Developer: Iron Lore Entertainment, THQ Nordic
Publisher: THQ Nordic
Platforms: PC, Android, Xbox One, PS4, Switch
Tested on: PC
Titan Quest: Eternal Embers DLC – Review
Back in the early and mid-aughts, isometric dungeon crawlers were all the rage following the enormous success of Diablo and its sequels. One of the games released during this period was Titan Quest, originally coming out in 2006 and being remastered as Titan Quest: Anniversary Edition in 2016. Ever since this second release, the game has received several DLCs, with the latest being Eternal Embers. Here is what this expansion has to offer.
Story
Eternal Embers’ story follows similar beats to that of the base game: A nebulous mythological evil has risen and attacked the East, for which the player has been summoned to defeat. Throughout the expansion, this story is slightly developed at points, but it never becomes the game’s focus. Alongside the information conveyed through quests and cutscenes, players will also be able to find pedestals containing additional lore about the world, although these are far and few between.
Graphics
Despite not being an actual new game, Titan Quest: Anniversary Edition’s graphics are rather good thanks to their remastering and largely hold up. By extension, the same can be said about Eternal Embers, where the level design also stands out from the base game, with vibrant colors and styles befitting the regions of the world they’re based on.
Sound
Similar to its graphics, Eternal Ember’s sound design is also quite decent, with a good soundtrack and SFX, although the first is reduced to mere background music due to the nearly constant battle sounds. The game also contains full voice acting for its dialogues, which remains serviceable, even if it doesn’t particularly stand out.
Gameplay
As previously stated, Titan Quest is an isometric dungeon crawler. Featuring hack-n’-slash combat and RPG progression, the game’s primary gameplay loop sees the player wandering the world while defeating hordes of enemies. These enemies will drop loot such as money or equipment on death, allowing players to keep up with the increasing difficulty.
While it could be argued the game is designed as an open world, the progression through its segments is completely linear. Despite major cities featuring teleport points that may be accessed at any given time, players have barely any incentive for going back to previous areas. This is because the items and enemies do not scale with the overall progression. All of this remains the same in Eternal Embers, of which the area design is almost the epitome of linearity. Only in the Egypt section of the DLC will players encounter larger areas to roam, although these will be rather empty for their size.
Besides the new regions and story content, Eternal Embers also adds a brand new Mastery to the game. This Mastery is part of the specialization system the base game offers, where players will be able to choose up to two mastery paths to pursue. Each of these paths offer unique active and passive skills, relying either on Strength, Intelligence, or Dexterity.
The new Mastery brought by the DLC receives the name of “Neidan” and is largely focused on applying status effects to both the player and enemies. These effects are applied at random with the player’s active abilities and the standard attacks, as well as when potions are drunk. Unluckily, being based on random chance effects, the Mastery is rather unreliable in most cases, with abilities generally being weaker than those of other specializations.
Besides this, one of the most notorious things Eternal Embers brings to the table is the possibility of creating a character directly on the Legendary difficulty. Doing so will generate the character at the very beginning of the DLC with level 70. Upon progressing a few minutes, players will also be granted a set of legendary equipment to start with, thus making this option one of the best for experienced players looking to dive into the new content directly.
Although quite obvious, it should still be noted the DLC’s content is only aimed at experienced players. Those interested in experiencing the game will only be met with a frustrating experience, due to the expansion only being playable at said Legendary difficulty, the hardest the game has to offer. Without deep knowledge of optimal builds and the game’s mechanics, the DLC is reduced to an exercise in frustration.
Conclusion
Titan Quest: Eternal Embers is just more Titan Quest content for players who already enjoy the game. The consensus amongst the community is that, alongside Ragnarök, this is one of the best expansions for the game. That said, waiting for a sale is recommendable, due to Eternal Embers being the same price as the base game at €/$19.99/£17.99 and still being in need of some bug fixing.
Personal Opinion
“As a newcomer to Titan Quest myself, my experience with Eternal Embers was a mixed bag. While I enjoyed a glimpse into the advanced gameplay, my progression through the DLC was an absolute slog, only possible by cheesing everything with summoned creatures and sheer stubbornness. While I did not manage to finish the whole thing, I did reach Egypt, and having talked with actually experienced players, I can say experienced players will certainly enjoy playing through the DLC. Meanwhile, I’ll have to continue playing the base game until I become one myself.”
Titan Quest: Eternal Embers DLC - Review,
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