Computer Graphics Memory Disk Space
Minimum 386DX-33 VGA/MCGA +1MB EMS 15MB
Max/Rec. 486 +2MB EMS
Control: Joystick (recommended), Mouse
Sound: Sound Blaster, Sound Blaster Pro, Sound Blaster 16, Awe32,
PAS, Roland MT 32 /LAPC-1
Reviewed version 1.0 on: 486SX-33, 4MB RAM, Sound Blaster 2.0
Reviewer recommends: 486DX2 for maximum detail level, 2MB EMS,
1MB disk cache, sound card, good joystick
In Tie Fighter you play the role of a starfighter for the tyrannical Empire in a game based on the classic LucasFilms production _Star Wars_ (or, quite probably, _The Empire Strikes Back_). It is your duty to complete seven tours of duty (called Battles) so the Empire might better tighten its stranglehold on the galaxy. Tie Fighter boasts many small but significant improvements over its predecessor X-Wing, and resolves most of the complaints players had about the original game. While the game suffers from a weak ending, it is still a fantastic display of ingenious design and programming.
The documentation consists of three articles: the reference card, the Starfighter Pilot Manual and The Stele Chronicles. The Chronicles includes a nice story that leads into the plot of the game, specifications for ship types, and a walk-through of ship systems and displays. Since the combat chamber provides its own mini-tutorial and the plot of the game has little to do with the pilot's history, reading The Chronicles is hardly a necessity. It is a decent read, though, and is certainly informative. The Pilot Manual gives a detailed description of the basic interface, the cockpit, weapons, and on-board information systems. This works well as a reference for those who wish to learn by playing. The reference card is the most important piece of documentation. Every important in-flight command is included in the form of a simple list. It is this card that will probably be used most frequently by beginner and veteran players alike.
The first thing the player sees on start-up is the copy protection. Three symbols and a page number are given, to which the corresponding word must be found. The symbols are meaningless, so it is really just a matter of finding the correct page and typing in the word at the bottom. As documentation lookup goes, this is easily tolerable. Once the registration officer has been satisfied that the area is clear of space pirates, the registration desk becomes available.
Players who are familiar with X-Wing will feel right at home in Tie's
front end. Getting around is a matter of pointing at the appropriate
location and clicking with either the mouse or joystick button. After
entering the pilot's name, the player may press EASY- You are basically just another cog in the huge machine that is
the Empire. Your wingmen and other allied flight groups will do most
of the damage, while you perform the odd heroic act. This level is
much too easy for any but the least experienced pilots.
MEDIUM- You are a pilot with potential. If you are skilled enough,
you may win favor and promotion. This is the perfect level for those
who felt that X-Wing was too difficult, but still desire a reasonable
challenge.
HARD- You are the Scion of the Dark Side, the Darling of the Empire,
the Rebel Exterminator! You will be expected to complete tasks that
would make even a Jedi Master balk. You will surge up through the
ranks and become a General, but more importantly you will advance
quickly in the secret order of the Emperor. The force had BETTER be
with you if you play at this level . . .
The exit in the registration room leads to the main concourse, from
which the whole space station may be accessed. Doors lead to the film
room, tech room, training simulator, combat chamber, battle
selection/view cut-scene room, and battle hanger (briefing room).
The film room allows the viewing of films saved from previous missions.
Though the VCR options are identical to those in X-Wing, they are still
quite impressive. Any object may be viewed from the vantage point of
any other object, and a free floating camera can be positioned anywhere
in the combat theater. The scope of this feature is incredible; it's
much like watching a movie where YOU are the director, and YOU play the
starring role. The film room is also an important place to study "what
went wrong" on failed missions.
The tech room is a showcase of every ship in the game (barring only the
"mystery ship"). All of the ships are shown in 3-D, and may be rotated
to view from different angles. Some new ships include the escort
shuttle and assault transport, which sport deadly rear turrets, the
corellian transport (like Solo's Millennium Falcon), new mine and
container types, and variations on capital ships. The additional ships
add dimension to the game; different enemies require fresh strategies.
The tech room itself has very little to do with gameplay, but it IS
nicely done.
The training simulator that was (in X-Wing) a string of platforms has
been replaced with a long, twisting tube. The tube is filled with
targets which the player can destroy for extra time, and obstacles that
grow increasingly difficult as levels progress. The purpose of the
simulator is to get a basic feel of how the different ships respond,
and also to hone targeting skills. After completing a minimal amount
of levels, the player is awarded a training patch. Most players should
have no trouble navigating their way through enough levels to earn the
patch.
