Subterrain: Mines of Titan is a captivating sci-fi game with plenty of different gameplay mechanics that somehow end up mashing well together, both in gameplay and in a narrative sense. It also makes the game what it is – a tactical combat survival horror RPG in space with light colony management. A mouthful, I know. All this might sound cool on paper, however, it’s not without issues. The heavy emphasis on crafting might break the game for some, even if the combat simulation and general dungeon crawling are excellent. The main reason for this is that you can’t do anything if you don’t learn and make heavy use of the crafting and research mechanics since everything from armor to weapons will be forged by you. There are tons of loot to pick up, but the majority of the stuff will only be there to be dismantled to create better items or to be researched. So, don’t go expecting a casual time spent when you start
Subterrain: Mines of Titan!
Titan moon
The survival nightmare starts with you waking up from cryosleep in a run-down colony on the moon of Titan. You are quickly cued in on the situation, and as it is, you are unique compared to the other survivors. You are a survivor of the old colony that got destroyed which means you have nanomachines in your blood to protect you from the mutant infection, something the current inhabitants of the colony are missing. In short, this means, you are the only one who can venture into the old mines underneath the colony to collect resources and discover what happened to the community. You also need to find out why communication has been cut with home base. Let the sci-fi mystery commence!
The premise is very
Dead Space, with a hefty amount of
Aliens, and
Doom mixed in. This means the atmosphere is tense, so right up my alley when it comes to sci-fi horror. The writing in general is fine too, everything from the characters to the slow revealing of the fate of the colony. What I think drags down the game a bit on the writing aspect is that there are no real choices when it comes to dialogue that touches the quests. There are a couple of cringe-inducing quests, like delivering love letters and such that I don’t think fit the setting that well. The problem here is either you take the quest or you don’t, which is fair. But in the style of the game in question, you really want to do all the quests as they give you unique rewards meant for your survival. If there were some choices beyond the binary ignore, or happily do, it would add some personality to your avatar. Now, your character will always gladly deliver love letters between bashing zombie abominations from space in the mines. It makes the tone of the story take roller coaster trips periodically, going from abject horror to helping someone find their true and only love in a mutant infested colony.
Besides these quests, and that your character is rail-roaded narrative-wise, the writing is as said solid. I found the mystery of the colony intriguing, and even when the fatigue of killing mutants set in, I still pushed on to find out what happened on Titan. For what it’s worth, the story does its job well!
Mutant fighting
While the story is interesting, the core of the game is the turn-based fighting and the dungeon diving. Two aspects that work well, but what might put some people off the game is the huge focus on research and crafting. Almost all equipment you will use during the game will be crafted by you through research and by finding the required loot to dismantle. I find the manufacturing and tinkering enjoyable enough, as it’s always interesting to see what the next disgusting mutant flesh will unlock. However, it does put a hamper on scavenging and exploring since you will rarely find anything that you can use on the spot. Most equipment seems to work on a tier-based system. This means you won’t be able to craft anything extravagant from the first few levels in the mine, as the required resources can’t be found on these levels. This system becomes more or less routine, and honestly, a bit disappointing. You might think you are a step ahead of the game, but no. While your researchers have discovered a new fancy rifle for you to use, you won’t be able to craft it because it requires a special new ore that can only be extracted on levels further down below where you have not been yet.
It simplifies the choice of what gear to use because the next stage is always better. There are a few outliners thankfully, like grenades and other cool gear that exist outside of this system. These items always seem useful, and make the progression a more customizable experience than just jumping from one equipment tier to the next.
Regardless of my issues with this, the down and gritty side of
Subterrain: Mines of Titan, aka, the fighting and environmental dangers are fun and deadly. Both you and the creatures from the mutant mine from hell hit hard and fast, and that is not all, they all come with different kinds of attacks that will inflict all kinds of nasty wounds. Ceiling critters with razor-sharp scythes as arms will make you bleed like a pig when they drop down to ambush you – while football-sized infected blobs of goo will poison you with their acidic spit. All these wounds require special medical care that makes the combat much more compelling than just having two parties wail at each other until death. You need to be prepared for all kinds of eventualities.
