Blue is the main colour of that school, and many of its powers involve some BEAUTIFUL blue cracking energy effects which will leave your jaw hanging for a second or two when you use them for the first time.

The Greek Underworld is, graphically-speaking, a very dark and forbidding place to travel through. The developers have gone to great lengths to make sure that the feel of it AS a place of death, anguish, suffering and torment has been appropriately attended to, and you will routinely come across desolate places that don't exactly scream McDonalds to you, during your travels there.

The graphics in the Underworld are, as you will doubtless have come to expect from the Titan Quest titles, VERY very impressive indeed ... and just WAIT until you reach the Elysian Fields !! BEAUTIFUL work.

The new bosses and sub-bosses are also extremely well-animated, and there are plenty of them for you to meet and greet. In fact, most of the characters from the Greek Myths about their Underworld are present or referred to, so it really is a bit of a treasure-trove of animative glory when it gets going.

SOUND - 9/10

As with Titan Quest, the quality of the sound-effects, voice acting and music in Immortal Throne is very good. The music varies as you would expect, since the Underworld comprises such places as the River Styx (not a very nice area to hang around let me assure you), right through to the Elysian Fields which is very light and palatial (as it should be).

Throughout the title, the sounds are crisp and clear, with no muffling or difficulty in hearing or understanding what people are saying arising.

CONTROLS - 8/10

I have decided to increase the score from 7 (which I gave the original Titan Quest) to 8 for its expansion pack, because the developers appear to have taken on board some of the issues (especially with regard to the behaviour of the pets in the game), and re-vamped them for Immortal Throne.

You can now set pet behaviour individually for any pets you have under your control, stipulating whether you want them to behave aggressively (in which case they will actively go out and find and kick butt), or more defensively (in which case they will stay closer to you and not try and get killed as much), which is VERY very good to see.

Aside from that, the controls are virtually the same as Titan Quest. A second set of hotkey buttons has been added so as to enable you to have even greater control over your skills at speed (and I would suggest you map the ` key to be your button for switching between set 1 and set 2 of your hotkey icons).

There is also the introduction of a real-time clock - if you move your mouse into the upper-left corner of the screen, the game tells you the real time as per your PC's clock (which means you will know immediately when it's your bedtime, a BIT past your bedtime and SERIOUSLY WELL past your bedtime) ;)

All nice new little features to the controls which make the game a more enjoyable and complete experience :)

PLOT - 6/10

The plot of the title isn't particularly amazing - basically as I said in the overview, Hades has decided to make his play as, whilst Typhon's failure was pretty much complete inasmuch as you beat him DOWN, he (Typhon) did mess up Olympus pretty badly, and Hades has sensed that the time for his strike may be now. That being the case, your journey to meet him is pretty much a set of missions designed to enable you to get closer to him so that you can take him out.

There IS, however, one twist to the plot which sticks out in my mind as something I most definitely had NOT anticipated (although in hindsight I cannot think for the life of me why) - I was really surprised when it happened, and I would bet you will be too ;)

GAMEPLAY - 9/10

This is basically the same game as Titan Quest, but with additional goodies, so you can expect to have just as good a time playing it as you would the original.

Every additional element in Immortal Throne adds to the enjoyment of the game rather than detracting from it, which is great. The Greek Underworld will take you AGES to explore and complete, not in the least because it is VERY difficult in parts, with enemies that will rip you to bits in mere SECONDS if you're not careful.

The bosses are very appropriately designed and true to their mythical personas, from the Weird Sisters of Perseus' fame to Charon, Cerberus and Hades himself, the sense of foreboding doom as you approach one, and the ferocity of their initial attacks can often take your breath away - it's really quite Epic !!

There are a few new features beyond the ones I have already mentioned, including a new slot on your character portrait for what is called an Artifact. Artifacts are made from Arcane Formulae (recipes, basically) which you will find lying about the game. They are items which you can use to give your attacks new powers, often at considerable hilarity it must be said - firing tidal waves at your enemies or stealing their souls - that sort of thing.

REPLAY VALUE - 8/10

The replay value of this title is as good if not *slightly* better than Titan Quest, purely because it's like Titan Quest with icing on top. All the parts that made Titan Quest fun to play are in here, together with a fair few additional parts that contribute to the depth, duration, variety and enjoyment the game will bring you.

VALUE FOR MONEY - 10/10

As with Titan Quest, this title is pure value-for-money. You can buy both titles bundled together reasonably cheaply, and when you consider that many of the video games you buy these days don't last you a week, let alone a month, this one will keep you at it until you've battered Hades down, and even after THAT you'll probably want to go and do it again on the other difficulty settings.

OVERALL - 9/10 (This is NOT an average)

Immortal Throne is a very impressive expansion pack for an already impressive title. If subsequent expansion packs for Titan Quest are released, I can only hope that they are as complete and enjoyable as this one !!

MAIN GOOD POINTS

* Adds some additional tweaks and twists to regular Titan Quest, including a brand-new school of training (the Dream School).
* A brand new Act for you to play through - Hades, the Greek Underworld.
* Plenty of villains to batter and new characters to interact with (and often defend).
* Hades (who makes a great foe) is your primary adversary.
* Good references to Greek Mythology.

MAIN BAD POINTS

* If anything it is perhaps a little TOO difficult in places - it's never nice for a level 30 character to die in 0.25 seconds after all, but with intelligent play you can get by.

SO SHOULD YOU GET IT ?

Yeah, obviously only get it if you either already have Titan Quest or are buying the pair together, as you need Titan Quest in order to run it, but yes - if you liked Titan Quest then there is NO reason to suspect you won't love the Immortal Throne Expansion Pack.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 08/10/07