Titans of Time is a 2D role-playing game for multiple players around the world connecting to and playing it through their browser. After creating up to four characters and choosing one to play, the game throws the player into a top-down tile-based ancient Egypt while refusing to offer any additional background or story. From this point forward, standard RPG game play like monster battling, questing and character development awaits, but Titans of Time also has some more or less unusual options in petto.
The game starts with four classes to choose from at character creation that all feature a different mix of the five basic attributes there is, and different battle options to begin with. When starting with a new character the player finds himself in a beginner’s zone called “Thebes” where a tutorial is offered and the first easy quests await, all of them being mostly of the killing, fetching or travelling-to kind. Once leaving the safe landing area the first monsters will appear that will attack the player when he gets near, thus forcing him into the first of many battles. The fighting takes place in real time with every combatant executing his offensive, supportive or defensive moves, then waiting for them to recharge. Many of these actions require mana to be spent. After battle, the auto-heal will do its magic, preparing the player for the next battle to come.
Successful battles and completed quests will grant the player experience, energy and faith points, and money and items. While gaining enough experience points is the only way to level up, thus automatically raising the basic statistics and earning a single talent point to spend at the talents tree every ten levels, energy and faith points can be used to train certain base statistics without a fight. While this is important, too, raising the experience level is the only way to gain access to new areas that not only are home to much stronger monsters, but also feature different themes like snow, jungle, or scorched earth. Money can not only be used to buy better equipment, but also to acquire new and improve existing battle options. The game also offers a tomb raiding mini game as an easy way to gain some money and points.
So much for the basics, there’s more that can be done. The player can learn one or more profession like fisherman or herbalist that will get better by sheer use, thus giving the player the opportunity to earn a little money along the way. Buildings scattered along the landscape can be entered and raided as instanced dungeons, typically containing a boss monster at the end, which increases the size of the play field. Furthermore, the player can throw the gauntlet and challenge a sequence of computer-controlled monsters in a special arena. Of course, there’s also a special place for player-versus-player combat, but such battles are possible in the normal play zones, too. Two or more players can party together, and can found a legion, thus allowing for increased social interaction. All the players’ actions are tracked by the game which allows for a achievement system to be implemented.
Last, but not least, the player can construct his own civilization, a feature that seems somehow disconnected from the rest of the game. Just like in other games of the build-your-empire kind, peasants can be recruited and trained for different jobs, resources be gathered for building construction and raising of an army that can be used to make war on the civilizations of other players.
