Tyrian 2000

Among the first videogames I ever played as a kid, Tyrian left an indelible impression on me, as a vertical scrolling shoot em up to put most, I think, to shame. I was delighted by Tyrian's fast action, tight controls, vibrant colors, amazing soundtrack by Alexander Brandon, depth of ship customization , and most unusually for the genre, the sheer volume of written story and dialogue, lending itself to the unusually long length of the singleplayer campaign, as shmups go. Given the medium, Tyrian did as much as it could to provide context for your desperate flight from the namesake world and a long, pitched struggle against the evil forces of the Microsol mining corporation, with allies few and far between and a way out of the madness fading in the distance. Tyrian is the sort of shmup and the sort of game in general that fully expects the player to actually finish it, something that was uncommon in its day. It has many difficulty settings, and takes pains to give you the tools to negotiate its levels and to make the experience enjoyable throughout. It WANTS to be played. Tyrian was probably my first experience with a game that put an emphasis on fun and storytelling. While games of the 90s and action games in particular had no shortage of the former, the latter was significantly harder to come by. Games like Tyrian, One Must Fall: 2097, Traffic Department 2192, and Strife established the value of plot and context in various genres outside of RPGs for me, something I would never forget.

I sat through the entire campaign in one afternoon. They just don't make sidescrollers like this anymore.

One of the few space shooters made outside of japan that I know of, and also one of the few computer exclusive ones as far as I know. The first thing you need to do when you start the game is to crank the volume of the music up to the max so it isnt drowned out by the sound effects. The music in this game is pure retro goodness and the game is worth playing almost just for that. The graphics aswell are very nice and has a style that I havnt seen in any other shooters. The gamplay pacing is pretty slow which some people prefer and some don't. It's not a bullet hell style game so there are less things on the screen at a time, but your ship also takes damage wherever it gets hit and not just at its core. You have a rechargable shield which makes the game abit easier than the average space shooter but that aint saying much since its a genre known to have exremely difficult games. Overall I really like it, that it's free is just an added bonus.

Long may GOG exist and bring pleasure to all in the form of childhood memories. Tyrian is in itself a shooter. But a very well polished one with a better than average story / lore aspect. Particularly un-balanced in regards to certain weapon load outs. But fantastic to run on my laptop for the 40-45 minute train journey to work/ home, took me a week or so of this to complete all of the episodes in storyline mode. I had forgotten the 'odd' humour of the game with the fruit worshipping. All in all a great way to whittle away the boredom imposed by train journeys. I recall there being a lot of codes for the game which included the super carrot ship(which can actually be bought in the story line mode at one point) and banana bombs if I remember correctly.

Tyrian is a great scrolling shooter, in fact i've been hard pressed to find any older or new scrolling shooter (that goes double fo indie games that looks like your computer has just had explosive graphical rainbow diahorrea over your screen) that lives up to the entertainment and enjoyment factor that playing Tyrian does. The Graphics are still great to look at, the Sound beats along with the pace of the game and doesnt get boring or too repetative and its a lot of fun for adults and kids alike. There was a rumour that a remake had been in the works for this game, an update version of its graphics. But in this gamer's humble opinion, the game is perfect as it is. Some things really will never grow old!