|
 Through
the darkness of space comes a cry for help.
Raiders have attacked a defenseless freighter in an effort to
capture the ship,and her cargo. The
small fighter escort accompanying the freighter to Star Base 1437 is quickly overwhelmed, leaving the freighter an easy target.
As its shields are about to fail, there is a burst of brilliant
white light nearby. A lone
fighter has burst through a nearby jump port.
The fighter quickly engages the hostile raiders.
Caught unawares, the first few fall before they knew what hit them. Surprise is, after all, a powerful ally.
The remaining half dozen raiders try to engage the lone fighter,
but their ships are far outclassed. They
can not match its speed or its firepower.
One by one they fall, silent explosions in the nothingness of
space. After a few moments
the two remaining space pirates make a run for it, escaping into the
darkness.
 Welcome
to Tachyon: The Fringe. It’s
one of several new space simulators taking gamers back into the cold,
dark, void of space. And Tachyon
contains the makings of a great space sim.
It combines a good story with good graphics and good play control.
And who better to star in a space sim than a
reluctant, big-mouthed, wise-cracking character named Jake Logan.
Bruce Campbell, star of the Evil Dead flicks, would seem an obvious choice
for such a role, and what do you
know… but he got it too. Campbell's
Logan is a funny character and his commentary and humor serve to help keep
things exciting.
Jake Logan was a well-respected star pilot who was
framed for a crime that he didn’t commit.
For his “crime” he is sent off to the Fringe where he uses his
finely honed skills as a “hired gun”
(if you're searching for an accurate mental picture just imagine
Bruce Campbell as Han Solo… minus the cool Millennium Falcon).
 The
game is well designed. The
available missions are set forth, you select the missions that you want to
complete and in what order.
The story changes depending on the selection and outcomes of your
missions, and of course this does wonders for the game's replayability.
Training missions are good for getting your bank account bulked up,
but they are certainly monotonous and get to be a little old after a
while. If you have ever played a space simulator, and you took a few
minutes to flip through the instruction manual to review your keyboard
controls, you probably don’t need to spend much time in training.
Thankfully you don’t have to do them if you don’t want.
You can jump into the real missions anytime.
 Tachyon
plays like a cross between Freespace II and Wing Commander.
Like Freespace, It has beautiful graphics and the details are quite good on the
fighters and capital ships but the story and cut-scenes remind me of Wing
Commander. As far as realism
goes--well, it is a space sim--but Tachyon does seem to be lacking in one noticeable area.
It could just be that I'm picky, but for some reason
when you drop in behind a freighter or capital ship to destroy their
engines so that they can’t escape, you don’t take any damage from
their engines. You can fly up, park right in their engine wash and not take
a single point of damage to your shields or hull.
There's a wide variety of ships, too.
There
are 11 ships for both teams (GalSpan and Bora).
As your skill and loot increase, so will your garage of space
fighters. You can select from any of the 11 ships and fully customize
each to your particular preferences-- so long as you can afford all the
cool toys. While you're under
the hood of your favorite space 'vette, be sure that you're thinking ahead
about what you want your craft to do.
Nothing will kill you faster than fixing up your craft for the
wrong type of mission. So
choose carefully, and fly smart.
 Where
Tachyon really shines is its multiplayer setup.
When you get online and in-game you will be placed on one of
several teams. Each team
playing has their own starbase where you can outfit your ship with
weapons, repair damage, etc. Once
your ship is ready to go you can make your way to the surrounding jump
gates. By entering these
gates you will be taken to an enemy base where you and your forces can
wreak havoc on those that would oppose you.
Obviously, if you're playing on a team with some organization it’s
quite a bit more fun to plan out some semblance of strategy before you
head off to do battle, but then again a good chaotic melee is entertaining
as well. The communication
setup is also quite good. Be sure that
you learn how to use it before you start playing online.
 Play
control is pretty decent. I highly
recommend using a good flight stick, and Force Feedback adds a
great deal of realism to your gaming experience.
It adds a healthy dose of realism to
the game when you can “feel” the ship fighting you for control when
you try to take high energy turns or engage the afterburners.
Tachyon supports all of the FFP (Force Feedback Pro) options and
controls; just be sure that you enable all of them in the options when you
set up the game.
Tachyon: The Fringe is an excellent pick to add to your space sim/combat
collection. While
replayability is good, the multi-player aspect of the game is
excellent. Be sure all
of your friends get this one as well so that you can form your own space
armada and defend your own private sector of space.
--Ben
Moore |
