Bone Piles and Treasure Chests

Hack and slash is not for everyone. Let's face it, hack and slash is the epitome of mindless gameplay, and I love it. Not every game has to break your intellegence balls every time you play. Just as not every game has to pull you in with a compelling story line. Entertainment takes on many different forms and fills different functions based on consumer need. I purchased the Taito Legends (1) game just for Elevator Action and Space Invaders. Elevator Action is one of my favourites and a game that I enjoy picking up and playing every now and then. Purely for entertainment. As has been my progression with Titan Quest I haven't really been reading the dribble which spawns from NPC's mouths in order to explain quests. I click past them and check the Quest page to get the details.

The thing that gets me is what makes such gameplay addictive while being somewhat mindless and definitely purile. A good hack and slash has the addictive qualities of a poker machine. The endless random drops are the things which keep me coming back for more. The game is littered with Bone Piles and Treasure chests. Nearly every group of enemies protects one of these caches of random pleasure. Titan Quest has taken random loot drops a step further than Diablo. They have incorporated a graded form of magical loot. Going from your standard "Yellow" magical item to Green (which have greater powers) to blue and then purple. Blue and Purple magical items can come in the form of sets. Sets can be grouped together and when you are wearing more than one item from the same set you get bonuses for the items. It is these things which keep me clicking away and coming back for more.

I wouldn't classify hack and slash games in the pure RPG category because, ultimately, the stats don't really do much more than offer more power to the character. The story progression is completely linear and character variation does not differ too much on the gaming experience. Different character classes offer different abilities but that is about it. RPGs, for me, offer character development and an immersive story experience. For role play is about taking on the role of the character in order to advance in the story. Hack and slash is just that "hack and slash".

While I thoroughly enjoy Titan Quest, for all of its addictive qualities, I can sympathise with some of the reviews that I have read which criticise the game. It doesn't deviate much, if at all, from the formula established by Diablo. I could say that if it aint broke don't fix it. If the formula works and people enjoy it then use it and make it good. However, what more can hack and slash offer the genre? There needs to be a game developer which can take this formulaic device to the next level. There is no reason why a hack and slash game couldn't have large open environments without a linear pathway. Also, to have an open ended or multiple ending story to shape the conclusion. This would offer the game title a whole lot more than just reproducing more of the same. As far as I am concerned, someone is going to have to challenge the genre in order to keep it going because I just can't see hack and slash surviving the MMO nemesis without having a good makeover.

In the meantime I'll keep playing through Titan Quest. I want to do something with it that I never did with Diablo 2 and that is to defeat it on every difficulty.