Titan Quest 2 Early Access preview — Gods and Monsters

There’s no doubt that games like Diablo IV and Path of Exile 2 are sucking the oxygen out of the room.  The latter may be in Early Access, but both are like a bullet train through the ARPG genre. I’m here to say that both now have a very serious contender, and that game is Titan Quest 2.  

Titan Quest 2 is currently in Early Access and it’s already hitting beats that the other two aforementioned games took a patch or three to achieve.  The game starts simply enough, and very similarly to the original which came out a whopping 19 years ago, with a side jaunt to the Anniversary Edition in 2016. The team at Grimlore are now bringing this game back to life, but with nods to the past and present, but also a solid shot at what the future might be. It’s all early, but it’s already well on its way.  I dug into it for a few dozen hours, so let’s talk about what’s here, what’s in motion, and where it’ll hopefully land.

As I mentioned, the game starts in a familiar place – you’re a level one, practically useless, and utterly devoid of weapons or armor.  Your newbie self is ill-equipped to save the world, but as you gaze into the distance overlooking a shipwreck as the waves lap the shore you can see a nearby town under attack by what appears to be a gryphon.  You’ll need a little more oomph than what you’ve got to have any chance of stopping it. Worse still, Fate’s plans for you have met a whole new challenge – Nemesis.

Nemesis is the Goddess of Retribution.  Capricious, she has corrupted the Threads of Fate and condemned mankind to eternal punishment.  The Gods, as they often do, have stepped in and chosen a champion to face off against Nemesis, and that hero is you.  

Kicking things off you’ll pick from three difficulty levels – Neophyte, Normal, or Hardcore, the latter being a traditional “hardcore” mode.  If you die, your character is forever lost.  With your difficulty selected, you’ll choose between 16 masculine and 16 feminine characters, culminating in giving this character a name. Picking up vendor trash gear, you’ll swat down enemies like boars, snakes, and other small creatures. Before long you receive a blessing from the Gods, and that’s where the real decisions begin.  

When you level up you’ll be given a chance to add points to a circular stat system that immediately reminds me of Diablo II.  Agility, Might, and Knowledge represent the major adjustments to your stats, with Vigor in the middle to represent the core.  In between those major groups are subgroups that further enhance your character, but less generally.  For example, Fitness is the base stat for striking and piercing damage.  Cunning is used for poison and lightning damage.  Resolve is the last one, governing fire and cold damage.  The items and weapons you collect often have basic prerequisites linked directly to these stats – if a two handed sword is too heavy to use, you need to build up your strength to wield it.  It sounds more complicated than it is, thankfully.  

Once you receive your blessing from the Gods you’ll select from four classes – Earth, Rogue, Storm, and Warfare.  Earth are the masters of Earth damage, but can also pull stone deep from underground and fling them, crushing foes.  You can also sling fire, creating flaming barriers and burning everything.  Storm has similar powers, but they are the masters of lightning and ice, freezing and electrifying foes to stun them in place.  They can even summon storms combining the two elements into a devastating attack.  

Moving away from magic to the martial, you have Warfare.  Warfare heroes are the masters of weapons and audacious  tactics.  They are able to leap incredible distances, stunning and unleashing powerful attacks with any weapon you can find.  Dual wielding, sword and shield, or massive two handed mauls are your playthings.  

The final class is the most subtle one – the Rogue.  Rogues strike from the shadows, swooping in and attacking, then dashing out of harm’s way.  They can also use poisons, traps, and more to deliver death.  

As you level up further in the Proti Island Prologue, you'll unlock a second master to combine with your first.  For example, a Rogue combined with Earth produces an Ashstalker.  Combining both magical classes, the Storm and Earth, produces an Elementalist, capable of wielding both.  Warfare and Storm is a Tempest, and Warfare combined with the Rogue produces a Reaver.  There are nearly a dozen combinations to choose from, and it's likely we'll see new powers appear in Early Access.

The other half of your power progression comes from the gear that drops off enemies.  That equipment comes in ten forms – swords, axes, clubs, spears, bows, crossbows, daggers, staves, dual-wield combos, and shields for your off hand. The progression and their rarity is familiar from other loot-based games: Common is vendor trash, Magic has a randomly rolled modifier, whereas Rare can have multiple affixes.  Epic can grant higher boon benefits as well as more rare affixes and skills.  Unique weapons and Unique Jewelry are your legendary equipment that carries set bonuses and more.  All of these are in flux throughout the Early Access process, but it's fun to watch the loot flow.  

One of the other big changes for Titan Quest II is in how your hero moves. You have the classic movement style, as well as the click to move option, but it’s the addition of a dash mechanic that adds a whole new dimension to gameplay.  Fighting bosses that can slam the ground is likely to smash you to bits, but being able to dash away allows you to close distance and zip out of danger. There is a slight cooldown, so it’s not a get out of jail free card, but it links up to another change that’ll also require adjustments for series veterans – health.

The first game came out during the Diablo II era, sharing the same health system – if you got into trouble you could spam health pots as fast as needed to stay alive.  In Titan Quest 2 it’s closer to Diablo III and IV, requiring time for your health to restore.  Combined with the new dash mechanic, you have to be mindful of how you tackle combat.  Foes tend to hit a little harder than before as well, so act accordingly. 

There is another improvement that helps reduce, but not fully eliminate the friction of death.  When you die you’ll either respawn at your last checkpoint (the way the first game did it) or you can jump directly back to your corpse.  You don’t lose your equipment, so you are combat effective immediately.  This is a one time good deal, so if you fail to secure your corpse and take down whatever ate your lunch, you won’t have another chance, forcing you to respawn at a checkpoint instead.  

Graphically the game has gotten a HUGE shot in the arm. Characters, creatures, and this entire fantastic reimagining of ancient Greece are packed to bursting with detail, as is the armor you’ll pick up and wear.  Everywhere you look is some detail that helps bring the entire space to life.  Better still, these now have a bit of verticality, and occasionally opportunities to leap between outcroppings. Little nooks and crannies lie around every corner, encouraging adventurers to search everywhere for treasure and equipment.  Grimlore has done a great deal of work in this area, and it shows.  

While the game is in early access (the multiplayer is even marked “Do not review” and that it’s unstable, but that’s not been my experience), it’s remarkably feature and content complete.  Roughly 15 hours of content awaits any would-be heroes, and that doesn’t count replays with multiple classes.  The Pyrgos Village and surrounding areas are dotted with side quests to tackle, alongside the main quest.  The developers have already released a fairly detailed roadmap that outlines intent to release large swaths of content every three months, culminating in 1.0 in late 2026.   I’ll be eagerly awaiting that as what I’ve seen thus far has been amazing.  Congratulations to the team at Grimlore – you’ve got me hooked.  Now we just need to let them cook. 

Titan Quest 2 is available in Early Access on PC, with PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S coming after the game exits Early Access.  Fingers crossed on a Switch 2 version as well, though the team hasn’t announced anything just yet.  Mobile Titan Quest 2 sounds pretty great.  

Stay tuned for updates on this game and many more, right here at GamingTrend.com