The best way to describe Industries of Titan is that it is a corporation simulator set in a far-flung future where the corporations have seemingly won and you are to now do their bidding!
I have given Industries of Titan a quick look over the past few weeks as it is in early access and I never want to have my fill before the game officially releases. However from my early time with it, I am really looking forward to playing the full game.
We have all the usual trappings of simulation, management, total domination style games. You need to build a base up from nothing, using scarce resources and become ever more powerful as you progress. Culminating in you becoming the most powerful of all the corporations!
I haven’t got very far yet, so I cannot comment on the long term gameplay as yet. However, thus far I am mightily impressed by a few things within Industries of Titan.
As with most games these days, visually we have a bit of a looker, using an art-style that conveys an advancement in technology with the cold corporate feel of the game’s themes. There is a fully voiced dialogue from the get-go that works into the game well. Shout out to the devs for integrating the early access stuff into the opening tutorial.
Talking of which, Industries of Titan has a very solid opening. Giving you access to the core mechanics of the game without overwhelming you with too much information at any one time. Each explanation is broken down well and has a clear checkpoint list hat needs to be cleared each time.
The various elements work well together. You need to build something, that costs minerals, you need to find minerals by surveying and scavenging ruins. You need to buy access to these ruins from the council using influence. Bits you build need the energy to run and you need fuel to create energy. All standard stuff but one of the clearest ways of presenting it I have seen yet.
There are various other mechanisms in place too that I am yet to explore fully, such as using off-world trading properly and converting citizens to employees. Something very sinister and corporate by that very deliberate choice of words there by the way.
The thing that impressed me most about my quick play of Industries of Titan was the UI. So many games in the genre have managed to fail with a UI in my opinion. There is either too much information on-screen at any one time, giving you an information overload, or it isn’t clear what is info for the sake of info, or what is vital. You can struggle to see what is the right panel for the right action and you are made to feel; like you need to complete an accredited course to understand it all.
Yet here is Industries of Titan and a UI that just works. I can’t remember a time where I was scrabbling around the screen looking for the right option. I was only ever presented with the information I needed when I needed it. The infographics are a good mix of bars and text and easy to see at a glance and also detailed enough to deep-dive.
There are bugs of course and I hit one that stopped me progressing as I got slightly ahead of the tutorial and the odd crash here and there, but overall everything seems to have come together well already and this could make a big splash when it gets a full release sometime in 2021.
