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A beautiful and challenging space sim

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 11 / 11
Date: May 22, 2000
Author: Amazon User

This game shines and shines beautifully. It has excellent graphics and the controls are beyond superb in handling and response time. The missions are well balanced in their complexity and the computer AI is challenging enough to give you a run for your money.

The reason I gave it four stars is due to two minor flaws. The first is due to long load times. I am running the game on my PIII with 256MB of RAM and it still takes a good 30 seconds to load between missions. The second is the ability of the computer to fly in and out of structures in the game. This gets pretty frustrating in the later missions when you are trying to protect convoys and the like. Both of these are pretty minor as the second happens only on occasion.

Overall this game is an excellent addition to a genre that has lacked depth over the last couple of years. The variety of ships, missions, weapons, and wingmen in which you can complete the game adds a tremondous amount of replay-ability. The multiplayer games are fun and the ability to talk online to your teamates (with a mic)is way too much fun as well. I would recommend this game to anyone who likes flying games or space sims as this is one of the best.

Best Space Game In Years

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 11 / 11
Date: April 26, 2000
Author: Amazon User

Ever since the release of the original Wing Commander, space combat games have all been basically rehashes of that formula: You're a hotshot pilot in a futuristic military, taking orders from someone else. The only exceptions to the rule have been trading games like Elite, which have no story to speak of, and slightly more structured games, like Privateer, which let you act as your own boss, but are still linear enough to tell a story. Tachyon falls firmly into the latter category, and it's the best example of this style of game since Privateer itself. The sounds and visuals are all cutting edge, but the game's sensibilities are old-school: provide challenging combat, tell a good story, and keep the player intrigued to the end. This game's never boring. And once you've made your way through the game from both sides of its deep story line, there's still multi-player to enjoy. Try a game of Base Wars online; it supports 120 players per game, it's more fun than Microsoft's Allegiance -- and it's free. Can't beat that with a stick. Bottom line: If you like space games and you've been itching for something new and different, go for Tachyon.

AN EXCELLENT SPACE SIMULATION

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 7 / 7
Date: March 26, 2001
Author: Amazon User

First of all, this review is ASSUMING THAT THE GAME WORKS ON YOUR COMPUTER. I read some of the other reviews below and heard about how this game isn't compatible with some graphics cards or whatever. If that were the case, I'd haved to give this game one star. But since this game did run perfectly well on my machine, here's what I have to say about it. The only space sim that I've played other than Tachyon is X-Wing--an old VGA game--but in many ways X-Wing was the turning point in space sims. The graphics in Tachyon are really good, if somewhat redundant. What I mean is that sometimes I see the same patterns and textures on space stations. Speaking of space stations, I was MOST IMPRESSED by their SIZE. The people at Novalogic really did an outstanding job at scaling things correctly. But what really got me to buy this game was the fact that you could buy different ships and decide what armament and upgrades you want to put on it. Certain ships have a certain amount of slots, and the possible combinations are nearly endless. Another nice feature is that you can own multiple ships at once, or sell individual ships or parts for money. You can hire wingmen to assist you on missions. Since there is no in-flight camera, it's hard to tell if your wingmen did anything to help you, but at least they don't die easily--even the poorer pilots. There are several external view, but I didn't find them very helpful. They should have put a gunsight on the external view so that you could fly through the mission, accomplish it, and enjoy the scenery at the same time. The game is sorta nonlinear. You get to choose which level mission you want to undertake, but ultimately you will end up doing the others. The missions are fairly simple and varied, which is nice. I remember that X-Wing was downright frustrating at times. By the way, there are cheats for this game, so if you get stuck, look 'em up. The levels with the fog are interesting, although they can be a strain on the eyes and disorientating at times. But that's not until the end. There are some cut-scenes, but nothing truly original or amazing--they're still the in-game graphics. This game could have been better, but overall I'd say it's worth its price. But I'd check to make sure it can run on your machine, first.

Awesome...

