MINES OF TITAN

 MINES OF TITAN from Infocom is a game with a shady past. It was originally
released by Electronic Arts last year under the name MARS SAGA for the C64 and
the Apple. For some reason, the setting of this science fiction role-playing
game was shifted from Mars to Titan, and re-released by Infocom as MINES OF
TITAN. Despite its checkered history, MINES OF TITAN is a solid CRPG with many
nice features. The game offers an interesting setting, auto-mapping, and a good
combat system. (This review is based on the IBM-PC version.)

 The premise of MINES is intriguing. Titan, one of Saturn's moons, has been
colonized by Paramount Mining, Inc. Paramount Mining has set up three
underground mining cities within Titan, and has begun work on a fourth city. In
true Infocom style, information about the game's background is found in the
"Visitor's Guide to Titan" pamphlet, included in the manual.

 One day, contact is suddenly lost with the new city. At the same time, the
company orders the shutdown of all the mines, and rumors begin to circulate
about strange new native life forms. Your job is to restore contact with the
lost city and to figure who (or what!) is responsible for the crisis. To do
this, you must gather a party of brave souls, train them, and explore the moon,
all the while building up your party's skills.

 There are 16 different skills available in MINES, ranging from rifle skills to
computer programming skills to administration skills. Most skills have to do
with combat; some, like administration, determine how well you deal with other
people in the game. Learning some computer programming is absolutely necessary
since hacking Paramount's computer system gives you vital information.

 The best way to build combat skills is, of course, in combat. There's a lot of
combat in MINES, and, fortunately, the game has a good combat system. You give
orders to each of your men first; the computer then executes the orders, and
animates the results. You have to be careful though: If you don't pay close
attention to the sequencing of the orders, you may find your men accidentally
shooting each other in the back with their Uzis! You can also instruct the
computer to move any or all of your men (although the computer's tactical skills
are only fair).

 MINES OF TITAN's interface is simple: You select commands from menus using the
keyboard. But while the menu system in MINES is easy at first, it becomes
slightly frustrating as the game progresses. All the menu selections are
numbered, so there are no easy-to-remember alphabetic commands (like "U" for
USE, etc.). Furthermore, the number to type to return to the previous menu
varies between sub-menus. This slows you down because you never develop
intuitive reflexes for typing the right commands.

 The game has an extensive auto-mapping feature. Your immediate area always
appears onscreen, and you can also access a larger map showing all the places in
a given city that you've seen. Additionally, the manual comes with full maps of
Titan's cities and their mines, so it's almost impossible to get lost.

 MINES OF TITAN supports CGA and EGA graphics, but doesn't support a mouse. An
unobtrusive form of manual-based copy protection is used. Both 5-1/4" and 3-1/2"
disks are included in the package.

 Although much of the game is well done, there's something missing at its core.
You spend the beginning of the game following up clues found on the computer
system, or collecting police bounties. But after you finish these short
mini-adventures, clues about what to do next disappear. Then you can only wander
around the cities and hope for something to show up -- a situation that gets
dull very quickly.

 The main problem with MINES is that there just isn't very much to do. Nearly
all the main areas of the game are mapped for you, and there is relatively
little information to be gathered. That means you spend most of your time
fighting -- not out of necessity, but merely to pass the time.

 MINES OF TITAN is good if you want to while away the hours with a solid,
unspectacular CRPG. But it's hardly groundbreaking or exciting. Now, if Infocom
were to combine the combat and auto-mapping features of this game with one of
their own detailed storylines, _that_ would be something we could all look
forward to!

 MINES OF TITAN is published by Infocom and distributed by Mediagenic.

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