Review: Titanium 1.01B

Mod for Quake III Arena by Reactive Software

September 15, 2000 -- Review by Wraith

I'll tell you what, after playing this mod, I must admit that I'm pretty angry with myself for downloading it. I'm absolutely furious. Because I should have written this mod. I wanted to make this mod. But the guys at Reactive Software beat me to it. Grrr.

I guess I wouldn't be so mad if the mod weren't so good.

If you like Mech games (or, as my girlfriend calls them, "big robot games"), Titanium is right up your alley. Each player wears a customizable "battlesuit" (walks, talks, acts like a Mech). How is it customizable, I hear you cry? Check this out: players can select up to four weapons of two different types (Energy and Ballistic weapons), up to two different selections of shoulder mounted missiles (of seven different varieties: Rockets, Plasma, Micro, Cluster, Concussive, Blossom and Homing), two different "Active" subsystems (Booster, Jump Jets, Energy Barrier, Aegis Shield, Disruptor), and four different "Passive" subsystems (Ammo Pod, Cooling System, Armor Plating, Autoreloader, Energy Amplifier, Offensive Drone, Combat Computer, Gyro Stabilizer). (whew!) Not that a player can carry all of these at once, mind you; players have a maximum number of "slots" they can fill with miscellaneous stuff. So choose those weapons wisely . . .

The Good

The weapons are fantastic. They look and play well. There's even a nod to Shogo in the game (one of the weapons is called the Shredder; probably wasn't intentional)! I was quite impressed with how some of the weapons effects slowed my machine down minimally (when you see the Micro Rockets in game, you'll know what I mean) while providing maximum eye-candy.

The audio is pretty smokin' as well. Although some of the sound effects used "feel" kind of weird, overall Reactive did a fantastic job. The weapon and 'suit sounds really work well with the rest of the game, and really give the player the feeling that they are (in the words of my girlfriend) "in a really big robot".

The UI and the HUD are fantastic: they look good, fit well into the concept of the mod, and are superbly functional. Setting up the mod to your liking is easy to do and intuitive, as is customizing the suits. The HUD not only looks good, but it's very functional, and can tell you everything you need to know at a glance, be it ammo, Reactor recharge (for some weapons and Active subsystems), missile loads, weapon switching time, weapon reload times. or your Armor (read: Health).

The execution of the "customizable player" concept in this mod is well done. I think I've spent about 3-4 hours already just running around empty maps, playing with suit configurations (if you're curious, here's my favorite setup so far: Vulcan, Ammo Pod, Jump Jets, Cooling System, Rockets, Micro Rockets. Pretty good mobility with the Jump Jets and faster Reactor charging, although I'm only carrying the Vulcan as a sidearm. I think the Rockets make up for that :-) ). This alone give the mod a lot of replay value.

The Bad

There's only one bad thing: I couldn't find anyone else playing it. I tried to use the in-game server browser, but (after looking for about 15 minutes) it couldn't find any Titanium servers. I then went to the Reactive Software homepage and checked out their server list. I was able to connect to those, but there was nobody playing. I ran around on a server for a little over an hour and didn't see a soul. I connected to a couple of other severs on the list and got the same thing: no players. This could be because it's a beta release.

Overall

If you haven't downloaded this mod already, do it now! You won't be disappointed. In fact, I think that you'll be glad you did. And you'll be so thankful to me for pointing out this mod that you'll send me money. Lots of it. In unmarked bills. Ummm....where was I?

This gets four copies of the DeCSS source code out of five copies.

Titanium Website: http://titanium.reactivesoftware.com/

Reactive Software: http://www.reactivesoftware.com/

Titanium Download: http://titanium.reactivesoftware.com/downloads.aspx?category=1