Following in Pokémon’s Footsteps
Surviving Titan is an adventure game created by Dynamic Zero, and as the name implies, you are a space traveler who has crash-landed on the planet Titan. It’s up to you to survive on the strength of your wits and your own two hands. Surviving Titan resembles the art style of the original Pokémon Game Boy series, and it emulates the explorer-style of discovery that Pokémon is so well-known for. You travel to seven different biomes, racking up skill points as you learn the lay of the land, acquire pets, and find like-minded stragglers.
Life-saving Skills
As it turns out, you’re not the only one who’s been unfortunate enough to become stranded on this vast planet teeming with an abundance of life forms. There’s an old man hiding in a cave who soon becomes your sidekick, and another man, a farmer, who’s more of the strong and silent type. He has things set up quite nicely for himself with his rain barrel, fire camp, and farm. Ideally, this what you want to turn into—a self-sustainable forager, hunter, farmer, and miner. While the blocky pixels don’t show it, your character can become much stronger than they look. However, this all depends on how well you cultivate their skills, as well as what skills you upgrade when you spend your experience points.
Initially, your character will be quite weak, and you’ll even run in terror from mosquitoes as they follow you across the grasslands. Everything on Titan has potential, and if you invest the time and resources, you’ll acquire a wide range of skills. You’ll become strong enough to chop down sequoias and will wade out fearlessly into the murky depths of the Death Zone. You’ll even learn to hunt as you look for a nice boar steak to throw on the grill.
Exploring the Biomes
Thankfully, despite crash-landing on another planet, the biomes and creatures are mostly familiar, so you can stick to a comfortable diet. There are wild boars, piglets, and whatever you can fish out of the sea if you’re lucky enough to catch anything. As if that weren’t convenient enough, you’ll also find seeds to plant tomatoes, corn, chili peppers, and more. So at the very least, when you sit down to eat, you forget about how drastically your life changed.
Some of the more bizarre animals include antlered rabbits which you can kill for leather, dragons, krakens, velociraptors, and even strange humanoid cobras that come after you with tridents (definitely don’t try to eat those). These oddities are mainly game obstacles or sources for materials to craft tools. These creatures only live in their appointed biomes.
A Rock Solid Game
Surviving Titan is like The 100, minus the angsty teens and nuclear radiation. It’s engrossing without relying too much on violence. Despite the many times you’ll die, Surviving Titan is all about learning from your mistakes and discovering your strengths. Sure, at times, you’ll be so hungry that you’ll try to eat raw chicken, but you’ll learn quickly that an empty stomach is better than salmonella. Having to balance your health, hunger, thirst, and energy, also adds depth to your experience, enriching it by motivating you to acknowledge the urgency of your body’s needs. For those of you who fancy yourselves as amateur survivalists, Surviving Titan is all the digital validation you’ll need.
Is it Hardcore?
Absolutely.
Surviving Titan will test your cleverness and tenacity, and you’ll need both if you plan to persevere. But once you get back up on your feet, you’ll be able to explore the seven biomes and all they have to offer!