
Switch’s success caught publishers off guard, and it seems portfolios are being raided to keep the steady stream of ports a-coming. Titan Quest – a revamp of the twelve-year-old hack-and-slash ARPG – is finally launching on Nintendo’s console following a PS4 and Xbox One release earlier this year. Reception was mixed on those platforms thanks largely to a host of problems including movement lag and loot falling through the floor. Has the extra time been used to polish a rough nugget into a portable jewel?
Well, kinda. We saw none of the game-breaking bugs reported with the other versions, although graphical glitches still abound. Environment textures load slowly, sporadically exposing grey level geometry. In misty areas one of our magical moves turned the fog’s bounding box completely white for several seconds. More seriously, our controls momentarily froze on several occasions and we experienced a number of crashes.

Hardly plain sailing, then. However, passing a rebirth fountain saves your progress and there are periodic auto-saves, plus a manual option via the pause menu, so we didn’t lose much progress. Considering the sheer amount of game, we’d say the Switch edition is both functional and enjoyable in its current form. There’s plenty of room for improvement, but Titan Quest on Switch isn’t an embarrassment at launch.
Your quest encompasses a globe-trotting hunt, from Greece to Egypt, through Asia and beyond. You’ll guide your warrior with the left stick through all manner of ancient cities and territories, despatching vile monsters and completing quests (mostly achieved through the dispatch of said monsters). The camera is fixed, although the right stick zooms in.
Your character auto-runs at enemies in range when you hit an attack button (‘X’ or ‘Y’). Keep tapping and they’ll run to the next and the next, with no further input necessary. Holding down the button brings up a directional cone, enabling you to redirect your target, but we’d have preferred a button to cycle through opponents. Much of your success relies on selectively aggroing enemies and drawing them away from the pack, which gets complicated when your character randomly targets a beastie in the distance and runs away from the group you’re fighting.

Character creation is as simple as choosing a name and gender; customisation comes from the gear you equip and your chosen Mastery, a branch of skills unlocked from nine possibilities. These function as classes and provide elemental moves and powers. You can choose a pure branch or combine two – we took a melee/caster route by combining ‘Warfare’ and ‘Dream’. Other Masteries better suit high dexterity users with bows or staffs.
Our playstyle consisted of lining up a bunch of enemies before casting a psychic death wave – which consumes Energy – and getting stuck in with a frosted pickaxe while the spell recharged. Pummelling the attack button reactivated our dormant Pokémon Go-related RSI, but the tactic was effective. Keeping an eye on your health meter is essential, as is having a large supply of health and energy potions to chug by tapping ‘L’ and ‘R’ respectively.
Later in the game, you encounter mystics who enable you to re-spec within your chosen branch(es). The original Immortal Throne expansion (which introduced the ‘Dream’ Mastery and other tweaks) is integrated here, although the Ragnarök expansion is missing. It’s apparently still coming to consoles – certain exclusive items and the Runes Mastery are currently visible, though inaccessible.

From the off, Titan Quest feels like a PC game of its vintage. Menus, sub-menus, weapon sets, stats, percentages – these things have been well-integrated into console games over the past decade, and while Titan Quest takes a decent stab at it, there are still too many steps required to perform simple operations. Inventory management is predictably tedious. ‘Y’ auto-sorts your gear but simply accessing your inventory requires pressing ‘+’, pushing up on the menu wheel and confirming with ‘A’. You get used to it, but three inputs to open your map is two too many.
Beyond optional tool tips, there’s refreshingly little in the way of tutorials, although it’s easy to miss useful info. For example, when the ground’s cluttered with loot, sorting the wheat from the chaff without picking everything up and scrutinising your inventory is tough. That is until you realise that holding down ‘A’ opens a box enabling you to select individual items and even compare with equipped gear. We’d recommend exploring the options menu, too – any loot below a certain tier can be toggled into oblivion. Handy.
