Video Game Review: Now Boarding for Starship Titanic on the PC

The ill-fated ship takes it to the stars in its futuristic born again self. Built by an advanced civilization, Starship Titanic is an exquisite piece of luxury, much like its 'analog' counterpart from 1912. Instead of hitting an iceberg, or rather, an asteroid belt, Starship Titanic mysteriously crashes while in hyperspace and ends up colliding into your home. Upon boarding the wondrous vessel, the ship heads back into deep space, leaving you stranded on board. But don't worry, you're not by yourself.

Graphics

For a 1998 computer game, the graphics are simply extraordinary for its time. Glitches are few and far in between, Starship Titanic plays with no signs of slowing down. The design of such a concept for a spaceship is a rather interesting one and its put to good use in Starship Titanic. Everything on this spacecraft looks as humongous, extravagant, and luxurious as it would on the original Atlantic-bound ship on Earth from 1912, but set in space with many, many technological upgrades.

Gameplay

Like the original 1912 ship, Starship Titanic was a ship that was built to withstand any disaster. But it's too bad that the story couldn't be more enthralling than it was here. First things first, the gameplay is fantastic. Throughout Starship Titanic, you will interact with approximately ten different robots throughout the ship. One being a bellhop, a receptionist, a butler, a bartender, and so on. Each robot is neatly voice-acted. You're given plenty of phrases to choose from when interacting with these robots. There's over 30 floors to explore on this spaceship which range from a basement, a bar, some sculpture rooms, a promenade deck, and a first class restaurant to name a few.

Moving on, this game could have been so much better if it were redone as a dark space thriller. Titanic: Adventure Out of Time for instance had a much better atmosphere that was kind of dark, creepy, and you can see that something bad is about to happen. But in Starship Titanic, none of that is here. Gadget is another great computer game which Starship Titanic should have taken pointers from.

Controls

Starship Titanic is a point and click adventure game much like Myst, Gadget, Titanic: Adventure Out of Time, and among others. Everything responds smoothly and in a timely matter, just as it should. All you're doing is pointing, clicking, solving puzzles, and interacting with robots.

Overall

Starship Titanic had so much potential, story-wise, but it went for a less-than-stellar plot and instead relied on its unique visuals and the concept of a spaceship version of Titanic in order to carry it along. It works initially, but you can't help but wonder how much better this could have been if done differently. Remember the Nostromo from Alien? Remember how big of a ship that was? What if THAT was the Starship Titanic (well not, exactly, it would have to look far more luxurious, of course, but you get the idea).