Ah, Titan Quest, the action RPG that THQ Nordic and dedicated fans will not give up on — and for good reason, as it’s a great game, at least on PC. Out of nowhere, on December 3rd, THQ dropped a new DLC pack for Titan Quest called Eternal Embers. Once again, the hero is called upon to repel a new threat, this time in Asia and Egypt.
Before diving into the expansion, a bit of history for you. I remember seeing Iron Lore show off Titan Quest way back at E3 in 2006, and I was enamored with the game — over 1,000 unique items? Awesome isometric graphics, an intriguing story, etc? They nailed it, and a year later they would release an expansion called Immortal Throne. Iron Lore would shutdown the following year, and so there was this decade-long drought of no new official content until THQ brought us Titan Quest: Ragnarok four years ago, and Titan Quest: Atlantis about two and a half years ago. Both of these expansions were developed by Pieces Interactive, and both were pretty solid as you might read in my reviews. Oh, we also saw the release of Titan Quest: Anniversary Edition in 2016, which ensured smooth playability on modern systems, and so on.
Fast forward to present, and we have the fourth expansion pack, Eternal Embers. This expansion was developed by Digital Arrow, who have Aquanox: Deep Descent and inMomentum to their name, according to Steam. It features a new epic quest that is comprised of four chapters. An all new storyline set in the Far East will have players interacting with some legends of Asian mythology like the Dragon King of the Four Seas and the Jade Emperor. Being a major DLC, some quick numbers might give a good idea of what you can expect in Eternal Embers: over thirty new enemies+bosses, one new Mastery (Neidan, a mystical alchemy that gives potions an extra boost, amongst other things), new armor, weapons, gear, relics and charms, seven new potions, around a dozen or so hours of play, and at a price point of $20. That’s about the easiest way to sum up this expansion pack; there’s a lot of new content. In terms of locales, the high-up Asian areas were beautiful, some of the Egyptian areas felt familiar, but overall it’s still a really pretty game with a lot of nice art and animations. All that said, a lot of the content of this expansion did feel familiar, and that’s probably to be expected at this point. It’s reasonable to think that a lot of assets and area designs were re-used from previous content, but it had been long enough since I played Titan Quest and the content was interesting and fresh enough that it didn’t taint the experience.
One thing to note is that Eternal Embers requires a Legendary class player, which is to say, level 70 or higher. Most people won’t have a character ready at this level, and THQ was mindful of this as they included the ability to create a Legendary character from the get-go. The only catch with this is that your inventory will still be scant as you dive into battle, but at least this gives players a chance to experiment with Legendary class builds and to get to the new content without having to work their way up to it. You cannot take this build to any other difficulty than Legendary difficulty, though.
As far as playing Eternal Embers, well, it’s pretty much on par with what you would expect at this point from an old game that has had three big DLCs already — even with a different developer at the helm this time, you’re still going to get an addictively fun action RPG that is a treat to play. I enjoyed the new locations and bosses a lot, as well as the Oriental-themed equipment. There isn’t anything different here that is going to draw you in if you haven’t already enjoyed Titan Quest, but if you are a returning player, which is exactly the demographic this DLC was made for, I think you’re in for a great time.
In sum, the surprise release of the fourth DLC is great news for anyone that enjoys this game. There is enough quality content in Eternal Embers to warrant a purchase, but it’s also clear that it’s time for Titan Quest to get a full-blown, AAA-level sequel. The bones of Titan Quest are still excellent, but they are very much showing their age in some respects. I don’t think anyone would disagree that it’s time for a proper sequel to be the next big news we hear about Titan Quest. Until then, though, it’s easy to recommend Eternal Embers to anyone that wants to take on another epic quest in the Titan Quest universe.
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