Tuesday, May 19, 1998
Even in space, ‘Titanic’ manages to crash
GAME: Stellar backdrops, talented voice-overs can’t salvage fun
from tragedy
By Trinh Bui
Daily Bruin Contributor
Don’t mistake "Starship Titanic" for the movie of the same
namesake. In fact, don’t mistake "Starship Titanic" for a real
game. This Simon & Schuster project brought together a group of
talented, award-winning designers and writers for what seemed like
a good idea: mixing British humor with state of the art
technology.
Douglas Adams, the creator of "Hitchhiker’s Guide to the
Galaxy," adapts the cheeky humor and ironic twists of fate from his
popular book to the bits and pixels of the computer screen. The
story is based loosely on the actual accounts of the "Titanic".
Adams’ "Titanic" is a super space liner guaranteed not to crash
– of course, for the story to move along, the "Titanic" does crash,
right into the player’s house. From there the game begins, and the
story shifts to the luxury liner with its beautifully composed art
deco rooms. Behind the layers of computer wizardry lies a simple
game. The crashed "Starship Titanic" loses its navigational system
and leaves the robot crew members to operate without orders, and
it’s up to the gamer to fix these problems and return to Earth.
Moving through the rooms, players confront mind puzzles and clues
that must be solved in order to win the game.
For this project, Adams called upon the talents of Monty Python
veterans John Cleese and Terry Jones. Cleese and Jones lend their
voices to the project as a bomb and a deranged parrot, adding their
unique sense of humor and delivery to the game. Talent does not end
with the voices, as Oscar winning designers Oscar Chichoni and
Isabel Molina handled the design of the game. The sharp metallic
colors and retro art deco designs gives the game a sleek,
futuristic feel. A feature unique to "Titanic" is the 12,000
different phrases the robots can say. Players input any type of
question or statement, and the robots return with the proper
answer. With so much energy and labor put into the aesthetics, it
is a dispirited experience in game play.
Though "Titanic" is a game, the plot moves like a book
concentrating the story on the robots and player. Adams wrote the
game with character and humor in mind but forgot to take into
consideration how to move the game. Players can spend hours
figuring out the disjointed controls and awkward movement of the
screen. The rooms’ elaborate composition blends the buttons and
items with the background, making simple tasks like opening a door
or finding items a challenge in itself. Exploring the luxury liner
is limited to 26 rooms, and most areas are restricted from players
until later stages of the game, creating frustration.
"Titanic’s" game format follows in the footsteps of "Myst," with
characters acting in front of pictures and no real continuous
environment. Moving in "Titanic" means rotating from one still
picture to the next without actually walking to the area. This type
of play experienced its prime five years ago and seems too archaic
for today’s standards. The suggested computer firepower for this
game is minimal but playing on a 300 MHz computer helps
tremendously. But even with a fast processor, slowdowns occur.
Adams deserves credit for spinning a comedic adaptation of a
terrible tragedy without being crass, but he also totally misses
the point about "playing" a game. Too much effort went into
gathering big names and gimmicky features devoid of any game play
values.
"Titanic’s" world, arranged in exquisite shades with jabbering
robots, is easy on the senses. But throw away the bells and
whistles decorating "Titanic," and the naked product dulls rather
than excites.