Star Wars TIE Fighter: Collector's CD-ROM

"One of the best Star Wars games ever made."

I went out and bought a Star Wars collection pack one day. I wasn’t expecting much since it was only 30 bucks (and came with X-wing, Dark Forces, and of coarse, Tie Fighter). Boy was I wrong. When I put the Tie Fighter CD in and started up a game, I was shocked. Now here is why…

Gameplay

This is where the game really shines. Like most space sims, you fly away your ship and blow things up. It’s just so addicting though. You will love wrestling around with your joystick trying to get behind the enemy star fighter (I even broke mine once). You get to fly many different craft, starting with the basic Tie Fighter, Bombers and Interceptors. Once you progress through a few missions you get the more advanced ships, like Tie Advance, Assault and Missile gunboats and my personal favorite, the Tie Defender. The missions start easy, and as you get more advance craft you get thrown into very difficult missions. Hey, you can even call for reinforcements! And don’t worry; you won’t be only blowing up Rebels (without giving any spoilers). Also, every single mission you do you will get a detailed briefing and debriefing, you can even ask questions to the commander briefing you.

Story

Well, its Star Wars. In a normal Star Wars game you would have to save the galaxy from the evil Empire. Not in this game. In Tie Fighter your the bad guys. You take the role of a Star fighter pilot, and work your way up the ranks until your one of the most well known pilots in the galaxy. You will defend the Empire in your trusty star fighter and kill many, many Rebels.

Sound

The sound effects sound like they were taking just from the movies! You can hear the roar of a Tie Fighter soaring past you, the screech of a laser blast zipping by your ship and the explosion of the cruiser you just bombed. There isn’t not much to say about the music, it’s just the Star Wars theme and the Imperial march going on in the background as you fly around. The music changes as you enter a different situation. You just killed a enemy squadron and the music becomes slow and calm. A new enemy flight group enter the area and it becomes fast paced and dramatic.

Graphics

Don’t worry; you won’t need 3D hardware to run this game (even though it is 3D). The graphics are very good considering how old this game is. You will be able to notice what ship your looking at very easily. The cut-scenes are well done (apart from the 2D people in them). Also (as with the other Star Wars space sims) the menu is not a simple list, it is a whole space ship, where you click on various doors and bays to do what you want. In the game there is little or no slow down at all.

Replay Value

There is no multi-player in Tie Fighter but you won’t need it anyway. Most of the game your just doing various missions or training. The story mode has (and I’m not lying) over 120 missions! After you do them all, you will probably do them again on either a different difficulty or try it again to try and get the bonus goals (I’ve beating the game four times…and that’s only on easy!).

Final Score: 10/10

Overall this is a fantastic game, certainly one of the best games I’ve ever played. If you haven’t seen the original Star Wars trilogy, go watch all three movies before you play this. I got this game (with many others) for 30 bucks. As far as I’m concerned, they ripped themselves off big time. This game is a classic, and if you can find it anywhere buy it (as long as you have a joystick), you defiantly won’ regret it.

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 03/09/03, Updated 03/09/03