Reviews

• Rose

  Mar 25, 2023

  There once was a ship that went to sea The name of the ship was the White Star three Or Britannic if it pleases ye Now blow your steam and go Soon will that mine come To cause a bit of hum and drum Soon when the meeting's done In the hole water will flow It was only out two miles from shore The ship would sail alas no more Less than an hour to reach the floor The floor of the ocean, oh Soon will that mine come To cause a bit of hum and drum Soon when the meeting's done In the hole water will flow
• gamedeal user

  Jun 20, 2020

  This is a great experience for Britannic, but it's not perfect. The biggest thing that needs to be added is a way to change rooms while actually in the game. A menu would be fine, but adding the hallways that connect the spaces we can visit would obviously be the best thing. It's incredibly annoying having to quit to the main menu and reload into a new room. Seeing the interiors and exteriors of how the ship would have looked as an ocean liner is a dream come true, and it's cool seeing those same interiors and exteriors as a hospital ship. I'd definitely recommend it if you want to learn more about Britannic. Night time freecam needs to be added to RMS exterior, it's criminal it's not there.
• gamedeal user

  Jun 20, 2020

  I think this was a major miss. I was stoked about this game -- and I am still stoked about the main Titanic project -- but Britannic: POTM didn't deliver. Here's what I liked: the graphics are superb, the animations realistic, and the player movement system well put together (little clipping). Here's what I didn't like: why is each room a separate menu option? Players should be able to move throughout the ship from one room to another. I understand that the entirety of the interior was not the goal of this project, nor did I expect it to be, but the fact that I can't go from the grand staircase to the pool without multiple loading screens is unacceptable. Model a couple hallways or something. Additionally, the sinking is extremely underwhelming. The developers ignored the entirety of what makes the sinking fun to play: watching the water rise. For example: we're promised a grand staircase but only get it in its static form. In its current state, the sinking is an entirely external affair. You cannot enter ANY interior during the sinking. This too is unacceptable. I should be able to see the water go up each stair, flood the hallways, etc. Luckily, there's a $3 Britannic game that already does the same thing this game does (external sinking). Severely disappointing. Lastly: how are you going to make a game about a sinking ship and include no swimming or drowning system? Here's what happens when you touch the water: you stand on top of it. That's it. And that too is unacceptable. Considering you can get a similar sinking experience from a game 80% cheaper, and considering the museum mode (while impressive graphically) has HUGE problems with loading times, navigation through menus, and the fact that it feels unfinished, I would wait for a steep discount following updates from Vintage Digital before purchasing. Let me finish by saying this: I truly, seriously wanted to love this game. I have been following the development of Titanic HG for years, and this was Vintage Digital Revival's first opportunity to show us, the fans, that they can deliver. But instead, this unfinished, unpolished, game makes me much more weary about the future of what they can produce.
• gamedeal user

  Jun 20, 2020

  If you're expecting anything like the Titanic: Honour & Glory demo, you'll be disappointed. You visit one area, go back to main menu, visit another, go back to main menu, visit another, go back to another... no corridors, no open-able doors or rooms. If you want to learn more about the Britannic, then this game is definitely for you. You'll learn a lot about the ship, even how it sank in real time. But whilst it is sinking, you can only go around the external of the ship. All gates work, but you cannot enter anywhere. Personally, I think the game isn't finished yet. A menu in game rather than having to go back to the main menu would definitely be a good thing to have. Also, make things interactive and try and link the different areas around the ship. Or, just focus on Titanic H&G. We're all super hyped about that.
• gamedeal user

  Jun 20, 2020

  It's a beautiful "demo". It should excite you for what's yet to come with Titanic Honor and Glory. Is this "game" perfect? No. But, there was no expectation for perfection! I'm so proud of the team and what they've accomplished, and again- the future is bright. I can only hope that the team will update this game to include seamless interior exploration, include interiors in the sinking sequence, and further enhance the experience. But overall, it's superb. The details are stunning, the soundscape is so eerie, and the option for RMS vs HMHS is a really cool touch. I do recommend this game. Even if you're not 100% satisfied, understand that if you purchase this game, you are directly supporting the team. Where this game lets you down, hopefully, through this support, Titanic HG will be near perfection. So, don't hesitate. $15-ish isn't a lot to ask for this sort of experience. Just sacrifice a few coffees during the week if this seems pricey. Well done, team. Beyond proud of you. I've watched your growth and supported you from the get-go, and this just further excites me for the future.
• gamedeal user