The remnants of decade-old PC game design poke through here and there, which may fire up your nostalgia if you’ve ever lost months to Civilization or Diablo. The presentation on the main menu is authentically bare-bones. Dialogue textboxes are tiny auto-scroll affairs and spoken audio fades out if you walk away. The voice work is solid if you have the patience to stick around, although the audio sounds a little muffled.

Performance-wise, this port isn’t going to top the tables over at Digital Foundry, but it’s never less than playable. There are drops and dips, and you’ll certainly notice the framerate jump in enclosed spaces. As you roam the map compulsively wiping away the fog of war, you’ll see trees and terrain pop-in. Visually, some nice textures can’t hide the 12-year-old level geometry beneath, but a day/night cycle provides variety. There are some decent shadow effects and the water looks pleasant. Handheld mode softens the image significantly and screen text is a tad small, but that won’t prevent you playing on the bus.
Although online and local multiplayer options were unavailable to test, we did manage to try the vertical split screen mode by creating a second character. Two players are able to operate independently in entirely different in-game locations, though with predictable effects on framerate. Lacking access to the fast-travel network, the level 1 noob was stuck in the starter village, so our level 25 Harbinger teleported back from Egypt for some jolly cooperation. It’s a novel and unexpected extra, but not something we see people committing to for an entire quest.

Which brings us to the grind. Titan Quest has loads of content – around 50 hours depending on your skill and inclination for side quests – and you’ll need to battle every enemy you come across to be strong enough to take on later foes. Provided you don’t just beeline past enemies, you’re rarely forced to revisit an area (creatures respawn only when you quit the game). It’s fun, but hack-and-slash by its nature involves plenty of mechanical repetition, and the linearity of the game makes multiple playthroughs (and therefore exploration of different classes) unlikely for all but genre devotees.
Conclusion
A certain historical perspective and a touch of nostalgia will go a long way to helping you appreciate Titan Quest and its quirks. That core loop of killing satyrs in four hits before finding rare loot that destroys them in one is as compelling as it ever was. Disappointing visual glitches and the occasional crash give the impression that everything is held together with nothing more than sticky tape and a prayer, but it was never enough to stop us playing. Handheld mode is a massive boon for any RPG and, as long as you’re not expecting miracles, this Switch port delivers the core experience well enough to warrant investigation.
Comments 44
I love how this game reminds me of Diablo 2, but I am put off by all the bugs I was hearing about with the other versions. Glad to hear it isn't nearly as bad as it was on other plafforms, but it still sounds like this game could use a good patch or two.
Despite the fact that I have an interest in this type of game, the need for a patch and the markup for the console port makes it so I really want to wait for a sale on this one.
Broke right now but this is on the list! I hope they make a new one...
Finally one of the main genres switch was missing for me.
How does this compare to Baldur’s Gate? If favorably, I’ll totally throw down on it!
@Ryu_Niiyama I'm in the same boat now too. Just way too much to look forward to and too little to spend.
@Bombdotorg999 Exactly
I ordered this. I do have the PS4 version, so I have a good idea of what issues I am in for.
I have this from a previous month’s humble bundle, but I have Mac, not Pc, so I can’t play it yet. But Diablo 2 still runs great on the machine, so I don’t think I really need anything else. Maybe if this hits $10 on Switch I’ll double dip
Glad i didn't put a preorder on this one. How can they even publish a game this old, at that cost, with this many bugs?
@BanjoPickles oh, please can we have Baldur's Gate HD! PLEEEEEEEAAAASSSSEEE!
I want this game so badly but only the Xbox, PS4 and PC version are available in my crappy country!
If there is a massive sale - like the Xbox One version that is 7.99 now. I'll pick it up.
$39.99 in the US for the Switch version, is crazy.
Really dont like how they handled targeting and attacks. Let alone the lack of Ragnarok. Will happily wait a month for Victor Vran. Sad tho, because I wish this was better.
I was quite perplexed when I got Red Steel for Wii originally and found the game to include quite many bugs and one particularly crash-prone level that froze completely on me something like four or five times.
I'm not used to this from my console games, and I shouldn't like for this kind of thing to become commonplace.
