Tyrian 2000

Top down shooter with good mechanics and controls can get hectic but is still 5/5

A blast from the past... or at least 20 years ago.

If you like Raiden/1939 type games, get this you won't be disappointed!

This game came with the first computer i ever owned. i played it to death. i love the customization aspect, you could customize all the parts of your ship and had to balance which types of weapons to equip because each weapon had their pros and cons. i thought i would never play this again since my first computer died, and i'm glad i got it free here at gog.com

Tyrian is a fantastic game from the days of the vertical shoot-em-up. Back then, shareware games were common, and you could play the first full episode series for free without registering, and could share the shareware version freely, with anyone you thought might like it (I miss the golden age of shareware...) Anyway, not only did I defeat the shareware version multiple times, I also registered it, and played the full version through many times (quite a few things changed, even in Episode 1). I also purchased Tyrian 2000 on CD when it came out, and again, beat it many times over. The story, and the ability to purchase different ships, shields, and weaponry (each with multiple levels of power), makes this much more than the usual shmup. This is pre-bullet hell too, you can enjoy and explore (and the number and types of secrets are incredible), rather than memorize patterns. The only game I've found that is even close to Tyrian (and believe me, I keep looking!!) is Raptor: Call of the Shadows, which comes across like a rough early version of Tyrian's gameplay style. Give it a shot! Get Tyrian 2000 for that version, and get OpenTyrian for the original registered version of Tyrian!!