Freebies: Feel like taking a walk down nostalgia lane? THQ Nordic is here to help you do just that. From now until September 23, the game publisher is giving away two critically-acclaimed retro classics: tactical strategy RPG Jagged Alliance (the Gold Edition, to be specific) and the legendary ARPG Titan Quest (the Anniversary Edition).
To be clear, this isn't a free weekend or a steep discount. If you add these games to your account before THQ's 10th anniversary promotion ends, they'll be yours to keep, forever. They aren't terribly expensive normally, but hey – if you can save yourself a few bucks and get a couple classics out of it, why not go for it? It only takes a few minutes!
So... What exactly are these games? Titan Quest's Anniversary Edition is a 2016 revamp of the original Titan Quest, first released way back in 2006. You know, back when we actually had to buy our games from the store. On discs, no less! Those were the days.
Anyway, the Anniversary Edition does a pretty good jump of bringing TQ up to scratch for modern systems. It has support for modern resolutions (the graphics otherwise haven't been touched much), the multiplayer connectivity system is more streamlined, stability and performance were boosted, new content was added, and various quality-of-life enhancements were patched in. Oh, and did we mention that it has full modding support, courtesy of the Steam Workshop?
All in all, if you want a fantasy ARPG set in the Hellenistic era, Titan Quest is worth your time. Or, if you're anything like me, a spot in your mile-long backlog.
Jagged Alliance's Gold Edition, unfortunately, has not changed nearly as much as Titan Quest. Aside from housing sequel Jagged Alliance: Deadly Games in its download, Jagged Alliance looks and feels the same as it did back in 1995.
That means you'll be dealing with an archaic, clunky UI, a lack of support for modern screen resolutions, and various other hitches and oddities that you'd expect to encounter when trying to run a 20+-year-old game in 2021.
Still, here's the overview: in Jagged Alliance, you play as a team of mercenaries whose job it is to free the island nation of Metavira from the control of its corrupt researcher-turned-dictator Lucas Santino. You'll participate in top-down tactical battles and then plan your broader moves on a big, grid-based world map. You'll manage your soldiers' equipment, and harvest materials from the local 'Fallow Trees' to earn enough income to keep your conquest going.
If you've played either of these classics before, feel free to leave your thoughts on one or both in the comments below.