GameSpot editors' review
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CNET editors' rating:
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Detailed editors' rating
- Reviewed on: 11/15/1996
- Updated on: 05/02/2000
- Released on: 10/31/1996
- Originally published on GameSpot: Titanic: Adventure out of Time (PC) Review
On April 15, 1912, the H.M.S Titanic sank in the frigid waters of the North Atlantic, taking 1,503 passengers with her and leaving behind a legend. There have been worse nautical disasters, yet none holds the same fascination. Maybe it's because at the time the Titanic disaster was seen as one of the failures of technology and industry in a world still coming to terms with the industrial revolution. Many viewed it as divine retribution, since Captain E.G. Smith had claimed, "God himself could not sink this ship." Many are still puzzled about why she sank so fast, why there weren't enough lifeboats, and how the ship failed to see the fatal iceberg. What people remember most of all, though, are the individual stories of heroism and human tragedy: Captain Smith returning to the bridge of his sinking ship after seeing the women and children to safety, the band continuing the play, men saying goodbye to their wives and children and returning to the grand salon to die with dignity.
CyberFlix has managed to capture a small piece of this dramatic and oft-told tale in Titanic: Adventure out of Time. They haven't wholly succeeded, but they have created a title that is certainly interesting and often well-crafted. You can buy Titanic either as an adventure game or as a virtual recreation of the ship itself. In the former, CyberFlix sometimes falls flat, but in the latter they have accomplished something quite remarkable.
Titanic the adventure game begins with you in a small apartment in England at the beginning of the Blitz. You walk around for a few minutes, reading your mail and filling in the pieces of your character's past as an agent dismissed from the British Secret Service for his failure in a mission on the Titanic. Sent aboard the ship to trail a possible German agent in the years before World War I, your character, it's implied, may have been responsible not only for that war, but for the one that England, and the rest of the world, is set to enter in 1939.
As you contemplate the postcards and notes that tell this story, a German bomb explodes outside your window. Somehow, you are propelled back in time, waking in your cabin on the Titanic just as she sets sail. You have been given a chance to go back in time and successfully complete your mission once again.
Navigation through the game is fairly simple: the keys are your feet, and the mouse your hands. The view is a high-res SVGA window on the Titanic itself, and you can walk almost anywhere in the ship, talk to people, and interact with objects by clicking on them. This is a fully realized, fairly dynamic environment, though more of it should have been implemented (for instance, I saw the same guy walking the same hallway over and over again). Still, what has been done helps really bring the ship to life: You can inspect the china, walk the deck, and see people come and go. without even playing the game portion, and many Titanic buffs may want to pick it up for that purpose alone.
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