A new Titan Quest expansion takes players into the realm of the Norse gods

It's been more than 11 years since the release of mythologic action-RPG Titan Quest and its single expansion, Immortal Throne. It was a "gloriously entertaining action-RPG," as we described it in our 2013 post-THQ roundup, but that didn't keep developer Iron Lore Entertainment from going under less than two years later. The property ultimately went to THQ Nordic, which re-released the game and expansion last year as the Titan Quest Anniversary Edition. And today, despite all that time gone by, it unveiled a surprise: A new expansion called Ragnarok that's available for purchase right now.

"Since the day we acquired the franchise in 2013, we've been toying around with ideas on what's best for Titan Quest. We were quickly motivated to do another expansion as we realized Titan Quest is still actively played," executive producer Reinhard Pollice said. "Unfortunately, it took quite a bit until we assembled a good setup for the project and meanwhile we made ourselves familiar with the inner workings of Titan Quest through the Anniversary Edition which was a huge overhaul of the original game. The end result is Ragnarok!"

As the title suggests, Titan Quest: Ragnarok will take the game into the realm of Norse mythology. It will feature a brand new playable act with "dozens" of quests, new bosses and enemies, a new Runemaster mastery, and an increased level cap of 85. Character customization options have been expanded, new shaders, effects, and ragdoll physics have been added, and the control options, interface, and modding tools have all been improved as well.

"We set out to create an expansion that is closely modeled after the size of Immortal Throne, both regarding playtime and geography, including items and monsters," design director Henrik Törnqvist explained. "However, looking at the finished expansions side by side in the Level Editor, the physical size of Ragnarok definitely grew to be a bit larger than Immortal Throne over the span of development."

And while the timing might seem suspect, there's no connection between this new expansion and the Thor flick that's now making the rounds: Pollice said everyone involved simply found the title "striking ... way before we realized there was a Thor movie of the same name and also in the same time frame as our game."

The new expansion requires the Titan Quest Anniversary Edition on Steam—the original boxed edition isn't supported—and is available for 25 percent off its regular $20/£18/€20 price.

Andy has been gaming on PCs from the very beginning, starting as a youngster with text adventures and primitive action games on a cassette-based TRS80. From there he graduated to the glory days of Sierra Online adventures and Microprose sims, ran a local BBS, learned how to build PCs, and developed a longstanding love of RPGs, immersive sims, and shooters. He began writing videogame news in 2007 for The Escapist and somehow managed to avoid getting fired until 2014, when he joined the storied ranks of PC Gamer. He covers all aspects of the industry, from new game announcements and patch notes to legal disputes, Twitch beefs, esports, and Henry Cavill. Lots of Henry Cavill.