@Agramonte Fortunately I got it for $25 thanks to pre-ordering back in December on Amazon.
If I had to spend $40 for this I'd pass until it was on sale.
Already have mine on the way. If you told me 12 years ago, that in a decade I'd be playing Titan Quest on a handheld device I'd have laughed hysterically and kept playing on my 19" CRT monitor as my GeForce spewed a volcano of heat out the back of my beige box to power it.
@BanjoPickles It's nothing at all like Baldur's Gate. Baldur's Gate is a story-driven CRPG with a D&D turn based battle system. It's slow, deliberate, and exploratory.
Titan Quest is a Diablo II clone, albeit a very good one that is superior in some areas and falls short in others, but almost equally classic. It's hack and slash, with a mythology theme instead of a demonic theme, and has more worlds, that are all connected via a connected journey rather than just warping to end the chapter and go to the new map....Mash X, sell loot, repeat. Go into dungeon, find dungeon entrance, sell loot, repeat. If you know what Diablo's like and like it you'll love TQ. But the story is very narrow rather than the exposition of BG, and they don't play much alike at all.
I have played this on PC some ten years ago, went through the expansion a little later and even a pretty cool mod called Underlord (if I remember correctly). In the meantime there was a stellar spiritual successor to Titan Quest released under the name of Grim Dawn and it had a pretty good expansion as well (just last year and another one is on the way). Going back to a rather outdated game after all that, for a relatively high price to boot, just doesn't seem reasonable.
I'd rather play something new, preferably a hack'n'slash made with Switch in mind.
@Tank207 Oh wow - nice. When I checked Amazon the physical edition was not available for pre-order. $25 is a good price for this. Enjoy!
Top down games should be good on Switch. Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire is on my list.
@NEStalgia besides hack/slash you have level up system. Which makes this game RPG/hack/slash. Don't leave that one out. For a RPG gamer a game to surely to get it
@Alucard83 A leveling system is all it takes to be considered an RPG? Not a personal attack, not even really disagreeing with you, I'm just feeling philosophical about the term.
The usage of "RPG" has gone so far afield these days from "Role-Playing Game." You know, as in a game in which you play the role of another person by making decisions as that character?
I suppose in its purest definition, most games are RPGs, but seriously though, what does that term even mean anymore? Whenever I see "RPG elements" what people usually mean is: it has a leveling system and relies on equipment for a sense of progression.
Sigh...
I wish THQ Nordic would add some polish to their games.
The German screentext of Sine Mora X isn't designed very well, This Is The Police has a few irritating bugs, Legend of Kay Anniversary sometimes crashes.
I like what they publish, but I would like them even more if they would release a game without bugs for once. I'm still interested in Titan Quest and hope the best for This Is The Police II.
I'll hold out for a Diablo 3 port before I drop $40 on something held together by "sticky tape and a prayer" that still gets a 7/10 when other games get absolutely destroyed when they have half the bugs and are a fraction of the age.
Been playing this a bunch over the weekend, and am rather enjoying it. That base gratification that I got as a kid from Diablo and Diablo 2 are quite prevelant, though the story has been pretty eh and some odd graphical issues.
Overall glad we got it. Especially as Actvision are still sitting with their thumbs up their behind.
That the game was buggy on the PS4 and Xbone originally and is still buggy now, makes me think the studio is either lazy or incompetent. I don't know much about THQ Nordic but this doesn't sound appealing to me.
If this game gets patched it might be worth a shot but highly doubtful since it's been out on other consoles this long (since 2006 for PC) without an update. I think I may just pass.
I've been eagerly waiting for a proper Diablo-clone.
Very excited.
A shame about the technical problems. Is there any chance it'll be patched? Doesn't seem it's worth the purchase until then.
Maybe Blizzard will show us some love and gives us Diablo III for the Switch. I'd love that. At least we still have Victor Vran to look forward to. Here's hoping that one's a winner.
I plan on getting this when i get paid
@Alucard83 indeed, is an rpg, but as a Diablo clone, it's squarely am ARPG which in it's day was more starkly divided against CRPG. Different subgenres of RPGs. But yeah i didn't mean to imply it's not an rpg, just a very different kind.
