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Released on November 20, 1996 by GTE Interactive Media for PC, and developed by Cyberflix, Titanic: Adventure Out of Time is a point-and-click adventure game that recreates the doomed ocean liner's final night.
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A year before James Cameron's cultural touchstone,
Titanic, hit theaters,
GTE Interactive Media released the Titanic-centered PC point-and-click adventure
game,
Titanic: Adventure Out of Time. Not to be outdone by Mr. Cameron,
the game's developers did a staggering amount of research, and recreated an
interactive, fully explorable version of the doomed steamliner for players to
explore. It may not have Leonardo DiCaprio, Kate Winslet, or a 200-million
dollar budget, but
Adventure Out of Time might just give the 1997 flick a
run for its money as the definitive Titanic experience.
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Okay, so the CGI in the film may be just a teensy bit better.
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Adventure Out of Time begins in 1942, in a London apartment. Your
character, whose view you see from a first-person perspective, obviously had
some point of connection to the
Titanic before it sank exactly 30 years before.
Once you view all of the objects in your character's residence, sirens suddenly ring
out in the air. Apparently, it's an air raid, this being England during World War II and all.
Just as your character's apartment is hit by an explosion, you're transported 30
years in the past, to a stateroom on the
Titanic. Apparently, all those
years ago, you were a British secret agent, out to stop a German plot that
eventually led to World War I, World War II, and the Russian Revolution. You
obviously failed the first time, but by some strange, near-death magic, you've been given a second chance to make things right. No pressure or anything.
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Strangely enough, telling the captain to steer clear of icebergs isn't an option, so technically, you're responsible for the deaths of over 1,500 people, no matter what ending you get.
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Adventure Out of Time utilizes a unique, highly complex storytelling system. While the game features the tried and true point-and-click gameplay of exploring, finding and
using items, and solving (very fair and intuitive) puzzles, it's the incorporation of this very original plot
progression system that sets it apart.
The
Titanic is absolutely loaded with characters for you to
talk to and interact with. Your conversations with the
Titanic's crew and
passengers, as well as what tasks you choose to complete, determine which path
you'll take through the game. You're given a watch and a map after you appear on
the ship--if you do nothing or just explore, time stands still. As you
complete tasks, though, time passes. Since the entire game takes place on the night of
April 14, and the early morning hours of April 15th, 1912, you've got a very
definite cutoff point in time--the Titanic sank at 2:20 a.m. on April 15,
1912.
All of the characters you interact with have their own unique storylines, all of
which you can choose whether or not to be a part of. Considering the fact that
the clock is ticking,
Adventure Out of Time encourages multiple playthroughs. That's the only way you'll experience every storyline, as well as all
of the games many endings. Your conclusion can run the full gamut from creating
a 20th Century of world peace, to you going down with ship, dying a complete
failure.
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Hey, this thing's about to hit an iceberg. Want to steal a lifeboat?
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Admittedly, I think all of this storyline branching is very cool--and yet, there
is something very frustrating about giving ten hours to this game, the latter
portion of which you're running around frenetically as the ship he swiftly sinks
in real time, only to find you've made the wrong choices. The game's final
moments in this instance are quite stunning, as more and more decks become inaccessible, several of the more well-off characters escape and leave the
game, and others resign themselves to their fates. For lack of a better word,
though, as the game more frequently cuts to video of the ship slipping further and further beneath the Atlantic, you'll get a sinking feeling in those final moments that you did all of
that just to fail completely. Thankfully, the game is a fun and enthralling
enough experience to where you'll likely want to try again, but you might also
just want to just call it quits. Personally, I'm on the fence.
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1912, ladies and gentlemen!
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The 1996 production values for the ship's design and graphics still hold up. The
Discovery Channel has used footage of the game in their specials for years--the 3D modeling for
the ship is
that solid. It's got a timeless 90's charm to ensure that in some
way, it will always hold up.
As great as that element of the graphics is, another graphical element is the game's greatest weakness.
Adventure Out of Time's developers
decided that shooting full video of every character reading every line from the
game's surely tome-length script would cause the game to take up an inordinate
amount of compact discs and hard drive space. Their solution was to take some
still shots of their actors, and then attempt to animate those still shots when the
characters talk (the characters are okay-rendered 3D models on the ship until you start
talking to them). The result, at times, is an uncanny valley abomination. While
this choice did enable the developers to pack the game full with all of its other, much better elements, this can most definitely be distracting with certain characters. It's
the one element of the game that definitely does not hold up.
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You've, uh...you've got something on your face.
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Conversely
, Adventure Out of Time's musical score, composed by Erik Holt, deserves
some positive recognition. Holt took inspiration from Titanic-era classical music, and
his compositions add a lovely, yet very melancholy air to the game. They are
also adequately dark and suspenseful when they need to be. The voice acting,
though it is generally accompanied by the game's unpleasant speaking animations,
is also top-notch. I should mention, the dialogue here is well-written enough that eventually, the crazy-looking animations sort of fade into the background.
The sound effects are immersive and top-notch, as well. This really is the sort
of game you can get lost in. The haunting, almost ghostly atmosphere is
palpable--you'll feel like you're there.
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Uh, almost. You'll...almost...feel like you're there.
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I should also mention,
Adventure Out of Time features some pretty fun mini-games
sprinkled across the ship. There's a blackjack game going on in the smoking room, along with a converted squash room featuring a German who wants nothing more than to
fence with you. There's also an option at the start to just explore
the ship, free of the game's storyline. In this mode, the characters you
interact with talk about the disaster, with photographs of the ship often shown.
You can look around and learn to your heart's content, without threat of the the
ship ever sinking. This game truly is a full experience. As I said, I'm not sure how
I feel about the way
Adventure Out of Time's multiple path system allows you to sink such an
investment into failure, and those speaking animations are off-putting, but
ultimately,
Titanic: Adventure Out of Time is an impressive venture.
Unfortunately, this was GTE Interactive Media's final published adventure game. They
shutdown soon after
Adventure Out of Time was released. That's a shame, as they also published and
also developed one of my absolute favorite point-and-click adventure games,
1996's
Timelapse. At least we'll always have these games to remember them by.
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Nothing like playing cards on a ship that's about to be under two miles of water.
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