Titan Quest 2 does it better

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PantsuFaust#0269 wrote:

What a mockery of logic i've just read? Goodness...


Positioning matters.
Dont lie - positioning matters in POE2. Nobody want to be crowded, stay in dangerous zone, catch projectiles or huge enemie's attacks.

it does but its easier to just use a skill that blast the entire screen into oblivion rather than position yourself wisely.

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It's beautiful:
POE2 has good graphics aswell, even techinally. So, i dont know what are topicstarter talking about.

i would even go to say POE2 is graphically superior and has superior animations too. even the randomly generated maps can look visually impressive over TQ. but that said, aesthetically TQ2 is beautiful where everything has been carefully crafted. if you're fighting on a high hill or even cliff, if you see some area below, its likely you would end up going there much later. i wouldnt say TQ is more beautiful than poe2 tho. nor would i say its on par. both are beautiful in their own ways.

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Loot matters:
TQ2 has really lame loot system: items are boring and has no variety yet.

yes and no. it depends on what you want in a game. i actually like the randomness of the boring loot we get in TQ2 more than POE. tho boring, the loot drops are generous and we can reliably be "strong enough" to clear current content without trading. to me i feel thats where loot matters. i dont want to rely on trade just to barely function.

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Difficulty feels just right:
Yes, fighting against 5 boars or spam "2" five times to defeat a miniboss is so exciting! Game is too far away from finished state. It has no "difficulty" yet.

isnt that the benefit of using a good build? i can assure you that playing a non tank melee is not easy.

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Abilities make sense:
TQ2 has "some" fine abilites, but most of them unappealing. As POE2 aswell. Nothing exciting here.

boring skills lead to a more easy path for balancing. honestly i'm sick of fancy ass skills that just blast everything to bits with no challenge. which is why i would rather play a survivors like rather than any modern d-like nowadays. its essentially the same thing. TQ differentiates itself there a little by being slower and more simple. i really hope it doesnt go into the full screen zoom zoom shit we have in other modern d-likes.

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Presentation seems better:
Just... what? "Oh no, a game is too dark, i want more bright game?" No any sense here...

i dont have much to comment on this as i think OP is touching on something too subjective. tho i would say it doesnt add anything to begin with. OP could have just skipped writing this.

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Combat feels more impactful:
TQ2 combat feels too spammy. I had no same sense not in POE1, not in POE2, not in LE, not in TQ1, not in D2, not in D3. Maybe, in Grim Dawn and Silverfall as playing some classes?

i do agree to an extent we're spamming A LOT of skills in fact. i dont quite like doing that tbh. so i agree with you on that. its an issue with the original TQ too. the main issue is there are too many timed buff/debuffs. if we could do away with those it would be better.

but that said, i do feel that if they fix that, the skills do feel more impactful. before i had access to all the buffs/debuffs, using a skill usually had a nice feel to it. a small payoff once in a while. compared to modern d-likes where the basic attack is the payoff over and over again.

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Perspective matters:
Actually, a main problem of the game: TQ2 has huge lack of core game mechanics. Without expanding this aspect game would be extremely boring.

i agree with both of you

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Less repetition through death:
Doesnt matter at all. You dont want to die anyway.

kinda hard disagree with you on this. tho i agree that you shouldnt want to die anyway, how death is handled matters greatly. one reason why i do not play soulslikes are because i dont want to run a long distance just to get back to where i just died. i dont play soulslike because i dont want to lose my "xp" and am forced to run back there to retrieve my "xp". dying is a penalty enough. add too much penalty and i ll just rage quit or something. is it a player skill issue? yes definitely but if you let me keep retrying with little drawback, i will! and thats how i git gud! i die a huge lot fighting bosses in TQ2 but with the generously close proximity to the boss arena on death, i can keep trying with little hassle. and i get good at the boss. now i m so good at fighting a seahorse which could 1 shot/combo me quite efficiently.

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Mastery system is better:
Hard to believe, but Titan Quest has only four masteries. Four... Four!.. Actually, i did not believe at first...

lol dude, tho i gasp that tq2 has 4 masteries, i would still say that i prefer the mastery system over poe's ascendancies any day. it allows so much build variety. games still in EA. let it cook

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It uses all game systems in a good composition:
TQ2 has huge lack of core game mechanics. Right now game cannot be taken serious.

agreed. tho its in EA. but i would point out im VERY pleased with what is in the game currently.

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Flask/Potion system seems better:
Doesnt really matter.

it does tho. in poe if you're out of pots in a boss fight, thats the end of your reliance on pots. in tq2 life pots reward you pot usage if you damage/kill enemies on the get go without needing to invest in any silly pot mastery. as long as you're actively trying to deal damage, you can regain your life flasks. while mana flasks are done in a way that dont allow you to spam too much.

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Boss fights seem better:
Another lie. POE2 has good enough boss fights.

i would say i agree with you halfway. POE2 bosses are extremely good. my fav boss fight is balabalablabalababurebbababsaba forgot her name. poe2 boss fights can feel epic. but i would say TQ boss fights tho basic in comparison can feel in a right place.

