Titanic Escape Simulator™

Titanic: Escape Simulator is a historically fascinating experience, even if it comes with some serious baggage. First and foremost, the optimization is truly horrendous. If I didn't have a god-tier rig, I honestly don't believe that I would have been able to load let alone enjoy it. Fortunately, I do—and once I was able to push past the performance issues, there was quite a bit here to appreciate...although not quite enough to recommend. The narrative is relatively well executed, while the voice acting ranges from mediocre to decent, with noticeable AI usage and constantly shifting dialects with certain characters (i loved when all of a sudden, english characters took on subtly African American dialects). The first-person mechanics are fairly typical, which is honestly a good thing; they stay out of the way and allow the game's setting to do most of the heavy lifting (not enough to lift this game from the mire of bugs). The objectives are also relatively simple, giving players plenty of opportunities to slow down and truly take in the architectural majesty of the ship—although the strictly linear gameplay prevents any real freedom to explore it in its entirety at will. Nevertheless, i was pretty stoked to see and interact with it at all. The Titanic itself looks fantastic, but the lighting can often be crippling, with strange flickering effects, oddly darkened areas, and other visual inconsistencies which take their toll on the otherwise magnificently crafted setting. Character models are similarly uneven. Many background NPCs look dated and stiff, with clothing that sometimes appears unsynchronized with their character models and hands permanently clipped into their laps while seated. Meanwhile, the protagonist and main female character can be surprisingly lifelike and expressive—at least when their eyebrows actually load. The character's lips will often move while we are hearing his thoughts. Conversely, the NPCs make tons of noise but their lips never move and their expressions never change. Nearly all of the women share the an identical character model which is why it was so easy to spot the main-female-character from half a ship's length away before I even interacted with her - She was the only lifelike character among a sea of mannequins....but (as always), I digress. Ultimately, the primary reason that I purchased Titanic: Escape Simulator was simple: I wanted to interact with and observe a living, breathing Titanic during its maiden voyage. On that front, I think the experience succeeds—for the most part, at least to my satisfaction (i had a really low bar for this one). Walking through the ship, observing its passengers (but not too closely - or all immersion is broken), and simply experiencing its enormous spaces before disaster strikes is the real attraction here. I don't regret my purchase, but I can absolutely understand why most others would. In its current state, the experience would be better valued at somewhere between $4.99 and $7.99. Furthermore, if the developers created an open-world Titanic simulation that allowed players to freely wander the ship without any gameplay objectives, I think it would make people much happier—and would better justify the current price of admission....alas that is not what happened. Purchase this game at your own risk. Maybe you will enjoy the experience like i did, but its more likely that you will not. I suppose i had vastly lower expectations for this project than most which is how i have been able to enjoy it.