The combat chamber serves as an opportunity for pilots to get the feel
of what real combat is like in a risk-free environment. The missions
provide an in-flight tutorial through messages from wingmen or the
command center. All goals--primary, secondary, and bonus (more on
these below)--can be discovered by pressing the "g" key while in the
simulator. The combat chamber's missions are, for the most part, a
nice prelude to the real thing. However, a few of the missions are
more difficult than those in the battles themselves! Tie Interceptor
Mission four is arguably the toughest mission in the game.
The battle selection room gives a short description of available
battles and allows the viewing of end-battle cut-scenes for completed
tours. The mid-battle cut-scenes, which often include dialogue
between Emperor Palpatine and Darth Vader, can not be accessed in
this manner. The only time they may be seen is when they are
"awarded" for completing the necessary mission. The player must
achieve victories in seven battles to complete the game, four of which
are available at the beginning. The battles themselves still follow
a linear progression--that is, the second mission in a battle can not
be flown without completing the first mission. There are still no
winning and losing paths. This was a problem in X-wing, since it was
possible to be hopelessly stuck on a difficult mission for long
stretches of time. In Tie Fighter, however, the problem is resolved
by allowing the player to change difficulty levels, use
invulnerability (and still get credit for the mission), and/or opt not
to finish secondary or bonus goals.
The briefing room consists of the mission map, a flight officer, and a
dark, mysterious figure in the background (not present for every
mission). Clicking on the map shows the combat theatre complete with
all spacecraft known to be in the area, and provides primary mission
objectives and instructions on how to complete them. The officer's
questions add detail to the story, and put each mission in perspective
in regard to the whole battle. The officer can also provide
information on expected enemy opposition (not always accurate) and
available reinforcements. I don't want to give too much away about
the dark figure, but let me just say that his advice is the key to
entrance into the Emperor's secret order. All in all, the briefing
room provides valuable information, but only to a limited extent.
REAL info on a mission can only be obtained by entering the mission
proper.
All of the previous topics I've covered, the basic interface, the
tech room, the film room, etc., are really just window dressing
surrounding the real game. The "meat" of Tie Fighter exists inside
the simulation itself. Once you drop into that cockpit, you are
transported into the Star Wars Universe, an as yet unsurpassed
medium of (though I hate to say it) virtual reality. Every ship
has its own agenda, and will do whatever possible to complete its
objectives. Enemies and friendlies alike react realistically to
the player's actions; an attack on an unsuspecting flight group
will undoubtedly result in a fast and vicious counter-attack.
Likewise, firing missiles at a capital ship might cause it to
release its own barrage of missiles. More on enemy artificial
intelligence below.
The flight model is geared more towards entertainment than realism.
Control is simple and intuitive: push the joystick forward or back
to point the nose of the craft down or up, move the joystick to
either side to turn. Pushing button two on the joystick allows the
craft to roll without changing its orientation. Speed may be
adjusted in a variety of ways involving keyboard commands. A decent
joystick provides perfect control of ship movement.
At the highest detail level, the graphics are simply astonishing.
New shading adds much depth to the original polygon-based engine.
If you don't have a DX2 or Pentium, don't fret! The game still
looks very nice with all detail turned off. The quality of
animated sequences ranges from excellent to disappointing. In
particular, close-ups of speaking characters tend to look rather
blocky, while ships rocketing past the "camera" are breathtaking.
The dialogue in these sequences leaves much to be desired, as well.
Admiral Thrawn stating very simply "This Rebel stronghold has no
hope of escape" did not ring true to me at all. The music is
basically the same that played through X-Wing--no great improvement
there, but this was really not an aspect of the game that needed
improving. Some new digital effects have also been added. Racing
too close to a tie fighter or raking an enemy with laser fire will
produce effects that are straight out of the feature films. All in
all, the "bells and whistles" fans will be quite pleased with the
improvements made in this package.
The biggest and best improvements this game holds over X-Wing involve
the in-flight information systems that are available to the player.
The push of a button will call up the mission goals screen, a new
and improved 3-D map, a log screen that records in-flight messages,
or a threat display that gives information about targeted craft.
The CMD display has also been altered to show the target's
orientation--an extremely useful improvement. It would have been
nice to have been able to jump straight from one screen to another
(i.e. map to log screen), but this is a rare and unimportant
oversight.
The mission goals screen very simply states whether a goal is
complete, as yet incomplete, or an utter failure. Goals range from
inspecting harmless containers to leading assaults on capital ships.
