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his is the part of the Science Fiction Weekly review where the editor asks the writer to insert the story. Please take note, this will be a short paragraph. Titans of Steel is pretty light in the story department. It's the future (of course); humankind has expanded its horizons and empire, but unfortunately it has bumped into another expanding empire (the story never says who), and war breaks out. The war is expensive, so the empires look for a way to fight it on the cheap (I'm not making this up).
The mutually agreed-upon solution is to slap pilots into Titans, which are battlemechs by any other name, throw them into an arena, and let them have a go at it. Kind of like the WWF with 10-meter-tall biped weapons platforms. A little odd, no? Hey, I don't write these stories, I just report them. Odd or not, that's the gist of Titans of Steel.
Story aside, Titans of Steel is a turn-based strategy game that pits squads (four machines) of Titans against each other in arena-style combat. There is no campaign per se, but the men and women who pilot the Titans will get better over time, giving the game a distinct RPGish feel. In addition to gaming against the computer's artificial intelligence, up to four player may square off against each other in a multiplayer free-for-all.
Strategy play at a steep price
I had high hopes for Titans of Steel. High hopes that weren't fulfilled. This isn't a bad game. There is an endless depth of tactical options as you command your squad of Titans against the enemy—which weapons to use, how to manipulate the terrain to your advantage, which pilot skills to buff. It's the stuff that strategy dreams are made of.
Unfortunately, the game's steep learning curve and cumbersome interface will keep all but hard-core strategists from ever experiencing those dreams. The simplest functions, such as moving and firing weapons, take multiple clicks. Yeah, there are shortcuts for most of these tasks, but that misses the point. Gamers don't want to pay to be confused. And, unfortunately for Matrix, this stuff has been done before, and done better. Both Sierra's Missionforce: Cyberstorm and Square's Front Mission 3 do a much better job of depicting mecha combat (and were easier on the eye, too) in a more rewarding campaign atmosphere.
Yet those who have the time to dive into the game will find that there is much to entertain strategy gamers. It's not light strategy, it's not easily learned strategy, but it can be fun. Certainly the spartan graphics, text-heavy tutorial and click-heavy interface won't make any friends, but the depth of play may. In short, hard-core strategists might want to pick up a copy, but everyone else ought to wait for Front Mission 4 in 2004.
Too much work, too little fun. — Mark
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