In 2007, many game companies seem to be focusing back to the sci-fi genre of games that we saw an abundant of during the mid to late 90’s be so ever popular. Tarr Chronicles follows suit of Star Trek, Battlestar Galactica before it as a launching pad for premise, which is not a bad thing at all.
Story
We have a military ship that is teleported in a galaxy far, far away and the ultimate goal is to find a way back home. It feels like a been there, done that scenario but it isn’t anything new since many sci-fi movies and TV series use similar storytelling. Our story unfolds through journals and many missions briefings. This all helps bring the story together to make this a descent experience, but not something that will knock your socks off. But out of all the CDV title that I have played the last month, this one has the best told storyline yet, but the characters just seem lifeless and wish they had more personality.
Gameplay
I like to think of this title similar to our old PC favorites Tie Fighter with plenty of dog fighting in the sky. The AI keeps on pace with you trying to eliminate you from the sky. I like the aggressive AI as it helps keep a game challenging and not something that you won’t want to play anymore after 15 minutes. The mission structure is very linear and you must stay on course with what is laid out for you mission wise. There are 9 missions, with plenty of objectives and checkpoints. You just really need to stay on course with the way your missions are laid out, if you stray too far off the path then you have to start all over again from the previous checkpoint.
Even your own AI teammates hold their ground fairly well which is a good thing since the enemy AI is very competitive. You are able to upgrade your weapons as you move further along which helps you a great deal, but the enemies tend to get tougher as the difficulty increases. You will be using the mouse/keyboard combo for Tarr taking the place of a flightstick and throttle. I found all the button layouts very simple on the mouse/keyboard, so many should be able to jump right in.
Graphics
Graphically Tarr looks good, but not great. The style that the development team went for here fits fairly well with what the story is trying to tell. Ships and particles in the sky aren’t overly detailed, but their enough to give us enough to enjoy this one. I liked the smoke effects that were used when a ship is damaged or when firing a weapon, these areas came off pretty good.
The Bottom Line
Tarr Chronicles comes as close as they can to bringing the space shooters like Tie Fighter, Wing Commander of the 90’s back into 2007 without having huge production values. CDV has the foundation nailed down very well here, it will be a matter of time if they can capitalize on what they have and take this franchise to the next level. This is the best game from CDV of the titles that I have played to date and if you’re a PC shooter fan, you owe it to yourself to go out and pick this up.
