Submarine Titans Preview

Ellipse Studios' Submarine Titans is a real-time strategy game, and like other RTS games that came before it, it'll have real-time strategic combat, resource gathering and management, and research and technology trees. In addition, it will take place in the far future. However, unlike any other real-time strategy game, Submarine Titans won't take place on a strange alien planet or in a barren, post-apocalyptic desert - instead, it will take place underwater on the ocean floor.

That's because according to Submarine Titans' story, the entire world has been buried beneath the waves. Apparently, in the mid-21st century, an enormous comet composed entirely of a previously unknown radioactive substance crashes into planet Earth. The crash - and the resulting radioactive fallout - not only eliminates nearly all life on Earth but also wreaks havoc on its climate, actually causing a second ice age. Earth's few survivors are forced to flee beneath the ocean's waves and remain there. Some years later, the second stage of the fallout - massive global warming - takes place. The ice caps thaw and give rise to huge oceans that eventually cover all of Earth's land.

In the meantime, the survivors, tucked away in waterproof structures on the ocean floor, diverge into two groups. One group wants to take control of the world and all its survivors; the other wants to restore political freedom for Earth, as well as restore some sort of ecological balance to the planet itself. As time passes, these two groups become two formal political factions. Those who wish to conquer Earth are known as the White Sharks, and those who want peace are known as the Black Octopi. The two factions are unable to resolve their differences and eventually declare war on each other. Both the White Sharks and the Black Octopi begin mobilizing their respective armies of attack submarines, depth-charge bombers, stealth ships, and more.

Shortly after the war breaks out, the two factions discover that the comet itself was composed of a powerful source of energy called Corium, and each faction scrambles to collect fragments of the comet from the ocean floor to power its army. However, when they approach the remains of the comet itself, both groups are routed by a previously unknown alien race called the Silicons, which had apparently hitched a ride to Earth on the comet. Now each of the three factions must prepare to defeat the other in a fight to liberate - or conquer - the world.

Based on what you've heard and seen of Submarine Titans so far, you may have noticed more than a passing resemblance to Starcraft, Blizzard's immensely popular real-time strategy game. After all, Submarine Titans is a futuristic real-time strategy game with resource management of exotic minerals, prerendered units, and three playable sides. Maybe Submarine Titans won't be revolutionary, but it will have incremental improvements on and additions to the gameplay and interface of traditional real-time strategy games.

Submarine Titans might resemble Starcraft at a glance - that's because it uses prerendered sprites for its futuristic-looking units. But unlike Starcraft and other similar games, Submarine Titans' environments will be fully 3D, and though there won't be a free-floating camera, the game will feature four different camera angles and multiple zoom levels. In addition, you'll be able to adjust Submarine Titans' colorful, high-resolution graphics all the way up to 1280x1024.

Submarine Titans will feature five different "depths," or levels of terrain. Though the entire game takes place underwater, there are many rocky areas and coral reefs along the ocean floor that provide different heights to navigate. These different heights and terrain obstacles will impact Submarine Titans' gameplay in a very real way. Troops and defenses on the high ground will have a tactical advantage - if you've got the high ground against your enemies, you'll be able to hurl standard-issue torpedoes down on them while they struggle to ascend to firing range. In addition, Submarine Titans' weapons won't just include straight-shooting torpedoes: They will also include floating mines, one of the game's most important defensive weapons, which can be placed at varying heights by minelayer submarines. And you'll be able to use terrain levels and terrain obstacles to your advantage: For instance, a coral reef might contain a shallow cave into which a few of your subs can descend and hide from view. As such, you'll be able to use the terrain not only to gain defensive bonuses, but also to stage ambushes, set hidden waypoints, and garrison reinforcements out of sight.

As mentioned, Submarine Titans' standard weapons will consist of torpedoes - though there will be other weapons like mines, as well as different technologies like stealth. Likewise, all of Submarine Titans' units are submarines. But the game itself will have extensive research trees for weapons, miscellaneous technology, and submarine upgrades - about 40 different types of tech in all. And each of these will be different for each of the three factions. Though you'll usually be limited in your choice of research paths by the number of resources you can spend, you'll be able to choose from many different paths. For instance, you might choose to focus your efforts on improving your subs' speed - this will make your early-game units much more effective scouts, both for locating your enemy's installation and uncovering new resource deposits. Each of these upgrade paths will have a different effect on the game's factions and the way in which they are played. But all three factions will be able to research one particular technology - the ability to assimilate an enemy's submarine designs by scavenging from the wreckage of defeated enemy ships.

Of course, to conduct all that research and advancement, you'll need to gather enough resources to power your operations, and once you've staked your claims, you'll need to make sure you can defend them. Submarine Titans will have three major resources: metal, corium (the radioactive substance that comprised the comet), and gold, all of which can be extracted from the ocean floor by building the appropriate extraction structures and gathering-vessels. But the game will include a brand-new feature that should help expedite resource gathering and basic defense: a feature called "computer assistant." Computer assistant is an artificial-intelligence routine you can use to set basic behavior for your resource gatherers and base defenders so that you can focus on something more exciting - like a good fight.

Submarine Titans will indeed have fighting - and lots of it. The game will feature more than 70 different units, all of which can be customized based on the sort of technologies (stronger torpedoes, better armor, better speed, and so on) you've decided to research. In addition, Submarine Titans will come with several preset formations for your units, as well as a handy option to create and lock your own custom formations. In other real-time strategy games, you'll still be fighting your unit limit and your limited resources, but in Submarine Titans, you'll be able to employ much more strategy. The game's different unit development paths, combat formations, and varied terrain will let you stage more elaborate maneuvers rather than letting you simply rush toward your opponent's base with a large army of similar units.

And everything - fighting, gathering resources, setting AI patterns, and researching technology - will be controlled by Submarine Titans' dense but comprehensive interface. The game's interface will be completely mouse-driven: You will be able to access every single option in the game from pull-down and scrolling menus by clicking on the appropriate option button onscreen.

Submarine Titans will have a number of other features. The game will feature a number of prepackaged scenarios, campaign games (for each of the game's three factions), a random map generator, and a map editor. It'll also have a robust multiplayer option that will let up to 24 players play simultaneously - and will also let up to eight additional players join in as spectators.

Though Submarine Titans might not seem like much of a quantum leap forward for real-time strategy games, it does seem like a solid game with a number of interesting innovations - specifically, its varied terrain levels, AI scripted resource gathering and base defense, and its big, big multiplayer games. The game is currently scheduled for release in July, but you can try out the playable demo right now.