In my playthrough, I went with rifle for range, and sword and board for when the critters come a little too close for comfort. There are a lot of perks to make any combat style viable that you earn through XP, but after so many hours in the game, ranged combat is the clear winner here. This is based on that most monsters will be melee-based, and softening them up with a few well-aimed laser shots to the chest worked wonders for the longevity of my avatar. However, that’s not to say that running a pure melee dude isn’t viable, it’s just that close-combat enjoyers will take a lot more damage on average. This might become a pain down the line thanks to equipment durability and all the healing you will have to do.
Planning ahead
You can say
Subterrain: Mines of Titan consists of three stages. The first one involves the actual surface colony. Here you can do some minor quests on occasion, but most of your time here will be busy getting your fellow colonists creating and researching stuff for you. This is the time to prepare, to make sure you have all the things you need to survive in the mines, like collecting food and water for a hard day in mutant hell. The next stage is the mine, which is the main event of the game. Here you will fight all kinds of horrors from space, explore to discover what happened to the colony, and collect interesting shiny loot for you to dismantle. The third stage is the mutant attacks that happen from time to time. You see, the mutants are not happy with you guys frolicking on the surface. And to end this so-called “happiness” they will send monstrosities to ruin your and your colonist’s day. You will always be warned when this will happen, so you can make it back in time. The thing is, you must huff it back because if you don’t the mutants will destroy the power core and with that destroy the colony. In the words of
Private Hudson: “
Game over man, GAME OVER!“.
As expected this comes with some complications. While mutant defense can be fun since the gameplay differs (think tower defense) from the main slaughtering in the mines, it takes away from the dungeon diving. The first few times it happens it’s an okay event, but after a while, it becomes a tad annoying, as each time it occurs, you will have to abandon everything you are doing to rush back to base. The eternal mutant assault, in combination with the crafting, and running back and forth to base, can and probably will strain a lot of players after a while. That is why I said that this game is not a casual experience. While the fighting, and exploring can at times feel “casual” when you fight easy monsters, everything else surrounding the game will require your attention. Now, I don’t mind this aspect since I prefer a more serious challenge even if it means I have to craft all my gear, but I can’t deny it gets tedious running back to base every so often to get anything done.
The review might come off as skitzo because overall, I did very much enjoy my time with
Subterrain: Mines of Titan. You just have to be a little masochistic to truly make headway, and be tolerant of “dead air” so to speak, thanks to the constant running around. What I’m trying to say is that the positives outweigh the negatives, however, when you enter the mines, you have to prepare to suffer the grind or perish like a rookie space marine in a xenomorph hive.
The space colony look
The pixel art style and look of
Subterrain: Mines of Titan are excellent. I’m a sucker for pixel art, but just not any kind, it got to be of quality, and this game surely oozes that. It’s art of the highest caliber. It’s clean and sharp, and it’s very easy visually to see what everything is supposed to be. The animations are a bit lacking, you could say, but in this type of game, I don’t mind it much. Yet, the game is not completely static since there are some motion going on, from environmental to creatures eating bullets. They are just in with very few frames. It all comes together well and is very pleasing to the eyes. The UI is also calculated into this, as I found it fitting and immersive to the sci-fi theme of the game.
Sound and music follow the same high standard. The close combat sounds are meaty since you can clearly hear the sword tear into the flesh of the mutants, or yours for that matter. The monsters sound great as well, from the screaming to the huffing and puffing in the dark corners of the space station. A particular stand out is the music. Brooding and very good at setting the horror mood, and you can hear where the inspirations come from, like the movie
Aliens. All in all, a great and impressive package that probably won’t disappoint, unless you for some reason hate pixel art graphics and space horror-esque sound and music. But why would you do that?
In conclusion
Despite all my complaints, especially about the more tedious aspect of
Subterrain: Mines of Titan, I loved my time with it. I just feel that these issues must be pointed out because even for someone who liked the game, they can take a toll. The solution is to only game when you are in the right mindset and feel fresh so neurons can work undisturbed. Otherwise, the straining parts of the game might quickly turn to annoyance.
Subterrain: Mines of Titan has many things that it does right. The atmosphere is tense and the setting is mysterious. The game sounds and looks fantastic, and the meat of the experience, aka the combat is engaging, even after 200 confirmed mutant kills. So with that, I highly recommend the game!
Thanks for reading.
