TITANIC: A MYSTERIOUS UNDERSEA ADVENTURE

According to the latest researches there is a possibility the Titanic did not sink from the Ice Berg collision but instead for other mysterious reasons. A submarine detected sonar signals on the sea floor close to where this catastrophe took place.

We will send you and a deep sea diving team with the most modern equipment to this dark and mysterious place.

Discover what is happening in these depths. Take the Amulet with you as this somehow appears to be connected with this Titanic disaster. Bring light into the darkness and reveal the mystery of the Titanic.

What secret does the Amulet hide?

Features:

• Mystery adventure with atmospheric sound and great graphics.
• Experience the gripping excitement at the bottom of the Atlantic.
• Find, collect and use important objects to solve puzzles.
• Discover strange artifacts and secrets.
• n incredible adventure of a different kind.
• Hints & Tips regularly available on the Guildhall Website.
• Use all your skills & abilities to solve the mystery of the Titanic!

~ from the back of the box

Titanic fever was everywhere in the late 90s thanks to a little movie setting the box-office as ablaze as the sinking ship's exploding engines. It was based on a real event almost a century ago, so the basics of its story were in the public domain ripe for anyone to cash in. That was true of computer games - adventure games in particular. One such game always sparked my curiosity, though I hadn't played it until now. A game that doesn't just capitalise on the highest grossing movie of all time, but also the best-selling game too; Myst. A game so egregious the titular ship barely even features. A game called Titanic: A Mysterious Undersea Adventure (later re-released as Titanic: Dare to Discover around the same time that The Sims took over Myst's top-selling spot).

Originally hitting the budget isle in 1998 thanks to German developer Dosch Design, the game sports some nice visuals all things considered. The static pre-rendered backgrounds are detailed and inviting, evoking much the same sense of adventure as Myst. This was the company's third such adventure after Mystic House's spooks and Area D's dinosaurs so it's no surprise they put their 3D renderer to good use. It would later become the company's sole business model providing computer effects and off-the-shelf assets for anyone with money to buy. Some even appeared in SyFy channel's classic schlockfest Sharknado 4!

Deciphering cryptographs (left) and finding maps (right) are optional.
The interactive inspect item view is also an underused if neat-looking feature.

This is the first of their games I've played and I'm left a little baffled. This is not a game about the Titanic. In fact, you don't get to explore that ship at all. This is a game about a sunken underwater city - possibly Atlantis - and a bunch of guff about amulets, crystals and multi-coloured guardians. You are part of a team searching for the Titanic whose only clue to its whereabouts was an amulet. In your diving gear with infinite air and manoeuvrability, you search this crumbing Roman-inspired city for clues. They quickly come about in a series of cryptograms that adorn many of the walls. If you're playing blind, you may want to decipher these as they offer information about what to do next. Or you could just use the hint system from the game's menu. Or maybe just exploring the place and trying things out would be enough.

Most of the game is mazes, differently hued to make them indestinguishable from each other.

Most of what you do in the game is at best tangentially helpful or at worst absolutely unnecessary to the end game. I didn't once bother to decipher those quotes and still got to the end. Most of your time will be spent hunting for and navigating the three mazes that make up the bulk of the game, and we all know how much adventure gamers love those. The biggest one - the brown-coloured maze - will be your first and it will be in here where you begin to get frustrated by the game. A map can be found in the bell tower, but even if you have it walking from one spot to the next is extremely disorientating. The jumps between static images are harsh and don't always follow the same logic, and when all walls have the same bumpy brown texture, it's even worse.

The next maze - a green one - has the opposite problem. There is no map but if you just go straight and turn right near the end of the corridor, you'll make it. Venture left at any point and good luck making your way back. The last one, coloured red, is the easiest. Being wall-less platforms on top of a deep void, you can see most of the path ahead of you. If you step off, you will fall to your death 'cos you apparently can't swim when underwater, but it's easy to see where to go if the lights are on. Theoretically, those first two mazes are optional if you don't mind navigating this one in the dark. If you do fall, you be taken to the very start to begin again, or you can load up your last save.

The yellow guardian (left) takes you back to the start of the underwater city.
The red guardian (right) takes you back to the start of the game.

Falling in the red maze is not the only way to die either. Plundering the graves of a lost civilization will unleash a couple of guardians who will randomly attack you if you stay still too long. The yellow one will just take you back to the starting position, though it is kind enough to let you keep all of your possessions. The red guardian, on the other hand, offers no such luck effectively forcing you to start again from scratch. Does it kill you outright? Is this the beginning of a whole new game? Who knows. Either way, we're a far cry from the ballad of Jack and Rose.

While I admire aspects of the game, including the cheesy B-movie vibe and imagination-sparking setting, it is ultimately a terrible adventure. Even with the abundance of mazes, it doesn't overstay its welcome taking me about an hour and a half to complete. That's a perfect amount of time to spend with terrible. Just enough to make it ironically enjoyable.

To download the game, follow the link below. This custom installer exclusive to The Collection Chamber uses PCem running Windows '98. Press Ctrl-Alt-PgDown to toggle fullscreen. Press Ctrl-End to release the mouse. Walkthrough and Map (by yours truly) included. Read the ChamberNotes.txt for more detailed information. Tested on Windows 10.

IMPORTANT - Remember to shut down the emulated version of Windows before exiting PCem. This could potentially result in errors, lost saves and corrupt data. Close the program only when it is safe to do so.

File Size: 772 Mb.  Install Size: 1.07 Gb.  Need help? Consult the Collection Chamber FAQ

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Titanic: A Mysterious Undersea Adventure is © Dosch Design GmbH
Review, Cover Design and Installer created by me

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