Titan Quest [PC]

There are three distinct worlds (or are there...?) in Titan Quest, each with a unique look, unique items, and (mostly) unique creatures. Although there are no random levels, the later game opens up with enough side quests that you don't feel like you're playing Dungeon Siege, being shunted from one canned encounter to the next. The flip side of not having Diablo's tile-based random-level generator is that every nook and cranny is built by hand. And it looks it: Titan Quest is a gorgeous game on many different levels.

The monsters look great, the style of the different areas is moody and evocative, the animations are top notch, and it's full of impressive touches like the way grass rustles when you walk through it or how the shadow of a lowly bat in a dungeon can look like you're being attacked by something fearsome and huge. These state-of-art lush visuals are yet another way that Titan Quest is no Diablo. Good luck trying to go back to Diablo's 800x600 two-dimensional graphics after a taste of this high-resolution splendor.

As far as the balance goes, Titan Quest seems to be missing a money sink, since you'll find yourself flush with cash after about 10th level. This can come in handy with mystics, who can be paid to undo your skill points and let you re-spend them. Each point gets progressively more expensive, but it's a great way to keep you from being locked into a character build that you might not enjoy, and it makes those difficult skill point choices less final. Also, some of the skills seem so focused that they're hardly worth the points, such as the Spirit mastery counters to undead and the Nature mastery counters to animals.

Some players will be disappointed that there's only one character model for each gender -- and indeed, it's a little strange to have a multiplayer party composed entirely of the same dude -- but after a few levels, your equipment will distinguish you readily enough. More disappointing is the lack of any provision to save or exchange equipment among your characters. Since Titan Quest encourages trying different character builds, it's a missed opportunity when your warrior finds the perfect staff for your magic-user, but there's no way to transfer it (which also makes the prospect of completing sets of legendary equipment sheer folly).

This, by the way, could have been a perfect money sink: charging characters to set aside inventory items to twink their lower level alts, or to save in case they find the other pieces of a set. Perhaps most disappointing is the lack of any provision for secure online characters, which robs Titan Quest of any high-stakes multiplayer support.

As a multiplayer game, however, the character system really comes into its own when you have several players cooperating (which they better do, given there's no way to force loot sharing). It's smooth, fast, and extremely gratifying to tear through hordes of monsters faster than you could by your lonesome. Titan Quest captures beautifully that zen state of party-driven action-RPG hack-n'-slash bloodlust. Before you know it, four, five, or six hours are gone forever.

In a game this good, those lost hours add up. In the final analysis, Titan Quest is one of those rare games where the ratio of time spent to the cost of the game makes for some of the most efficient entertainment this side of Oblivion or Civilization IV. If you're looking for a way to burn through the summer of 2006, Titan Quest is one of the quickest ways to September.