We’re in a golden era for action RPGs at the moment. Last Epoch currently has my attention, but Path of Exile 2 continues to make great strides forward, its predecessor is gearing up for a new chapter, and Diablo 4 Season 8 is as robustly reliable as ever. If you love smashing mobs and snagging loot, however, you’ll want to make time for Titan Quest 2. The upcoming Greek fantasy ARPG recently closed the doors on its first big playtest, and in its wake developer Grimlore Games offers fresh feedback and an update on its release plans.
“First and foremost, we want to express our heartfelt gratitude for the overwhelming response,” Grimlore writes in a new blog. It reveals that 92% of survey respondents from the Titan Quest 2 beta described the overall experience as ‘positive to very positive.’ The playtest included the introductory chapter of the RPG, the ability to select your two masteries, and a battle against the first major boss, and the studio expresses that “seeing you play, stream, and discuss the game was incredibly motivating and showed us that we were on the right track in many regards.”
In addition to the positive overall response, Grimlore notes that around two-thirds of playtest participants “have recently played Titan Quest 1 or would consider themselves Titan Quest experts.” It says it’s satisfied that the appreciation from that group “means we managed to capture the Titan Quest spirit quite well,” while the similarly enthusiastic feedback from newcomers represents TQ2’s success in “keeping the old spirit alive while creating a modernized game.” Furthermore, an “overwhelming majority” say they would recommend the game to friends in its current state.
Among the big winners were the atmosphere and visuals, along with the sense of exploration, hidden areas, environmental storytelling, and narrative events. “This playtest only contained the smaller, more linear intro chapter, so expect much more openness and handcrafted quests, encounters, and events in the future,” Grimlore promises. It says it’s also content with players rating the difficulty at an average of 3.63 out of six; “This is a good place to be, challenging but not unfair. We want to strike a balance between engaging combat and an experience relaxing enough to enjoy after a long day.”
Of course, playtests exist to find areas of improvement, and Grimlore picks out several. It remarks on some players describing combat as sluggish or slow, saying, “Our goal is to make combat more tactical and meaningful, but it should never feel sluggish.” It’s working on improvements there, along with adjustments to the aiming system following some responses that mentioned difficulty targeting effectively with bows.
Grimlore is taking balance feedback into consideration as it works to fine-tune where abilities land. It’s also monitoring performance issues, although remarks that most respondents were happy with the current state and adds that it wants to focus more on this aspect closer to the 1.0 launch. “It’s much better to optimize when you have all the pieces in front of you, without new ones getting added and existing ones being moved around constantly.”
The team has already implemented “several smaller enhancements” in response to the playtest. Among these are some handy control options from first launch, allowing you to select between mouse movement and WASD controls before you begin playing. There’s also the option to select a ‘classic scheme’ based on the original that puts both movement and attack on the left mouse button. Finally, new visual effects have been introduced to make it more obvious when and where you have unspent mastery points.
In closing, Grimlore addresses the Titan Quest 2 release window. Previously, it was planning to launch into early access by early 2025 at the latest, but “realized there was a lot of noise with regards to ARPG in our targeted release window.” That’s putting it mildly; April saw new seasons for Diablo 4, Path of Exile 2, Last Epoch, and Torchlight Infinite. As such, the studio “decided to move the start of early access to summer,” adding that it hopes to announce a concrete date soon.
While we wait for that news, there are plenty more of the best games like Diablo to keep you busy. Alternatively, you can look ahead to the rest of the big upcoming PC games for 2025 and beyond.
You can follow us on Google News for daily PC games news, reviews, and guides. We’ve also got a vibrant community Discord server, where you can chat about this story with members of the team and fellow readers.