  Jun 20, 2020

  Definitely something for people that love history, and not for the GTA or CS:GO crowd. The ship and her spaces are beautifully and lovingly recreated, to the point where - the Sinking Experience aside, this feels more like a Virtual Museum, rather than a game. For those coming from the Demo 3 experience, you may or may not be happy to hear that our dear Robin Darcy has returned, as oblivious and foppish as ever. Apparently he and Claire have divorced - the unfaithful trollop, no doubt leaving him for her Barber Lover and taking their lovechild with her - and has joined the War Effort, possibly as one of the medical attachment... And somehow got himself court-martialed. Haplessness thy name is Robin. Judging by his reaction to seeing postcards of Titanic, Oceanic, and two other liners, we can construe that he might have been on all four, and all have ended badly - Robin it seems is a male Violet Jessop. For the experience of the sinking itself, you don't get any clues or hints or HUD telling you what to do, but then again, the men and women that went through it wouldn't have either. So this might be something to look into for the more 'mainstream' gamers out there that aren't used to having to figure out where to go or what to do themselves, unlike back in the day when games expected players to have a pencil and notebook on hand as they went through. Are there issues? Sure, what game doesn't? Especially for what is, at the end of the day, an Indie Title. Having to go all the way back to the main menu when you want to change rooms in the Tour Mode is a hassle. But this will likely get fixed in a patch soon enough. Even just going back to the specific version of the ship would remove one step in the tree-branch jumping. And in the sinking itself there's not much in the way of immersion, such as a physical experience of swimming (actually, that's in the tour mode as well, as you can enter the swimming pool in both incarnations of the ship), and there are no NPCs either, in essence you are walking through an updated version of the Real Time Sinking video. But these are minor inconveniences at the worst, and one of them is easily fixed with a patch of coding, and should not be permitted to decide if the whole experience is worthwhile or not. Especially when the game is only about $15 dollars, when similar "simulation" games that are more expensive, covering over the same subject matter, that have graphics that are of only a tenth the quality - looking like they were made back in the early 2000s rather than in the modern day with one of the latest engines in the industry - and ten times the bugs - you won't be randomly clipping through the ship and falling like a meteor to the sea floor here, nor will you find yourself stuck between the walls if you encounter a bit of poorly modeled collision maps, nor will you find much in the way of nonsensical mapping - other than a single invisible chair in the Georgian Suite (which is easily fixed with a patch) you aren't going to run into invisible walls, except only in areas where no rational person would be moving in the first place, such as on the edge of the deck where an errant press of the space bar would fling you over the side in less thoughtfully coded games. And in the small details I have mentioned, most are likely to be dated within weeks or months with patch fixes, and the other - a lack of swimming immersion - is a minor irritation that only becomes an issue if you are expecting the next Assassin's Creed or GTA from what is, at it's heart, a Virtual Museum simulator. So those are my thoughts: It is not perfect, but no game is. This is not for the Hard Core Action Hero gamer, this is for people that want a more relaxed experience, who look for the opportunity to learn something new and enrich themselves. And there is another matter I have deliberately avoided, in the name of letting the game - like the ship it celebrates - stand on it's own two feet unshadowed - the upcoming Titanic: Honor and Glory. This should and should not be taken as a preview for that larger, and more ambitious title. It should, because we get hints at what to expect that we have been told about, but not seen in person yet - Lovingly detailed reconstructions of lost grandure and humble abodes to walk in and experience, and a harrowing rush to escape one of the great disasters of the British civilian shipping. And it shouldn't, because this is meant to be it's own thing. Not all of the cards are shown on the table, because it is not time for that. Britannic: Patroness of the Mediterranean, like the ship it celebrates, is it's own animal, a proof of concept for what Vintage Digital Revival plans to do: Revive the past, digitally. And in that, they succeed. A little dingier than fans of the team would likely prefer, but it shows what they are capable of, and if they continue to polish their craft, then the future looks very bright indeed. Well done team, we'll see you when you next make port. o7
• gamedeal user

  Jun 20, 2020

  I had so many expectations, but in the end it felt like it was kind of a big let down. The exploration feels utterly disjointed. You always have to go back to the main menu to go to another room and the selection is rather small anyway. However, the rooms do look beautiful, i give them that, they know their modelling well. But at the same time the optimization feels like a mess, some rooms take very long to load, which makes the disjointed interior exploration even worse. And lets not forget the embarassing moment where the game said "Naples, Greece". And then of course, you can't explore the interior during the sinking and the game even taunts you by allowing you to look into so many interior rooms through the windows. Even the trailer seemed to hint at such thing, but no, it was just a promenade area that you could explore. And the effect of sliding furniture looked rather akward, with no sound effect. Movement was also very glitchy during that, sometimes I clipped through the ship and once i even fell into the void below. To somewhat sum it up, the game is beautiful. The ship is modelled with so much attention to detail that even on lower graphics, you don't miss out on too much. But the actual innards of what makes a game a good game, are next to non-existant. And for the sinking animation, there are other options available. Even ROBLOX has a free to play Britannic game with more effects and interior that can be explored during the sinking. Again, beautiful and educational game, but thats it.
• gamedeal user

