A Recreation of the Titanic Sinking in Real-Time Is a Gruelling Watch

The RMS Titanic, possibly the most famous passenger ship in the history of mankind, sunk this month 104 years ago. A lot has been made and talked about the liner in popular culture, with James Cameron's 1997 film Titanic the most prominent rendition in a lot of people's minds.

Titanic: Honor and Glory, a new game in production since 2012, plans to change that by giving players a "fully interactive recreation of the most famous ship in history". The game isn't out until 2017, and so with the 104th anniversary in hindsight, the developers released a full-length reanimation of the Titanic sinking, all in real-time. At 2 hour and 40 minutes, which is how long the ship took to sink to the bottom of the ocean, it still isn't as long as Cameron's big screen adaptation (3 hours and 15 minutes).

But it is a gruelling watch nonetheless, considering how little happens for much of the video's length. You are not likely to notice the gradual sinking of the ship, and it's only when you jump between different points do you realise the catastrophe befalling the unseen passengers inside. It isn't until an hour and 15 minutes into the simulation that you are first shown the inside of the ship filling up with the ocean water, after which you'll see different parts on a frequent basis.

This is only one part of a game though, and the full version will allow you to not only walk through each and every part of the Titanic - the progress of which can be tracked - but will also have a part of 1912 Southampton built into it, which was the port of departure for the ill-fated liner. You will also encounter some of the famous passengers aboard, and be able to help others during the rescue.

Some have questioned the pursuit of a project like this, which seems like capitalising on a disaster done to death already. "If the game were being made by people simply looking to make an awesome game, [we] would say yes," the makers wrote on the game's website. "However, our core team is made up almost exclusively of people who have grown up appreciating the disaster, respecting those who were lost, and simply want to see all of that brought back to life, even if only digitally."

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"Our consultants are on hand to make sure we get this done right, and we are even bringing descendants of survivors and victims to make sure those on board are accurately represented and properly memorialised. Overall, we just want to tell their stories, preserve their memories, and revive a luxurious ocean liner that the whole world poured its heart into."

The game came to life with the help of their own money, crowdfunding via IndieGoGo and investors, and has managed to raise over $1.2 million (roughly Rs. 7.9 crores) in total.