STAR WARS™: TIE Fighter Special Edition

This game was amazing when it came out. I played every mission and found every secret sinking countless hours into this game. Unfortunately it's very old and the resolution is terrible. For a strategy game like master of orion this doesn't bother me as much, but on a flight sim/action game, I found tie fighter really hard to enjoy. Just my two cents, ymmv.

BUY THIS TODAY! I started out with Line Wars or WC1 forever ago, and in the 90's a friend introduced me to X Wing. great game. My biggest complaint about X Wing was aside from the A Wing I really didn't like the fighters. The game was well done but lacked, imo, the polish and finish AND FEEL of Wing Commander. Then a year later, maybe 2 I played Tie Fighter at a friends house. Controls are smoother as butter, the ships feel and move like you think they should, you get to see Grand Admiral Thrawn (Vice Admiral then), and Vader. Much more depth to the missions than X Wing, I loved the Secret Order of the Emperor where you can become The Emperors Hand, and all that is mainly due to you being VERY ambitious, showing initiative, some options are handed to you, others come from inspecting EVERY ship or container in a single mission. Test drive 3 different fighters (test piloting). Tie Advanced is a very nimble fighter, the Tie Defender, WOW, that was the WC4 Dragon, in X Wing Alliance you could use it in multi, and the midgrade pilots loved its hitting power but complained it was a HUGE target and kept getting FF'd in multi, well, same happens here to a degree, but that ship is really as good as you are, you are whats holding it back, and the Assault Missile boat, this tank hit the mark the Crossbow from WC2 Secret Missions1 missed, a fast cap ship killer, not much of a dog fighter, but ordinance payload FOR DAYS. The music pulled you in, granted the quality wasn't the best, neither were the graphics, but it pulled you into the game, like you were in a movie... modern games, with a few exceptions, it takes an Oculous Rift to get THAT tied into a game. Never made the game feel like you were the bad guy playing the evil campaign (like Dungeon Keeper) but it was more, you are military and dealing with a rebellion, that is causing the territory more harm than good. Very good story telling, excellent controls, and the AV just pulled you in. BUY THIS TODAY!

There's so much praise here, but I must add more. In short: 1) If you like classic PC games, you will like TIE Fighter. 2) If you like space combat, you will really like TIE Fighter. 3) If you like Star Wars, you will love TIE Fighter. 4) If you like the Galactic Empire from Star Wars, TIE Fighter will probably be your favorite Star Wars game ever. If it isn't already. EVERYTHING in this game works to immerse you in the role of a TIE pilot in the Imperial Navy. From the excellent MIDI soundtrack ('94 version only) with IMUSE that adapt the score as the battle around you rages, to the simple yet excellent and believable story told by the game and its supplementary materials, and the lovely sound of your TIE spitting green laser death at all who would dare challenge you. The game-play is incredible, with complex yet easy to learn mechanics that greatly expand the tactical aspect of the game. You can adjust power to increase your laser charging rate, at the risk of losing vital speed. You can order friendly craft around to influence areas of the battle. You can pause the game, pull up the 3D map, and plot at length just how you plan to clear the enemy minefield to expose the capital ship in the center. And those are just the housekeeping chores. The actual dog-fighting is fast, responsive, and intense as any scene in the films. Plan on playing for a good while. With 13 Battles composed of 5+ missions each, all of which can last between mere minutes to over an hour. Each one of these missions is crammed full of primary objectives, side objectives, and secret objectives. If you get on a loosing streak, take a break and play some of the simulator missions, see how quickly you can get the TIE Interceptor through an obstacle course or run scenarios in the craft you haven't seen in the campaign yet to prepare you. Or sit back and watch replays from past missions. So what are you waiting for, pilot? The Rebels think The Force is with them... Explode that notion!

I spent weeks and months with this one back in the 90s. Without a doubt one of the best space combat games ever made. The graphics were fantastic back then, today everyone needs to look at the screenshots to find out if they still suit him. The game has an interesting storyline (for an action game that is) and the Star Wars atmosphere is certainly its biggest plus. There are some quirks however, mainly one: This game is quite hard (although not as hard as 'X-Wing') and there are some evil difficulty spikes within the campaingns. That aside, TIE Fighter is a great improvement over its predecessor X-Wing, especially gameplay-wise. It feels more polished and less clunky. The space battles itself are very fun to play, oftentimes you need to plan your moves with the in-game map before simply rushing to attack. As long as you complete your objectives you can do what you like inside the combat area. There's very little handholding. There are scripted events within these battles, but they actually make the fighting more interesting. All in all a great space combat game with a lot of content, a challenging (as flying a TIE Fighter should be) and atmospheric exprience. And, who wants to be a rebel anyway?!

This was a truly glorious time for me, starting off with my first PC. I had an IBM with DX2-50, 4MB RAM, 1MB Cirrus Logic videocard and 250MB HDD! I upgraded the hardware to 8MB (+4MB, which cost around 100 EUR!) and added a Soundblaster 16 soundcard for really awesome sound immersion. Finally I purchased a joystick (Logitech WingmanExtreme) and enjoyed countless hours of chasing Z-95, X-Wing and all the other crafts around the galaxy. I can not count how many hours I spent in the cockpits of TIE-Interceptors, TIE-Advanced and TIE-Defenders. But I will tell this, there was no outlaw or rebel escaping my dutiful patrol! Maybe you guys should watch a good Youtube-LetsPlay first before you buy this game. Dunno if it is worth 10 USD, but I guess I will buy it on a sale. ;-)