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A good game for what it's worth.
I heard some good things about this game, and some really terrible things. But I knew it was a turn-based strategy game with mechs, and that's the kind of game I was looking for. I'll just say, the first time I installed it and played it, I was frustrated by the controls. It seemed it took decades to get to a fight, and I wondered how anyone could stand it. However, I wasn't giving up. There's an old saying - "I PAID MY MONEY!" Taking a moment to look through the manual, I found and memorized a few of the most important hotkeys. (Alt-right clicking is very good; it makes your mechs walk places automatically in the beginning of the game when there are no enemies in sight. That way you aren't constantly telling your mechs to "Turn, Walk forward, Turn" etc. when you shouldn't even worry about it yet.)Basically, you'll be annoyed by the strange interface until you get used to it. But you can get used to it if you put a little time into getting used to it. Soundwise, the game is decent. The only problem I had was a slight popping noise in one of the ambient sound effects - but that's amazingly easy to fix - just turn off the ambient sounds. (They're all short loops of lave boiling or chemicals bubbling - you won't miss them.) The weapons sound nice, as well as the mechs walking. No real problems here except what I mentioned. Graphics. This is certainly the game's lowest point. But it does what it's supposed to. You know where mechs are, you know if they're recon, medium, heavy, or assault class. You know if they are flying or if they have fallen down. You know which way they are facing... Basically, the graphics serve their purpose, and not too much more. Personally, though, I think this game's graphics are fine. And they are a step up from the free software I was using before. Gameplay is good. It's turn-based strategy at its best. And there's a lot of replayability to be had, here. Go to the HQ and recruit pilots, and upgrade them after battles, in a kind of RPG manner. You'll grow attached to some of your pilots and you will mourn their virtual deaths. Buy mechs and customize every little detail on them, from armor to life-support to weapons, so you go into battle in exactly the way you want. I recommend this game if you want a turn-based combat game or even a mech game. There's plenty of fun to have with this title and it won't put a dent in your pocket to get it.

Graphics? We don't need no stinkin' graphics!
This game's like chess. Graphics aren't important to understanding what's going on. If all you want is shiny pictures go watch TV or something. :)
The UI is unconventional and may be difficult to pick up right away but don't worry, after a bit of playing it becomes second nature.
The true strength of this game is multiplayer battle with custom-built titans. There's a nearly endless variety of ways your opponent wil use terrain, trickery, superior design, or raw bravado to tear your poor little titans into shreds with chainsaws, howitzers, guided missiles, lasers, exotic energy weapons, flamethrowers, lethal radiation, and all sorts of other instruments of doom. All in all, difficult to master but the multiplayer matchups make it all worthwhile. There's still a few legendary players around, if you can find them they'll show you what a real battle is. XD

This game is terrible - not recommended
This is a terrible game. The previous reviews were glowing, so I thought I would try it out. However, as soon as I opened the package, I knew I was in trouble. The graphics are a nightmare (looks like it was created 20+ years ago) and the commands are burdensome (walk one space east, walk one space south, shoot, etc). If you like retro games maybe this might be fun for you but for me I prefer older games like BattleMech many times over before I would retry this game. After I bought the game I noticed that many of the glowing reviews were written by the same person, bumping up the recommendation. My recommendation: stay away from this game but look at the BattleMech series.

This game is horrible...
First off, let me say I'm not a graphics junkie. I'm still playing stuff like Icewind Dale II and enjoying it plenty on my aging Sony Vaio. But Titans of Steel was horrible - plenty of great gameplay ideas visually displayed in a manner reminiscent of "Jumpman" on my Commodore 64 some 18-20 years ago. Okay, maybe not that bad, but really - this is horrible. And everything (including graphics) is great up until the moment you actually take your carefully designed character out into the game to play. Then the extreme burdensome detail put into all the rules and calculations that determine battle effects immediately become exasperating, and you scratch your head in perplexity as to why such effort wasn't put into the visual aspect. Did this game run out of money and get finished on someone's home PC or something???

Battletech style strategy
This is definitely a serious strategy game with a unique turn system. Sort of like classic turnbased Battletech at full throttle. Its not an RTS. The package says its 'timed-play'. There is definitely a different feel to this game style. It has role-playing of the team which you create to pilot the Titan-AT vehicles with stats, attributes and skills which can be improved with experience. You can also design the Titans from scratch to an almost incredible level. There are about 20 different chassis which can hold any number of weapons and systems. This is an extremely deep, well thought out strategy/tactical? Roleplaying game with a lot of design fun. A real man's strategy game. It is definitely not dumbed down for the masses increasing its overall brilliance. A great strategy game for battletech. Its the best battletech style wargame I've played.