Mission objectives are now broken down into three categories:
primary, secondary and bonus goals. All primary goals must be
achieved to complete the mission; if even one is failed, continuing
is pointless. Secondary goals usually involve the dark, mysterious
figure in the briefing room and the secret order of the Emperor.
These goals MUST be completed in order to see the extra cut-scenes
associated with the order. Bonus goals remain hidden until
completed, and are mainly for extra points, stature, and bragging
rights. Some of them are virtually impossible for all but the best
of pilots.
The new map feature improves on the map in the original game in
nearly every way. The map has been "fixed" so that a targeted craft
will STAY targeted after returning to the cockpit. In X-Wing, the
desired craft had to be re-selected after leaving the map, which was
especially annoying when there were dozens of craft to cycle through
in order to find the correct one. Also, because the map was only
two-dimensional in X-Wing, it was hard to get an overall feel of
where crafts were positioned in relation to one another. This is
not the case in Tie Fighter. A tap of the spacebar will toggle
2D/3D mode, which provides a much better picture of the current
situation. Additionally, the selected craft's heading is now
represented by a line from the craft to its destination. If the
craft is attacking, the line will be drawn to its target. With these
improvements, the player can easily jump to the map screen, determine
attack priorities, and act accordingly.
The artificial intelligence in Tie Fighter is slightly better than
that in X-Wing. While a single starfighter still has no real chance
against a human opponent, flight groups tend to lean more towards
team tactics then they did in the original game. A targeted fighter
may fly away in a straight line, offering up his tail pipe for an
easy kill. However, the rest of the flight group may fall in line
behind, ready to cut to pieces anyone who falls for "that old trick."
The actual flight patterns of the better (i.e. Ace, Top Ace) pilots
seem to have improved slightly as well. Instead of feinting one way
and turning the other, the "new" pilots sometimes gyrate in crazy,
unpredictable ways. This makes for a much tougher kill. Some
fighters also seem intent on stalling instead of attacking, which may
force the player to complete other objectives in less time. These
new tactics work fairly well, and are a small step forward for the AI
in this series.
There have been a lot of questions about specific features/improvements
in Tie Fighter posted in the Usenet newsgroups. Here are some quick
answers to some Frequently Asked Questions:
Is the game better than the demo?
Yes, it is much, much better. The Tie demo has much more in common with
X-Wing than it does with Tie Fighter. None of the new features are
showcased in the demo, which leads one to wonder why LucasArts even
bothered releasing it.
Do I still have to drop to DOS to back up my pilot file?
No. Tie Fighter provides in-game pilot backup which, while not perfect,
certainly gets the job done.
Is the game still linear? Are there winning and losing paths?
There are no winning and losing paths, but new features and optional
goals help alleviate the problem of linearity.
Does the game include a mission builder?
No, but there have been rumors that the final mission disk will include
this capability. We can only hope . . .
Does the game allow the player to give orders to other flight groups?
No. This is on my "wish list" for future mission disks as well.
Is there more "story" in Tie than there was in X-Wing?
Yes. The officer's questions and the dark figure add some nice
background plot to the game. In-flight messages also often hold
twists and surprises.
What's this about a new tractor beam weapon?
This weapon gets developed during the course of the game, but its
usefulness is very limited (to say the least).
Does the whole "fight for the Empire" theme turn into a "defect and
fight for the Rebellion" theme?
Nope. Through the whole game you fight for the Dark Side. Kudos to
LucasArts for not giving us a "good guy" ending.
Why does the registration officer's voice sound so familiar?
This is unconfirmed, but I believe the voice belongs to Sam (Max?
The dog) in LucasArts's graphic adventure SAM AND MAX HIT THE ROAD.
The only major problem I had with this game was the weak, anticlimactic
ending. I was expecting something of the same
magnitude as the incredible final mission trench run in X-Wing. I
was sorely disappointed. The final three missions are among the
easiest in the game, and the final cut-scene is decent, but hardly
spectacular. The ending to Tie fighter is a MAJOR let down. We can
only hope that the mission disks hold more in the way of final battles.
Tie Fighter is a game of many small improvements over its predecessor.
Although the basic look and feel of the game is the same, additional
elements provide a much more dynamic atmosphere once inside the
simulation. The graphics, sound, and story line have also been
improved. Since I considered X-Wing a nearly perfect game, and Tie
Fighter addresses most of the complaints people had with X-Wing, I can
only give this game my very highest recommendation, in spite of its
sub-par ending.
THE SIMULATION
TIE FIGHTER MINI-FAQ
A SINGLE COMPLAINT
CONCLUSION