Reader Reviews

Titans of Steel: Warring Suns (PC)

by Kev Sale

Finding a large manual when you open a game can be daunting, so imagine the trepidation on finding a 52-page manual when I opened Titans of Steel. Don’t get me wrong; some manuals are padded out with background story to immerse you in the game’s world and characters. This manual has less than a page of background story; the rest is all pure game instructions. If you’re not an ardent RPG/turn based game fan, you may find all these instructions disheartening at first, I know I did.

The game is based in the distant future where wars and vendettas are fought using mech’s known as Titan-AT’s, that are piloted by “Jocks” and that’s about all the background you get.

On loading the game the first thing you notice is the soundtrack, tuneful stadium rock style guitars wail out from my speakers, I feel a strange urge to nod my head backward and forward, rhythmically. The music is provided by a band called Crownd, and as an ex-heavy metal disciple, I’m suitably impressed.

The game opens into the Command Centre, where you access the 3 main modules of the game. There’s a module for creating and managing squads of Titan’s and Jocks. A factory module for designing and modifying Titans and the Battlefield, where all the action takes place.

This is where it start’s to get complicated. Now I’m looking at the different types of “Jocks”. Humans, replicants, cyborgs and androids to pilot your mech’s, with abilities based on gender, dexterity, intelligence and so on. I’m getting worried; it’s starting to sound like Dungeons and Dragons with mechs. I don’t like complicated games, I want to learn a few basic controls and dive in. Nearly half an hour has gone by and I’m still reading the manual. Thank God the soundtrack is still pounding away in the background, it keeps playing more new guitar driven tracks and it’s stopping me from ditching the game.

I decide to jump in at the deep end and try the training campaign. As it loads, my fears find shape in the interface, there are control icons dotted around all sides of the screen, the graphics look poor by today’s standards and the instruction pop-ups are lengthy and difficult to read.

The game map, which you look down on at an angle, is divided into hexagons but the ‘fog of war’ prevents you from seeing much outside of the mech’s surrounding area. There are trees and other features visible, but the graphics are very poor. Think of Age of Empires at 640x480 in 256 colours and you start to get the idea.

Moving the mech is painful, although you can automate some of the movement commands, you still get the horrible screen jump as the mech moves from one hex to the next. The scrolling around the map is just as bad; you have to click to move one hex in any direction, each click accompanied by an annoying bleep.

I’m getting bored quickly now and the soundtrack has stopped, to be replaced by the most annoying sound effects imaginable. I don’t get this game. If it is meant to be a virtual D&D board game, why are the graphics so poor? Where are the jazzy cut scenes? It can’t be aimed at the thrill seeker, I’ve been at it for an hour now and all I’ve done is move the mech around a few hexes.

It’s no good; I can’t carry on with this game. If Alpha Centauri is the Rolls Royce of turn-based, sci-fi war games, then this puts me in mind of that turded Vauxhall Corsa I see every morning, flashy packaging but no quality or power under the bonnet. It would be a slur on the name of Skoda to make a comparison.

The only good thing about this game is the music and that stops playing once you enter the battlefield. A quick search of the CD finds four MP3 files that make up the soundtrack. I think I’d rather buy the band’s CD than the game… Hold on? Is this some bizarre marketing trick to promote the band? Good music on naff game makes music sound better... Maybe not, I wonder if the band played the game before letting them use their songs?