STAR WARS™: TIE Fighter Special Edition

This was the first game I ever bought for the PC, I seem to remember a poster of this game in the shop and on it was written the words "Why fly with pouncy Luke, when you can fly with Big Darth", This game was one of the best games I have ever played. The Imperial Officer that briefs your missions is awesome (actually the actor that voiced him was Guy Siner from Allo, Allo fame). I have to only give it 4 stars though as It isn't the 95 CD collectors edition which I had.

X-Wing was awesome and this game even improves certain things. However, I can't do it. I can't. I'm sorry. I cannot fight against the rebels. I just don't believe in the cause of the empire. I tried. I really tried! I desert! I defect to the rebels! Bye evil empire!

Perhaps the Holy Grail of space sims from both atmospheric and gameplay standpoints, TIE Fighter still remains one of the finest games in the genre 20 years after its release. Working your way up the ranks of the Empire, quashing Rebels and Imperial coups from the cockpits of the Empire's greatest starfighters is made a perfect experience via an iMuse score that shifts instantly with the tone of the battle. With dozens of missions and plenty of Imperial secrets to pursue, TIE Fighter should keep any player going for tens of hours. It's smooth, it's engaging, and it's perhaps the best Star Wars game out there. Pick it up, for the glory of the Empire!

Back when this game was out, I was already sick of Star Wars. Sure the franchise was great, but why on earth did we always have to be the good guys, and usually follow the movies? Then this game came out. Holy sh... This time we are a pilot of the Empire, in a story that does not follow the movies too closely. Or at all. Instead, the story is something about a new batch of TIE-ships being developed, so you have to protect them. Sounds boring? It's not. First of all, the X-Wing wimps have shields. The TIE Fighters don't. That means one hit can kill you. But why would you get hit? Unlike the Alliance, you're flying with two wingmen, and focuses on speed and manouverability over get-hit-a-lot. Later in the game, you get to fly slow TIE Bombers and blow up capital ships, TIE Interceptors and so on, and even the brand new TIE Defenders you get to defend a lot in the early games. Each ship feels like a big improvement over the others, so you feel some actual progression here, rather than moving from an A-Wing to X-Wing to Y-Bother. NOTE: I played this a lot with a flghtstick back in the days, and I don't recommend trying to play with just a mouse and keyboard. A gamepad might (hopefully) work, but I haven't tried it.

As soon as I saw Tie Fighter was out on GOG, I had to buy it. So I did. Then I worried. I have many fond memories of playing this game and really immersing myself in the Star Wars universe. What if I revisited that world and found that, 20 years later, the experience is hollow and lacking? With these thoughts in mind, I installed and took that chance of ruining some childhood memories. Though the graphics haven't aged well, the game's core is still intact! It's just fun! It's fun to fly a mission in a Tie Fighter, Tie Bomber, Tie Advanced, Gun Boat, Tie Defender, Missile Boat, etc. It's fun to dogfight Rebel ships. It's fun to defend a platform. It's fun to serve the Emperor and move up the secret society. The game is just plain fun. It's hard and you fail missions. But you fly again and again until you achieve success. Even the failure is fun. Some absolutes: joystick and key stroke reference card (even though you can just hit esc and see the key commands, it helps to have them).