Surviving Titan is a pretty solid 2D survival game but some weird keyboard controls and some repetitiveness keep it from truly shining. Would also benefit from co-op.
Type: Single-player
Genre: Survival, RPG, Adventure
Developer: Dynamic Zero
Publisher: Dynamic Zero
Release date: 30 April, 2020
Intro
Hello everyone, Surviving Titan, as the name suggests, is an indie survival based game that takes place on a far away planet called Titan. Our amnesiac main character crash lands on the planet and soon discovers that there have been many people who have crash-landed on the planet. So, with your basic survival gear, your character sets out to not only survive to make it home again but also to find out why ships keep crash landing there. If this sounds like a game you’d be interested in, do read on.
Crafting
Since we essentially covered the story in the intro to this review, I’ll get right into the crafting portion of the game because you’ll be doing a lot of it in this game. Crafting takes up about 85% of your time in Surviving Titan, and unsurprisingly there is an immense amount of stuff that you can craft. With just your basic crafting knowledge you can craft stone tools, campfires, a workbench, a water pouch and many other things. Once you construct a workbench your options open up even more, allowing you to craft new workbenches, like the carpentry table pictured above, which allows you to construct a log cabin and other woodworking related items. Other crafting stations include a smelter, masonry table, a repair bench, apothecary table and many more.
Basic Needs
Surviving Titan wouldn’t be much of a survival game without the requirement to keep an eye on your basic needs such as sleep, hunger and thirst. These are pretty easy to keep in check as long as you have the necessary tools. There are various ways that you can keep yourself fed and quenched. In the game world, you’ll often find vegetables growing in the wild and you’re able to harvest them with ease. Raw food doesn’t grant you much in the way of hunger or thirst though, so you’ll need to cook it with a campfire first. It’s also a good idea to keep your fishing pole handy (once you’ve crafted it, of course), because cooked fish is super easy to make. To sate your thirst, there’s a well nearby your escape pod (Pictured above) that you can sometimes use to drink from but it’s best to create a rain catcher near your base of operations. That way whenever it rains (And it does this a lot) you’ll have enough water to drink. Finally, to sate your need for energy, you can simply sleep in the bed inside your escape pod but once you have a base, you’ll be able to build a bed to furnish your home with, among other things.
Combat, Weapons and Armor
Truth be told, combat is kind of a let down in this game, largely because you can’t attack using the mouse. This makes combat a bit of a pain when using the keyboard and mouse because it requires you to attack using the CTRL-key. Combat feels slow and rather clunky because of this.
The combat system does support a very wide range of different weapons and armor which you can utilize at any time, so long as you have the materials to make them. There’s no limit to what type of character you want to build during combat as well. You can be melee-based or ranged based, using a bow and arrow, a spear, a gun or even bombs. There’s also a variety of different types of armor too, iron armor like a knight (Pictured above) or you can go the leather armor route. More advanced weapons and armor can be unlocked later in the game as well.
Leveling up
Each skill in the game has its own level that you can level up. Your skills level up with use so any time you mine some ore or cut down trees you gain experience points. When you gain a level in any of the skills you obtain a skill point which can be put into various areas of your character to enhance your abilities.
Verdict
Overall, Surviving Titan is a pretty interesting game, but I will admit that it does get a little repetitive after a while. It also feels like the kind of game that would be a lot more fun in a co-op setting because playing single player does get a little tiresome having to do everything yourself. That said, despite my complaints regarding the combat system, the other mechanics in the game are pretty solid. It’s not a groundbreaking game by any means, but it does provide some enjoyment. So, I’ll give this one a PAUSE I think.
