The year is 1999, and David Miller is far away from home. Down on his luck both personally and financially, he accepts a job offer that’s too good to be valid on a refueling station orbiting Jupiter’s moon Titan. Before 1999, jobs in space were highly sought after and given to the elite. However, the grueling time away from Earth meant those positions eventually went to those in desperate straits, a description that David certainly fits. He arrives at what is essentially a glorified gas station in outer space with the hope that he can escape his troubles at home and earn much-needed cash. However, as he quickly settles into his new work routine, David learns that what appears to be a mundane job is anything but that.
Titan Station is a graphic adventure emphasizing exploration, full of classic science fiction tropes in an alternate history. Given the title’s short playtime of around three to four hours, I won’t say much more about the story. Still, plenty of twists and turns keep you invested in David’s journey as you uncover Titan Refueling Station’s looming mystery and a rather satisfying conclusion. There’s no combat to speak of, bringing to mind classic first-person perspective graphic adventure titles such as Myst and its sequel, Riven.
As David, players wander the lonely and empty corridors of Titan Refueling Station, fulfilling tasks for supposedly friendly voices over the radio. These tasks range from connecting terminals to the station’s network (while uncovering passwords strewn about the area) to sneaking through maintenance tunnels and even using a special helmet for David to uplink to computers and string numbered puzzle blocks together in a digital landscape. You’re given task objectives through character communication in the game itself and an objective list helpfully displayed in the corner of your screen. You travel to a particular location, find an object of interest, and then use your cursor to begin whatever interaction is needed. Controls are simple yet intuitive and easy enough to pick up with a small amount of initial experimentation.
That is all there is to Titan Station’s gameplay loop. You’ve some say in giving David a voice through dialogue options when responding to characters over the radio, which is an excellent narrative touch, even if the responses themselves don’t change the outcome of a given scene. The digital landscape puzzles are thought-provoking without ever becoming too frustrating. I like how that change of scenery helps break up the sometimes monotonous station backtracking you do for some of the objectives.
Backtracking is probably Titan Station’s biggest weakness, as you cover large swathes of the area throughout the station to accomplish some of your objectives. As a result, it becomes somewhat tedious since that means you’re moving about alone for lengthy periods, sometimes amongst places you’ve already visited. In addition, puzzles and goals will suddenly change depending on what you uncover, helping to break things up from being too monotonous. Still, earlier portions of the game, in particular, suffer from a slow start because of the backtracking you have to do. You can manually save. However, only a few save slots are available, so the game cycles through them to save over the oldest one.
Graphically, Titan Station is an impressive-looking game utilizing the first-person perspective. The setting truly brings to mind a classic sci-fi story through the visuals, and I love the mix of futuristic with more mundane things like paper printouts and nineties-styled computer screens. The visual immersion is also quite impressive and wonderfully conveyed. Examples include later portions of the narrative where you must trek through a storm with low visibility, maneuver around with a damaged viewing lens, and an endgame sequence where your helpful objective markers start changing in rapid-fire succession. All are fantastic ways to depict an event’s desperation or intensity. Objects of interest are apparent on the screen, with well-done camera angles. Going outside of Titan Station with nothing but the vast expanse of space around you is an awe-inspiring visual moment. I’ll note that I played Titan Station on an undocked Steam Deck, which is not recommended since some of the in-game text is relatively tiny and difficult to read on smaller screens.
The soundtrack for Titan Station is sparse, with wonderfully utilized sound effects perfectly fitting the environment. The few music tracks help to create a looming sense of dread and isolation during the plot’s more intense moments or invoke an understanding of the retro digital landscape setting in particular. The game’s English voice acting is admirable and fits the classic sci-fi aesthetic. I particularly like the hesitancy that comes through some of David’s dialogue choices in the later story segments, especially after certain reveals occur, since they make a lot of narrative sense then. You can listen to some of the voice acting, see the visual atmosphere, and get a feel for the soundscape in this release trailer.
Truthfully, there aren’t many faults in Titan Station. It has a story it wants to tell and does so clearly and concisely. I locked myself out of the game at a certain point, having to restart everything, but that was due to player error rather than anything else. The issue I experienced has since been found by the developer and the game updated so it shouldn’t even happen anymore. Hint, though: always keep to the maintenance tunnels once the game tells you! Titan Station is a shorter title with a satisfying narrative that doesn’t cause frustration as you progress. It’s a solid game, made all the more impressive considering that a one-person team developed it. Fans of this type of graphic adventure should give Titan Station an earnest look since it’s a thoroughly enjoyable exploration of the genre.
