Explore the ocean depths
The famous sinking of the great ship Titanic has proved enduringly popular across all forms of media, not least of which is games, with titles like Titanic, Titanic: The Lost Mission and The Adventure Begins all popping up. This one is a strategy/simulation mixture which also tries to throw in some educational elements but which ends up being something of a mixed bag. The player is thrust into the role of an underwater adventurer who is charged with locating three famous wrecks, the Roman galley Isis, the Bismarck and of course the Titanic. It's your job to assemble a crew and ship, while working under strict time and budget constraints and then do the research that will allow you to track down the ships' resting places. Once you've got a general location, you use sonar and other tricks of the trade to narrow things down and if you get it right, you can start sending divers to bring up the goodies. You have to factor in things like weather conditions and crew skills, making for for a fairly detailed experience. However, while the realism is an appealing factor the problem is that it doesn't translate into a particularly enthralling game. Much of your time is spent listening to sonar or crawling around featureless ocean depths which isn't all that exciting. The visuals and presentation are pretty decent, with Bob Ballard, legendary ocean adventurer, popping up and which lend the game some appeal, while the controls and interface are solid. However, unless you are a diehard fan of ocean exploration games, this one just isn't much fun.
