Tyrian 2000

The screenshots for this game simply do not adequately convey the vibrant experience of Tyrian. From the stunning (some might say explosive) visuals to the absolutely perfect soundtrack, Tyrian delivers a perfect 2D game that far surpasses modern standards. The story of Tyrian is surprisingly deep for its format. Much of the story is told in the form of "Data Cubes". Some of these are silly, humorous, or incredibly sad- but they show an intensely well-crafted story as well as a rich universe. All that and it's free, too! The design in the game is second to none. Enemies are imposing, unique, and despite wanting to kill you, look graphically wonderful. Your own ships are all unique, from the standard scout ship you start with to the epic, incredibly silly Carrot Ship. Yes, it's a giant carrot. The other shining point of the design is in the levels. Tiered graphical overlays above and below your ship show off beautiful, memorable environments. Even above everything else, Tyrian manages to pull out the most incredible weapon designs. The immensely destructive yet beautiful visuals your weapons have is incredible. From lasers to sonic waves to atom bombs to LIGHTNING, you will never be left wanting for additional weapons. But hold on! Don't forget one of the best parts of this childhood classic. There's a co-op mode. Find your best friend or drag someone off the street and get ready for some incredibly intense dual-fighter action.

I love Japanese, European and US vertical shooters. A special place in my hearth belong to japanese vertical shoot'em'ups, there are plenty og them and they are wonderful. But I must say this game by US Developer/Editor Eclipse/Epic is simply unbelievably good. The attention to graphical detal is maniacal, the music is excellent and supports wavetable synthesis, sound effects are great too. The upgrade system of the ship is fantstic and really binded to gameplay, and has hundreds of combinations possible. And yet it has that fantasy style of the early '80s shooters mixed with the best pixelart modern techniques. The original game and graphics are from 1995, but look at them, they are timeless. A masterpiece, I still play it today firstly when I am tired of latest AAA games, secondly because I haven't finished it yet...

Another review states that OpenTyrian already includes the data files for Tyrian 2000. It is true that Tyrian 2000 has apparently been freeware since 2004. However, OpenTyrian currently uses the Tyrian 2.1 data, not the Tyrian 2000 (aka Tyrian 3) data. The version here includes more episodes. Thus, gog.com's donation is of bandwidth for hosting the game rather than the game content itself. This is is on-par with what they've done with other free content, like Beneath a Steel Sky. As for the game content itself...I certainly like it. It is a bit unfortunate that there really are certain weapon loadouts that are significantly-better and others that are significantly-worse; some configurations will probably never be used. However, this isn't particularly unusual to shmups that allow a lot of customization of one's ship. The game has quite a few secrets, and a sense of humor. As shmups go, Tyrian allows your ship to take multiple hits, and allows you to get screen-covering weapons. It allows for mouse control of the ship, which provides for a very responsive ship. I'd call Tyrian quite a bit easier (at least depending upon how one plays it) than many other games in the often-brutally-difficult shmup genre.

I remember when i played this explendid game like 13 years ago, it was increible, weapon choices, upgrades, armor, escene choice, a lot of hidden levels, it also contain a little story.

Tyrian doesn't screw around trying to be some epic adventure, or try to create a deeply involved story line - it's just a really good, simple, vertical scrolling shooter with a couple of neat twists. The fact that you get to outfit your ship before the missions, as opposed to picking up random "power up" objects during them, is a really nice feature. There's nothing more annoying in vertical scrollers like this than when you build up an incredible ship, get destroyed, and suddenly have to face the coming onslaught in a dinky little default fighter. Plus, you can pick the upgrade type you want, as opposed to trying to pick up the correct power up (and dodge the incorrect ones) while fighting. Other big selling point: shields! Again, a major irritant with most vertical shooters is that no matter how astonishingly badass your ship is, one shot will blow it apart. Tyrian provides shields and armor, so if you get killed, it's pretty much because you deserved it. Graphics are marginal, but hey, it's an old game. I think it's fun.