I purchased Titans of Steel: Warring Suns
from the Matrix Games booth at Origins a couple of years ago.  It
interested me because it focuses on futuristic mechanized infantry
units, similar to Battletech, Mechwarrior, or any number of other
games.  In practice, it plays very much like a miniatures game.  Below is the battlefield display.

The
game terrain is hex-based, and movement of your mechs is performed much
the same way it’s done in tabletop miniatures games.  If you move into
a “plain” terrain hex, the move takes place as normal.  If you move
into a swamp or water hex, a skill check is performed which determines
your success with the move.  If you fail, your mech falls down and
takes damage.

(Above shows some of the terrain, including forest hexes that can be set on fire to play havoc with an enemy’s cooling systems.)

The damage model in the game follows typical
tabletop mech rules.  Each hit causes damage to a part of the mech, one
of its systems, or its pilot.  If the pilot dies, the mech is out of
commission.  If the mech takes too much damage, or its head is ripped
off, it’s eliminated.  Damage to weapons can cause a check to see if
the ammunition explodes.  If so, the mech takes additional damage.

Terrain
can be used to assist your mech.  For example, if you move your mech
into a water hex successfully, the water will help keep the mech’s
systems cool.  This will allow you to fire more weapons, more often,
perhaps getting the jump on a more-powerful mech on the opposing side.
 Putting yourself in a position with swamp hexes between you and an
opponent could lead to that opponent stumbling and taking damage.

Play
is turn-based, with each mech on each side having the opportunity to
perform a weapons action and a movement action.  This further
reinforces the similarity to tabletop games.

The game allows
players to design or reconfigure their own mechs, starting with one of
450 different types.  Each mech, or Titan, has over 74 internal
systems, 4 armor types, 20 chassis styles, 5 size classes, and 29
weapon types.  

While I’ve focused on the combat model up to
this point, that doesn’t mean there isn’t more to it.  In fact, it
actually incorporates an open-ended role-playing system which allows
you to create your own “jocks” and bring up their skills through
battlefield actions.

The game includes multi-player features
allowing for “hot seat”, LAN, and Internet games.  I did not have the
opportunity to test those features during the review, so I can’t tell
you much about them.

All things considered, I like this game.
 It makes me feel like I’m sitting down at a game convention playing a
miniatures game with others.  That being said, I did have some issues
with it that negatively impacted my enjoyment of it.  

First, it
is practically required that you go through the tutorial mission.  It’s
also a requirement to read the lengthy text displayed on the screen at
each step.  If you don’t do that, you’re going to find the learning
curve for the game’s user interface to be pretty steep.  Once you’ve
gone through the tutorial and understand how to use the interface, it’s
really not that complicated, but it’s not something you’ll figure out
on the fly.  In fact, the first two times I sat down to play the game I
became really frustrated with the interface and walked away from it.
 The third time I took the time to read all the text on the tutorial
screens and did what it asked me to do.  I came away with a much better
understanding of the interface and the game mechanics, and found that I
enjoyed playing it.

(As I said, there’s a lot of reading. There are about a dozen instructional screens like this…)

Second, you have to be careful what orders
you give your mech’s jock.  In one skirmish battle, I managed to give
one of my jocks a combination of orders that essentially made it stop
doing anything for the remainder of the game.  It literally stood
there, frozen in place, letting enemy mechs rain destruction down on it
until it eventually blew up.  If there was a way to countermand the
earlier orders and restore control of the unit, I never figured it out.
I could only sit there helplessly, watching several enemy units pummel
it into oblivion.

(Above is my mech, in the red hex, getting pummeled by several others because I couldn’t control it anymore…)

Third, when there are multiple units in a hex,
it can be difficult to target the one you want to fire on.  If one of
those units is yours and the others are enemy units, it can be nearly
impossible to get out of the hex if you want to.

The first and
third points are minor in the big scheme of things.  The second one is
fairly significant, but I’m confident I could have overcome it by
watching the orders I gave my units a bit more carefully.

The
game’s graphics, for a title released in 2003, are adequate by today’s
standards and certainly more visually stimulating than moving a bunch
of miniatures around a tabletop.  The sounds are also appropriate and
sufficient.

The game requires a Windows PC running Windows 98,
Me, 2000, or XP.  It ran just fine on my Windows Vista PC as well.  It
requires DirectX 8.1, a Pentium II 400 MHz or better CPU, 64MB of RAM,
a 16-bit sound card, an 8MB 16-bit graphics card, and 900MB of free
hard disk space.  These modest requirements mean that it can easily
play on just about any PC you’re using.  In fact, I’ve got a 5-6
year-old laptop that should be able to run it.

Perhaps the best thing about Titans of Steel: Warring Suns is the price.  Since February 13, 2008, Matrix Games has been giving this title away free via the Internet.  If you’ve enjoyed playing Battletech, CAV, or similar games on the tabletop, you should find this one equally entertaining.