Ever since I fell in love with the Wing Commander series of space shooters, I'm always a bit eager to try new ones. I've enjoyed other action space shooters over the previous months and years and return to them when I want to explore the outer reaches of the universe. However, TARR Chronicles could have been so much more and just doesn't fly like I wanted it to.
The storyline begins typically enough: You are fighting against a race called the Mirk, which are considered unstoppable. The Torpan Military Alliance, of which you are a member, has discovered a star system called Anterra, which can hold discoveries that might turn the tide against these aliens. After discovering something that could make you unstoppable, you are confronted by a fleet of De'Khete military vessels that proceed to attack your small expeditionary force. After a short but brutal flight that involves escaping quite by accident, your ship, the Talestra, along with the civilian ships, have jumped to a far-flung system. At this point, you will have to fight your way back to your home system.
The game has nine missions broken down into sections that follows a strict linear plot. Your story begins at the point in which you are attacked by the De'Khete fleet, the first mission.
You have the ability to change weapon and missiles, hull and armor protection and/or shields. This is offset by restrictions on weight and energy requirements. Movement is guided either by the mouse or a joystick — though in this one, I prefer mouse as it is steadier. Graphics are pretty spectacular with lots of good visuals. Everything else is keyboard-driven but is pretty easily understood after a couple of missions.
I'm not going to candy-coat this game; there wasn't much I liked about it. Other than having a bit of fun modifying my fighter and doing the first few sub-missions, things became just too frustrating to continue much further into the gameplay. I must admit that I played long enough to get a handle on the schematics and two main missions before I finally gave up. You have to enjoy something to continue playing.
The game is way too linear for my taste. I like the ability to play nonlinear games that give me choices; there were no choices in this game. It was follow the story or die and fail. There was nothing in between. I wasn't able save at any point in the game unless I reached success. If you fail, you are greeted with the same cutscene over and over until it wears thin. It certainly did to the point in which I wanted to pluck my eyes out — figuratively speaking, of course.
To give you an idea of how linear, you can't complete certain parts until other parts are completed, even though you may see your objectives on radar. An example is that some generators can't be touched until you attack a wave of fighters and then you are allowed to destroy them. You can't communicate with the other pilots, so it feels a bit too much like a shooting gallery as you avoid colliding into them or other ships or going out of bounds, which makes you a coward. As much as I really enjoyed modifying my ship, it wasn't enough.
Once again, I wish I could give a game like this glowing marks as it really has the makings of something great — if only there had been some attention to giving it a nonlinear feel, allowing you to save on occasion, or at least the ability to tab out of the cutscenes that replay once you are defeated. A single-player only game, I can only recommend this game for those looking for an intense space shooter if you don't like repetition. Perhaps you'll find a bit of small diversion in the play.
Father of two, now grown children.What are my kind of games? Strategy, RTS, RPG, Fantasy, Science Fiction, and online games such as Dark Age of Camelot and Asheron's Call. Of my dislikes I would say puzzle games such as Myth, FPS type games such as Doom. Also simulation type games, and games that are just plain bad.
My knowledge of the industry mostly evolves around beta testing games, such as Earth & Beyond from EA, Saga of Ryzom, and companies like MSN and Acolade. Self taught web design is another interest I have. Family life is entertaining at times. It also can get weird as well, after you have been married 31 years.
