Submarine Titans

Pros • Rich environment with eels and sharks swimming through bases • Three factions, the White Sharks, Black Octopi and the Silicons, an alien race, to play • Campaign or individual missions can be played	Cons • Not true 3D rendering make the zoom feature nothing special • Clunky interface makes a slight incline in the learning curve • Without many ground units, it is not that easy to relate to the race you are playing
Bottom Line Three factions battle it out for resources and power at the bottom of the sea. Wildlife and enemies populate the depths of the oceans, which make for a beautiful setting to play in, but not what may be expected in gameplay. As a devastating asteroid heads toward earth, many take to the depths of the ocean to find a new life and survive only to battle a rival faction and a newly discovered enemy. The only hope for power is mining and extracting key resources, oxygen, corium, metal and gold.

Most apocalyptic-based real-time strategy titles take place on either a dry, arid and otherwise scorched earth, or demonstrate events that require evacuation of the earth entirely and actually making the gameplay take place on other planets. Submarine Titans goes deeper than most real-time strategy titles as far as the playing surface; not underground, but deep under the sea in a future where a comet has stuck earth and wiped out all life above the surface; which is why it is funny when you realize Australian-based Ellipse Studios developed Submarine Titans, a real-time strategy title that takes place entirely under water, considering that the land down under is actually one pretty arid continent.

The plot setup explains that an asteroid devastated all the land on earth, and those who had been experimenting on underwater living and transportation were the only ones who survived. The new undersea dwellers broke up into two factions, and after much tension, learned to coexist; sort of. In the midst of discovering a new resource, corium, a deposit left from the asteroid; the two factions once again fight; and further yet, an alien race was discovered living in an ocean crater. This background almost seems to contain too many elements to add into a story that really could have been quite simple – but it does allow for three distinct factions, which each have a modified interface. The alien race being much more different than the two human races, but still following the same model and requiring many of the same basic needs like gobbling up all the last of the corium.

Though the concept is creative, and admirable, the game itself does not live up to its storyline entirely. While playing the early beta of Submarine Titans, the game seemed quite promising; but then, after playing the first couple missions of the final game I was left with a bit of a sinking feeling.

As mentioned, each of the three powers has a slightly different interface, though each is a bit clunky, and the buildings and units definitely look different in the case of the aliens. This, and the fact that there are multiple resources to gather, means there is a bit of a learning curve that might just cause a few players to walk away from the game altogether. The resources are air, gold, corium and metal; and each requires their own mining and extraction systems. This actually makes it a more complex RTS game – but also requires a lot of micromanaging and the results are gameplay that just bogs down as a result.

On the plus side, there are different modes of play in Submarine Titans. Of course there are campaigns that will build up from a training and initial resource-gathering mission to an all out battle. However, players can also select from a list of missions to play, adding to the level of play and easing any frustration by having the option to skip to the next mission instead of being tied up on the coral reef.

You can tell that the developers went to great lengths to render the settings, as the ocean floor, plant life and wildlife are beautiful. Though the scale may be off, it is enjoyable to watch a shark or jellyfish swim by while scouting for new corium deposits, or planning an attack. But the fish practically outsize some of the buildings, and the submarines themselves do not measure against each other or the base. It is a shame that the developers didn’t do more to keep things in check here.

The flaws in the geography and in each faction are so: The ground appears to have a lot of texture, but does not seem to affect the travel of units or placement of buildings on the base. The environment is also not reactive enough, as is true with the wildlife, which swims randomly, but does not affect the gameplay; nor can the wildlife be affected, it is really just eye candy. Each faction has unique units, but only submarines and no scuba divers. It might not be necessary to have individual units like scuba divers, but the submarines that are built, and the rest of the buildings in the base just don’t offer enough personality to really care about them.

Furthermore, the graphics are rich and give a feeling of depth, but are not true 3D, the map is zoomable, but not in the way that recent titles like Metal Fatigue, Force Commander or Battlezone can adjust the height as well as the angle. Sub Titans can give the appearance of StarCraft at times, and I don’t remember opting to play SeaCraft, but Submarine Titans here!

Though slightly different for each faction, the interface builds mostly from the same model, with point and click menus. It should be easy to follow, but it can be a little bit tricky using some of the tabs and being able to tell which buildings and units need to be built.

In theory, this should have been a good game and had some high expectations, but in practice, it should probably dive back to the depths from which is came, and resurface after a few of the flaws have been leaked out.

Enid Burns

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