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Autoattack is more purposefully designed:
Lie... i did not tried every class yet (yes, just as topicstarter), but autoattack in TQ2 looks useless at all.

i like both tq2 and poe2 auto attacks. they are on par with one another tho they have some philosophical differences where TQ's skills are very limiting on purpose.

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Dash is better than dodge roll:
Dash=roll with different animation. Does it really matter even a bit?

they serve the same function but for my preference, i've always preferred dashing animation than rolling tho, and i really think that rolling in vidya games is more out of giving a mechanic for players to "reach lower areas" or actively dodging high/mid attacks.

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Almost Forgot:
Both games has no reason to change weapons.

weapon swapping is a good to have, but i honestly feel any game that relies on weapon swapping, kinda fails. TQ2 included. tho i dont feel like im forced to weapon swap in POE nor TQ so alls good.

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And maybe the most crucial point:
Cosmetic MTX or abandoned game after? D3 might be considered as a good hint...

the sad reality is cosmetics help continue the game dev after its natural lifecycle ended. i am not confident that poor ass gamers would just give money to devs with nothing in return.

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Probably, i've played another versions of TQ2 than topicstarter, because right now my version of TQ2 is unsustainable. Game is bland and has huge lack of basic mechanics. Needs MUCH more polishing than POE2.
P.S. And no, i am not a "TQ2 hater". I loved a first game, while i dont want to bump any aRPG heads against each other, because we are not supposed to play only ONE game for a rest of life... But right now TQ2 truly left a sad feeling of dissapointment.

it is unsustainable but i hope at the very least it has a solid single player campaign. not all games needs to be live services. and if i m being honest, i've already played poe for 10 years. i dont need another "forever" game. i want a good and fun game to play. i've played poe for 10 years. never dropped a mirror, hh, mb. if thats what it means to play a sustainable game. then i dont want a sustainable game.

let me play it once and finish it. or let me continue for more if i want to. i m tired of chasing things that essentially dont exist for me.

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ladish#6213 wrote:

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Johny_Snow#4778 wrote:

That's the point - as more things get added the price will also increase. At the end it'll cost double what it costs now. So well invested I guess? What a great start though, although not a fan of the huge areas.

Well hopefully they will still have some incentive to finish the game at some point.

Why wouldn't they? It is a big IP with a big publisher behind it. The only way it won't be finished is if the publisher/developer goes under for some reason, and even then it is possible for someone else to finish it. Early access games are dangerous only when made by nobodies.

I bought it. It's dull so far. I'm hoping it won't be later and will get better. I love TQ 1!

Does (can) Epic Games later lock you out of a game you purchase through them, or is the games yours once bought?

If Steam and Epic are both lockable, then I'll wait to try TQ2 out until it becomes available on a better platform.

I played a bit TQ: Anniversary Edition and it was........quite boring. The game did not age well at all. Probably the engine, but the fights are clunky and uninteresting. The gear is rarely interesting too. Having to click on each gold pile is annoying af and the prices of the items sold by vendors are pretty insane. There are so many expansions nowadays that leveling has been turned into a slog. Playing for hours to be level 16 at the end of Act I doesn't feel good. Especially because it is much longer than Act 1 in PoE. Enemies are usually reskins and even recolors of old ones. There is no guarantee that the bosses will drop anything worthwhile. Having most of your stats and skill points be locked behind the same amount of points you get every level. Not being able to equip magic items before level 3 and rare ones before level 8. The bonkers level scaling - having to fight bosses who are level 20+ when you are level 10 or level 8 normal enemies when you are level 14.


You get the picture. Thankfully, TQ 2 does fix most of these issues.

Good lord, Ragnarok is even worse! They doubled down on the worst aspects of the game and even included new ones.

- huge open areas that need to be traversed fully to complete quests
- a whole bunch of quest items which take up, and I am not kidding, half of the inventory
- asking you to look for someone who would need said quest item (screw you, I'll just google it)
- escort missions, no, really, ESCORT MISSIONS
- backtracking
- more than half of the enemies are reskins, and the rest are repeated over and over again. No, seriously, how many wolves and trolls do I need to fight?
- the minimap is definitely not detailed enough to show all the traversable terrain, so trial and error

I am sorry, but the graphics being quite beautiful cannot save the gameplay from being this trash. I really really hope TQ 2 would not move in this direction

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Johny_Snow#4778 wrote:

Good lord, Ragnarok is even worse! They doubled down on the worst aspects of the game and even included new ones.

- huge open areas that need to be traversed fully to complete quests
- a whole bunch of quest items which take up, and I am not kidding, half of the inventory
- backtracking
- more than half of the enemies are reskins, and the rest are repeated over and over again. No, seriously, how many wolves and trolls do I need to fight?
- the minimap is definitely not detailed enough to show all the traversable terrain, so trial and error

Spoiler

I am sorry, but the graphics being quite beautiful cannot save the gameplay from being this trash. I really really hope TQ 2 would not move in this direction

Same as Last Epoch. They reduced the backtracking a bit but still lots of filler zones and tons of reskinned enemies. Not to mention years old collision issues with Terrain and confusing overworld quest markers.