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 6 / 8
Date: April 20, 2000
Author: Amazon User

the demo was awesome...played it non-stop...the graphics are incredible and controlling the ship throught the huge space worlds is very easy...the guy from army of darkness does the voice acting and its clear and funny...i recommend it to anyone who likes space-shooters or action

Bruce Campbell, the Afro

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 4 / 4
Date: May 22, 2000
Author: Amazon User

Well, I had the choice of buying this or Starlancer. The graphics in Starlancer looked better, the box was better, it looked more impressive, but one thing made me buy Tachyon....the DON. I will just say this now, Bruce Campbell is such a dude. Army of Darkness has the funniest lines in any film ever, and I didn't want to miss out on any other potential classics, I got a very decent game into the bargain as well. Less linear, which I prefer, this game has such a great sense of humour and depth to it which could so easily almost be overlooked. For example, a little fact that would be overlooked I'm sure, every single news bulletin has it's own specific pictures or animation, and considering the amount of news bulletins throughout the game this just goes to show Novalogic weren't slacking. I can see how some people would criticize it, calling it mediocre, because of it's old look and feel. However, in my opinion, older games are the best, and I'm so glad that Novalogic have gone back to basics almost, swapping revolution for a great gaming experience. Bruce Campbell doesn't disappoint as Jake Logan, and the whole game is very tight. It also has one of the best manuals ever. Buy, enjoy, also buy Army of Darkness. I love that film.

Awesome game... but....

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 3 / 3
Date: March 11, 2001
Author: Amazon User

Well, I'm not going to go in and restate everything from all the other reviews on here, I'm just interjecting my 2 cents. The Multiplayer system is great, the base wars battles are wonderful, everything is great, except one little thing that just bugs the heck out of me. Remember if you will (or just pretend if you never played the game) Wing Commander 3. One ship, the Arrow, a light interceptor, had an ability called the Slide which enhanced it's dogfighting abilities. Well, EVERY ship in this game can do that. There's more though... There is a ship add-on called lateral thrusters in the game, which allow youer ship to strafe side to side. Basically, with both of these aspects being redilly available to every ship in the multiplayer campaigns you have 'dogfights' turning into odd forays which much resemble 'circle strafing' matches in any number of First Person Shooter style games. To me it takes alot of fun out of a flight sim to not be able to dogfight, but that's just my opinion...

Great Game

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 3 / 3
Date: August 26, 2000
Author: Amazon User

I am really enjoying this game. It has been quite easy to learn the controls and develop decent combat skills. I love computer games but am not a "hardcore" gamer. Sometimes I get frustrated if a game's controls or challenge is too much. I get part way through and hit a wall and can't get past it. With this game, I really feel that the training opportunities develop your skills and I have gotten quite far into it.

The storyline is also very engaging. And Bruce Cambell is a blast. He reminds me of Duke Nukem with his wise guy comments.

Others have noted the long load times between missions. This is true. I would also like to be able to skip all the docking and jumping cut scenes. Some you can, some you can't. It gets old watching them over and over when I am itching to blast something.

Captivating

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 2 / 2
Date: June 25, 2000
Author: Amazon User

I have enjoyed this game immensely. The graphics are superb as is the sound. I have had no trouble loading or playing this game. Perhaps the best features of it are: Bruce Campbell's voice, The storyline, The expansive environments of the different space systems, Colorful characters, and a degree od custom play (weapon, mission, and wingman choices) and great fighters to fly! If you liked X-wing or Tie Fighter, Freespace 2 or the Wing Commander series, you might like this one. Definate buy!

Great graphics! Great game!

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 2 / 2
Date: December 20, 2001
Author: Amazon User

I got this game some time ago as a gift and even though I was never a fan of this type of game - I loved it. The graphics are great, gameplay is challenging but not impossible and there are several tutorials that take you through the basics of the game. Another big plus is the game doesn't take itself too seriously. Using Bruce Campbell for voiceovers was a brilliant idea and brought a spark of life (and humor) to the game.

They also created a backstory for the game - a consistant well thought out one. It's nice to be able to choose your missions and who you want to fight for. One of my biggest beef with these types of games is the lack of choices, you just jump through the hoops. There's still a little of that in this game but not enough to detract from the positives.

WOW!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 3 / 6
Date: April 28, 2000
Author: Amazon User

I just played the tachyon multiplayer and i can tell you this is onee of the best games in existance!

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