I’m not sure what’s worse, that I can’t figure out why my Citizens keep dying, or that I don’t especially care. My smokestacks are at least partially responsible, belching out toxic fumes as they burn the waste littering the surface of Titan like crisp packets across the Pacific. Building my habitation pods next to factory equipment probably isn’t helping either. Sleep and industrial machinery are not natural bedfellows.
Industries of Titan Early Access reviewDeveloper: Brace Yourself GamesPublisher: Brace Yourself GamesPlatform: Reviewed on PCAvailability: Out now in Early Access on PC
It’s a combination of factors that would take significant effort to resolve. I could do that, or I can just keep buying shiploads of fresh citizens from my spaceport. They’re remarkably cheap, after all.
Industries of Titan may look like SimCity in Space, but it plays more like a hyper-capitalist Dungeon Keeper, one where being evil isn’t so much a performative pantomime as just a necessary cost of operations. You play the head of a freshly minted corporation chosen to oversee a new and lucrative business venture on Saturn’s largest moon. Expectations are high, and you’ll need to exploit every resource at your disposal to make your mark on this alien world.
It’s important to clarify at the door that Industries of Titan is Early Access. On launch, the game immediately confronts you with a detailed roadmap of upcoming features, of which there are many. This includes core mechanics you might have seen in trailers, such as ship construction and combat. What you’re paying for, essentially, is a limited foundation of what the game will eventually become.