  Jun 20, 2020

  So, I think it's important to understand what this "game" is and what it isn't before taking the plunge. (Heh.) To start, BRITANNIC is not really a game. You're purchasing one of the most historically-accurate models of one of the most famous families of ships ever constructed. So, what does that mean? There are two modes in BRITANNIC: Real-time Sinking and Tour Mode In Real-time Sinking, it's exactly what you'd expect. You are on the deck of the Britannic only minutes before the ship strikes a fatal sea mine. From there, all of the ship's maneuvers, the commands at the helm, the release order of the lifeboats (and which ones get rocked by the propellers), and the final plunge of the ship happen about as close to true life as the team could get it. It's 55 minutes of riding the Britannic into the Aegean Sea, and for fans of the ship it's an awesome experience. Tour Mode is a series of interior sections of the ship that you can explore, and include both the original interiors (which will feel very similar to those of the Titanic) and the interiors after the Britannic's conversion to a hospital ship. These are NOT connected, so it's more of a list of locations that you'll have to visit one at a time. This is kind of a shame, but these locations are simply gorgeous, with the perfect music to accompany them. That's BRITANNIC. Is it worth the $15? I'd say *absolutely* if you: 1) Want to support a small dev team committed to historical recreations of famous ships like the Titanic and Britannic. I think their work speaks for itself if you cruise their YouTube channel. I personally think educational games like this should have more of a place in the industry. 2) Have an interest in the Olympic-class liners, or even just an interest in the Titanic. The Britannic and Titanic were not so different from the outset. 3) Want to experience the sinking of what was once one of the largest moving objects in the world, to see how the ship was evacuated, the technology at their disposal, and the jump between maritime standards after the sinking of the Titanic. That being said, the experience isn't perfect. My suggestions for future updates: * More interiors for Tour Mode, maybe even some that connect to the exterior or to each other. * [b][i]A series of subtitles during the Real-time Sinking that provide a timeline of events as you ride the ship down.[/i][/b] Not unlike what the dev team does on their YouTube channel. I feel like this is an essential addition. * Interiors for the Real-time Sinking. Being on the deck is cool, but I think being able to go inside, even just a little bit, needs to happen. * The ship's wake and some related water effects don't look super great visually. I think these demand some improvement. * On Tour Mode, being able to jump between information nodes would be a nice QoL addition. * Not sure if it's possible, but the ability to remain on the ship for the last few minutes would be a fine addition. At some point, the list is great enough that you just fall off. Maybe the option to teleport to a static position during the final minutes? * I wanna get into the crow's nest. EDIT (June 21): Some additional stuff I'd like to see after spending some more time on the ship. * Can't stress how much I think the sinking needs an option for informational subtitles that correspond with events on the ship. I think it would make the experience exponentially more engaging. * More options for how to experience the sinking. Even an option to jump to the final plunge from the playlist would be good. And maybe copy those options over for free-camera mode, which only has the one option currently.
• gamedeal user

  Jun 20, 2020

  Love: - Graphics - The realistic sinking - The boats getting lowered in real time and in order - Seeing the RMS and HMHS - Historical accuracy Don't Love - Loading screens to go into every area of the ship - Some minor glitches Bottom line get the game if you are a fan of ships in general or want to support the team at Titanic HG.
• gamedeal user

