In the not too distant future, a comet strikes the Earth and virtually wipes
out all life on the planet. Small groups of humans survive by moving into
installations under the sea. Eventually, they form two rival factions: the White
Sharks and Black Octopi. As they make themselves busy by resolving their
differences through force of arms, they discover that a new life form was
"hitchhiking" on the comet. They soon find themselves in conflict with
this mysterious new race, the Silicons. This is the world of Submarine Titans.
As you might have surmised by now, the action in Submarine Titans takes place
under the sea. You must locate deposits of metal and corium to mine, which will
give you the resources you need to build production and research centers, which
give you the units you need to smite your enemies - Submarine Titans owes a lot
to the real-time strategy games which have come before it. However, the game is
not entirely derivative and does bring some welcome additions to the table. The
first of these is Computer Assistants. Computer Assistants can be programmed to
take care of some of the more mundane aspects of real-time strategy gaming (i.e.
resource collection and base defense). The AI of the Computer Assistants is
well-programmed, and a player can switch control over to the Assistants without
fear that they will mismanage his/her empire into the ground.
Another innovation is the ability of units to move at different depths. This
brings a pseudo 3D aspect to this otherwise 2D game. While the varying depth
levels do not seem to have a significant effect on combat, they have the benefit
of allowing you to move your forces more quickly through chokepoints in the
terrain. In standard 2D rts games, units would get stuck in a traffic jam of
sorts in such situations - now your subs can disperse themselves throughout the
game's five levels and pass over and under each other. The varying depth levels
also allow your submarines to hide themselves below rock outcroppings to lay in
wait for passing enemies.
Submarine Titans also introduces user-defined unit formations. You no longer
have to settle for the handful of formations provided by a game's designers -
you can now define a whole host of your own custom ones. In addition to the
formations, the game's AI itself is customizable. The player can design new AI
opponents from scratch or modify the game's existing opponents using a specially
designed macro language. Players can even trade their custom designed AIs or pit
them in battle against each other to see which is superior.
The game also comes with a scenario and campaign editor which will allow
players to design and share their own battles or maps.
Page 2 »
