Despite the havoc on land, the sea remains fairly calm. Then, over the ensuing decades, two world powers descend into this watery environment, civilizations comprised of those who survived the comet of death. The White Sharks and the Black Octopi civilizations grow and thrive and begin competing with one another for dominance of this undersea world. Suddenly, an alien race is encountered, a race brought to this undersea environment by the comet itself, and suddenly not only are the heirs to mankind fighting one another for total control, but now they have aliens to deal with, as well!

Ahhh, of such grist are great real–time strats made. What Ellipse has managed to do is take a "Total Annihilation" concept and toss the environment into the depths of the sea. All of the action in Submarine Titans is underwater, and the presentation is exciting and requiring significant, strategic thought. In this title, you must build structures that then cause an ever–unfolding tree of edifices, weaponry, technologies and vessels to become available to your forces. All that you choose to do is governed by your ability to successfully work and garner the resources within the ocean: metal, gold, and Corium. Without these elements, your Constructor units cannot build the structures necessary to defend yourself, or enlarge your base of operations through annihilation of enemy forces (whether of human or alien origin).

Although the graphics are 2D in nature, you will not complain — they are beautifully crafted and, due to their lower bandwidth requirement for CPU resources, Submarine Titans presents no limit on the number of units, or edifices, you can construct. That is one element of other RTS’ titles that we find annoying; not being able to continually grow one’s forces to a point where you can use superior and overwhelming strength to rid yourself of the opposition. With Submarine Titans, the only problem with such mammoth forces is that there seems to be no single key command that enables you to group like–units together, or a key command that can assign orders to groups of vessels. You can encircle selected forces with a mouse hold–and–draw, but sometimes you end up including forces that you don’t want to battle, such as your Constructors, which are required to build all of your edifices and defensive weaponry.

Once you have selected a unit, or number of units, you can use the AI button to command these elements to attack a specific area, or even defend a designated unit or structure. This latter command ensures that your defensive perimeter remains far more stable when under enemy attack, because those units assigned to defend such positions combine their fire with your positioned, stationary weaponry, creating devastating results. However, such effectiveness is definitely dictated by the technologies you’ve been able to research. We would heartily recommend you consider constructing at least two to three Technology Centers as soon as possible. With such technologies supporting your submarine and sonar building programs, you’ll remain ahead of your enemy’s technology advances. Additionally, more powerful weaponry and the ability to "see farther" with your sonar should enable you to successfully counter most of the oppositions’ advances.

A unique aspect of Submarine Titans is the element of "depth" of which there are five levels within the game. You’ll soon learn that you can only build on Levels 1 through 3 (with Level 1 being the ocean floor). This requires strategic consideration when you are placing your defensive weapons. Try to place your weapons on Level 3 areas for maximum impact upon those who want to crush your presence. And even with your weapons, you had best be careful, for Submarine Titans does provide for "friendly fire damage". If you group your vessels in the same area that your guns and missiles are defending while performing massive enemy repulsion exercises, you’ll soon note that your craft are receiving damage both from the enemy before you as well as your own weapons! A most distressing situation until you adjust your tactics.

The matter of resources comes into play when you find yourself driving your units to build more and more elements — everything from submarines to other units — and suddenly you find yourself out of metal or Corium. These resources found on the ocean floor are far from inexhaustible. One method of offsetting such a disastrous happening is to build a Trade Center after you have a number of gold extractors in operation on the ocean floor. These machines extract gold from the seawater, which you can then trade for metal or other resources that are being used at a faster rate than you would prefer. The Trade Center can provide you with those elements that you so desperately need in order to quickly build units that you need in order to protect, say, a flank that is in dire straights of collapsing.

Naturally, especially for humankind, little survives beneath the waves without air. As a result, one of the first structures you’ll want your Constructor to build are Air Extractors. Depending upon how rapidly your base grows, we would recommend building at least two of these immediately — that way, later, when you are busily constructing other items in this fast–paced game, you won’t suddenly hear the message "Out of Air!" That’s enough to take your breath away!

There still needs to be adjustments to the game’s AI — the current build finds your units attacked too rapidly and overwhelmed when you move outwards from your base in search of new resources. And it appears as though the alien race is more powerful in earlier stages of the game than should be possible — either that, or we played quite poorly! With our build, there was no multiplayer or campaign modes available for testing, simply four battle sets. We enjoyed playing as the White Sharks and learned the game’s GUI within mere moments of starting the game, even without a manual.

A weapon that folk may overlook while playing is the HF Cannon — this is the first defensive unit you can build, but as you gain technologies, many other possibilities are presented to you. However, please note that many of the technologies deal with improving this cannon due to its rapid–fire rate and its ability to be clustered, which makes this a most potent device. We do recommend that you don’t overlook this device in your eagerness to get bigger and better weaponry. With the technology advancements available for this gun, it becomes a highly useful enemy deterrent.

A strategy that worked well for us was similar to one that we employed in Total Annihilation. We are firm believers in protecting what you own. Because of this we build slowly but surely, constantly making certain our base is completely protected by placing many weapons about its perimeter. With the backup of the first offensive subs, you should find you have plenty of time to grow an armada that you can then use to attack your chosen enemy’s flanks — eating away at their base units. Without their base unit support, the enemy cannot grow additional offensive units, and they must then protect such areas of their own bases. And, because you built up your forces gradually, you may then send your second assault force right down their throats, churning them into chowder.

Submarine Titans has all of the ingredients we look for in a real–time strat: good graphics (nothing exceptional, but certainly pleasing), great soundtrack and effects (watch the bubbles rise as your edifices are constructed), solid resource–based advancements, and terrific combat. In the final product there will be some 100 different units and edifices and, because of the 3D terrain, you can even hide your vessels in caves and tunnels to create a shocking effect when an enemy comes calling.

We certainly look forward to the finished product and the ability to play in multiplayer mode (the company claims the title will support 24 gamers via the Internet or LAN) as well as try out the Campaigns, and, I almost forgot — a nice built–in tutorial as well! Put this title on your "should definitely check out" list when it releases in just a few weeks.

Overall PREVIEW Rating: A–

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