  Jun 21, 2020

  [h1]Foreword[/h1] Let me start by saying that I have been a supporter of the development team for quite some time, and have been eagerly anticipating their larger, upcoming, [i]Titanic[/i] project since it was announced years ago. My understanding is that this game ([b]Britannic: Patroness of the Mediterranean[/b]) was a side project that was used primarily to get newer members of the development team up to speed on the processes, workflow, etc. that the main team is using for their other game that is still in development. To assume that the completed [i]Titanic[/i] project will be just like this is quite a stretch - even the last [i]Titanic[/i] demo that the main team released some time ago showed a lot more promise and polish than this. That being said, this review is for [i]this game[/i], and not anything else. [h1]Visuals[/h1] Thanks to the Unreal Engine's stellar rendering capability, this game's lighting, shadows, and reflections look excellent. The default settings include anti-aliasing, bloom, motion blur, and several other post-processing effects that are supported by Unreal. The motion blur was a bit much for my tastes, and although I tried to disable the option in the menu, my changes were not saved by the game. Occasional visual artifacts were seen as a result of the motion blur, most noticeably when viewing the ship's cables/rigging through a window of some kind. [h1]Environment[/h1] The environment is absolutely the focus of [b]Britannic: Patroness of the Mediterranean[/b]. The quality of the geometry and level of detail of the models used for the ship itself, as well as the equipment and furniture on board the ship, are very top quality. Texture work for those models was also generally done very well, with the exception of a few scattered pieces of furniture that were likely textured by a different artist than the rest. That particular artist would benefit from learning better UV wrapping processes and how to hide texture seams in natural folds/seams of the objects being worked on. These texture issues are only seen during the tour of the ship in its originally-intended RMS configuration, and would not be seen during the main Sinking mode or HMHS tour mode. The glaring exception to the quality and detail of the environment - and unfortunately, perhaps one of the most impactful issues for many players considering the focus of the main game mode - is the terribly poor quality of the water. The surface of the water appears to be almost a flat plane, showing no natural waves or movement of the surface aside from some ripples and movement in the water shader itself. There is additional water geometry used around the hull of the ship and behind it to show the wake and, unfortunately, the quality of this water is poor as well. This same geometry is what eventually covers the parts of the ship as they go under the surface. The game's credits show the water was not made in-house, but instead was taken from the Unreal marketplace - the inability to swim once overboard, as well as other water-related issues, are a problem with the water asset used. [h1]Sound[/h1] The ambient sounds used for the water, wind, machinery, etc. really do a great job of making it seem like the ship is a physical thing. The quality of the sounds were generally good, although I would suggest the developer adjust the volume of a few sounds as well as making some changes to the attenuation of those sounds to avoid areas where the noises abruptly stop as you get a certain distance away from their source. [h1]Navigation[/h1] This is where I - and many other reviewers, from the look of it - have the biggest issue. Movement while on the exterior deck of the ship isn't terrible, but the lack of a faster movement option (run/sprint) makes it difficult to get back and forth on the deck quickly enough to see certain landmark events as they happen unless you plan ahead. I'd also recommend the developer make some adjustments to the jumping (which is ONLY enabled on the ship exterior), as it currently feels like you jump way too high and aren't affected enough by gravity while doing so. I would also have liked to see a leaning option, to better view the side of the ship from the railings. Interior navigation, however, suffers greatly in the game's current iteration. There are a handful of interior locations that you can tour - most of which consist of two or three small rooms - but none of them are interconnected. Moving from one "set" to the next requires quitting to the main menu, then selecting the tour mode, which ship configuration you want, and finally which room you'd like to visit. I'm curious as to why the decision was made to showcase the interior this way, but I assume it was due to a combination of performance and time issues. I would love to hear from the developer on this matter. [h1]Historic Information/Learning[/h1] [quote=Developer in the About This Game section]This is primarily a learning environment, packed full of history.[/quote] With the exception of a dozen or so pop-up panels in the tour modes, there's really no information offered to the player. No information is conveyed about what is happening during the sinking. There are no non-player characters (NPC's) to interact with to get any information about any of those serving on board when [i]Britannic[/i] sunk. I could see this game being used to provide visuals as an accompaniment to either classroom learning or self-guided studies, but it offers very little learning opportunity on its own. [h1]Suggestions for the Developer[/h1] [list] [*][b]The water needs some real focus[/b]. I'd open some real-time communication with the asset creator and figure out how you can make improvements here. The fidelity of the water needs work. I'd look at Distance Field Replacement meshes to fix the water clipping through the lifeboats. [*]Revisit the UV wrapping/texturing of a few furniture pieces in the Regal Suite/Georgian Suite under the RMS tour. They stand out like a sore thumb and really ruin an otherwise picturesque scene. [*]Definitely [b]add some kind of on-screen timeline[/b] that shows what time it is during the sinking, and what is occurring at that moment. I had to google a timeline and alt-tab back and forth to follow along - players should not have to do this. [*]Attenuate the volume of sounds based on their distance from the player. The alarm bells on the ship were ridiculously loud right up until the point where I was too far away from them, and they went silent. The sound of rushing water from the boiler room vents were quite loud even at the beginning of the sinking. [*]Modify the jumping physics. Think more Call of Duty and less Halo. [*]Add the ability to lean. We should be able to walk to the end of the bridge wing, or any railing on the deck, and lean out to survey the ship. [*]Some mode of [b]navigation between the interior rooms [i]needs[/i] to be created[/b]. Whether it's a physical play area, or simply a UI popup when the player goes to the exit door of the room. I'd suggest getting the latter in-game as soon as possible, even if you decide to model the interior further to connect everything. [/list] [h1]Final Thoughts[/h1] I went through every corner of each room in both tour modes, and then experienced the sinking mode. After putting roughly three hours into this, I wouldn't see myself really putting any more time into it unless more content was added. As someone who spends a [i]lot[/i] of time playing games, and some time working on them as well, I understand both what a player expects and what a developer has to do to make an experience like this that's playable. As an early-access game, I would definitely have recommended this to anyone interested. If this is the final form, and no major updates aside from bug fixes are planned, then I would not suggest it to anyone other than those who have a real interest in the subject matter.