I will wait for Blizzard's Diablo 3 to be ported.
I would love to give this a go, but I just cannot justify that price for this. As many have said, if this drops to 50% off or more I would most likely download in the future
Sounds like it's the definitive console version, as ironic as that may be. The other versions were an absolute disaster. Sounds like they based this one off the mobile version which was much more stable.
Kicking myself for cancelling my preorder- I had it locked in at $23.99 from Amazon. I'll just wait for the price to drop 10 bucks and then snag it. The other versions were full price literal weeks ago. And now they are selling for 25% of MSRP. Switch version will drop too, very quickly.
Grim Dawn exists. It may not be on Switch, but it's made by the same people as this (down to the core of the engine being the same) and is completely superior in every way. I can't find this game worth revisiting when action RPGs have moved on. Has it really been 12 years? Sheesh...
I remember playing the original a bit and having trouble getting coop to work. Not sure I'd want to play it again. The only Hack and Slash games that ever stuck with me for longer than a few hours were Sacred Gold and Torchlight – and I bounced badly from both when trying to replay them now.
Damn, I was hoping it would turn out better than this. Victor Vran sounds intriguing but I would prefer TQ just because you can choose your character's gender instead of being stuck with a generic Van Helsing lookalike.
Yeah, like others have said, $40 for a game this old with bugs at that level sounds like a pass...an unfortunate one, but a pass all the same.
Downloaded this game today and so far I have had no issues with it at all. Plays well and looks good and the fact that you can take it with you anywhere is just an added bonus. This should easily fill the gap till wastelands 2 comes out or indeed diablo.
I got this game today I've been waiting for this since is was announced and it is really good just how I remember it.
Graphics are good and the game play is great I don't know what everyone is moaning about for me this is one of the best games I've played on Switch.
More games like this please.
@Tank207 How did you get it below the usual % that Amazon gives you when you pre-order? I pre-order games from Amazon all the time and I've never ever gotten a 37.5% discount..
@Switcher I think the price just went that low at some point after I pre-ordered and that got applied to my order.
It was back in December so my memory is a bit hazy.
I've played the hell out of this game on PC, recently bought the Ragnarok expansion but haven't given it another full playthrough yet.
This game is really fun, a true classic in any top 10 all time ARPG lists, usually coming in the top 3 for many genre enthusiasts.
I had no idea this was coming to Switch so I was excited to see it. However: as much as I'd like to have this classic ARPG on the go, the $40 price tag for a double dip on an inferior version to the PC anniversary edition with technical issues isn't justified.
A price drop and patches would motivate me.
Been playing this ALOT the past few days.
Great game!
Cant wait for the Ragnarok expansion.
Got this yesterday. Weirdly, I got it for $39.99 for a physical copy (which seems to be an error for Canada), while it is $50 on the Nintendo shop. Never would've paid $50 for this but so far, no having encountered any bug, I think 40$ is "fair".
I agree though that the interface would need some work, but otherwise I've been enjoying it a lot.
Oh, and first time I played, the game received a patch (quite large one, I estimate). Don't know if that fixed or improved anything.
I picked this up at a 50% percent off, for 20€ and so far i’m really enjoying it. I was a bit undecided because i already own Titan Quest on Android and IOS, but playing with the controllers on the switch offers a much better playing experience. The graphics appear to be improved from the mobile ports and the game runs at a constant frame rate. Although the switch port is more expensive, it really is the best platform to play it on. If you like Diablo and Sacred types of games you should pick this up. I’m having a blast playing this game again. The switch does get a bit warm and it does suck the battery quicker than most games is the only negative that I find.
@Bloodmetal I just bought it with the sale too. It looked a lot like helbreath( a game I used to play in older days) so I took the plunge. It's a good game and touch wood I haven't had any bugs/crashes yet. I do however agree with the console heating up.
Show Comments
Leave A Comment
Hold on there, you need to login to post a comment...