Customer Reviews

Star Wars: TIE Fighter Collector's Edition with Behind the Magic Module

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The credentials of this game are impressive. Among other awards, the was noted as Best Action Game of 1994 by PC Gamer, Best Game of 1994 by Strategy Plus, and Best Simulation Game 1994 by InterActive Gaming... and that was for the ORIGINAL game. This collector's edition makes the unique Imperial experience infinitely more rich by not only adding a number of new campaigns, but by adding significantly improved graphics and sound.

What makes this game so great? I can't do it justice in this short description, but everything that has ever truly made for good gameplay can be found here. The challenge is virtually perfect; if you play part of a level and fail, and you just KNOW that you can go back and do it if you try hard enough. This makes it all the more rewarding when you finally do conquer that challenge. The replay value is excellent... I've played the game through over and over again; it's like rereading a good book. And it does an incredible job of creating an unprecedented experience... you are a pilot in the Galactic Empire. Though usually portrayed as the Bad Guys, you'll see that the Empire is really about bringing peace and order to the galaxy... about crushing the anarchist Rebellion... and if you have to destroy a few planets to do that, so be it! The subplot of intrigue and betrayal make the game more compelling.

Again, I haven't done the game justice... you have to play it to believe it. If you don't have a really high-end computer but want a good game, this is the one for you. And if you're looking for a classic game with great shelf life, it's perfect for that purpose, too.

It's just a really great game.

The original Tie Fighter was one of the best space combat games available. The Tie Fighter Collector's Ed. (TFCE) is upgraded over its previous incarnation to support hardware acceleration but that's only for the flight sequences. Between the flying, you'll notice the same old cutscenes around the same less-than photorealistism. The sound is also conspicuously improved - mostly because it to alternates between the true stereo of todays computers (again in the flying sequences) and the ancient MIDI in the intervals.

That said, the meat of the game is firmly in Pentium country, with rich colors and textures expected for a latter-day sim, but not taxing enough to slow down frame-rate on any low-level P200MMX. If you own "X-wing v. Tie Fighter", you'll find the same level of graphics, but with more imaginative single-player missions. As a fighter pilot with the dread imperial star fleet, you fly those tiny little insect like ships that seems to drop like flies in the 3 movies. Besides the expected campaigns (all pre-scripted, you can't go on until you finish all primary mission objectives) and "historical" missions, there's a nifty pilot's proving ground, an enclosed maze and shooting gallery that convincingly recalls the Death Star innards from the 3rd movie. However, the missions require you not only destroy waves of fighters or large ships, but inspect and even capture other ships. Also, a complex storyline sends imperial starfighters against a variety of enemies, many not quite as noble as the stalwart rebels. Star Wars is best when highlighting the moral ambiguity of its surrounding universe, and Tie Fighter doesn't dissappoint, and your enemies will include Rebel X-wings, but also pirates and profiteers, defectors and other traitors and various alien races who don't know that they need the emperor's permission to war against each other. There's even a clever subplot in which you have two missions - your commander's and those of a special imperial emissary. Most of the time, the two are in line, and neither asks you to controvert the orders of the other. It creates a level of depth and suspicion mising from the original x-wing.

If X-wing collector's ed is this good, I'll pick it up as well. If you've already got the original versions of both games, I'd suggest getting the new X-wing, since the original was the older of the two and would have the best improvement.

I remember the good old days of DOS game play and this game ranks as the number one of all time. I remember seeing a poll about 6 months ago that ranked the TIE FIGHTER COLLECTORS CD-ROM version the best game of all time, and this title is well deserved. I now know that they have remade this title to interface with today's 3-D cards and Win 9X/NT/2000. About time, and I'll proably buy it one of these days.

I remembered with I upgraded the old 486 to 133Mhz and added 16MB of ram to help out game play in the 640.480 game play made, with 3-D graphics. This game set a standard for other games to match in 3D even in the DOS days. The game play was still choppy, but the computer only had a 1meg video card, I believe 2 or 4 megs would have solved this problem.

Any how, the story line of this game still ranks as Lucas Art's best ever. Today it may not have the flashy graphics of FS2, but as far as over all SINGLE player game play, no space combat simulator will ever beat Tie Fighter.

I'd reccomend this game for one good reason THE EMPIRE ROCKS!!!! this game is a way better improvement in graphics than the original in 94' but still the animated cut scenes..... I can sum all that in to three words...... GET THIS GAME!!!!!!!

Not only does this game incorparate the underappreciated Imperials it does so in a nice way. You get to fly 7 craft! Unlike the old version this game has better sound and grafics. The cutscenes are still old but they fill the bill. You don't just have to fight Y,A,X, and B wings. You fight well detailed Calamari Cruisers, YT-1300 transports (Millenium Falcon) Star Destroyers, Carrack Cruisers and so forth. Great game.

I originally got this game as a demo before demos were even popular. It only barely worked on my system, but I was so hooked I ended up completely refiguring my computer so that I could play the real version. There you have it. It's quite good.

My cousin owns this game, so when I visit, I got to play it. I got adicted on the first time. This is funner than (I'm sorry fans) Tiberian Sun, since you can personaly blow up infinite Y-Wings and X-Wings, which is pretty fun.

TIE fighter is still the greatest sim game ever. It has a huge replay value after all these years. The graphics obviously aren't the greatest anymore, but the game is over 10 years old. That's like expecting the Bela Lugosi Dracula to have all the same vibrant colors that Twilight has. It's not gonna happen. The only problem I had with the game from this current install is that it doesn't want to install in Windows XP. BUT, there is a workaround. Download and install DOSBox from their website, do a little old school DOS style programming, and presto. You have a game that will work with any version of Windows and it will even used newer joysticks and play the sound without error. Just be careful, there is a bogey on your six!

I first got the TIE fighter collectors edition CD-ROM for our Mac back in the 90s when I was barely in my teens. I remember it being both challenging and engaging, with a solid story-line and good graphics for its time.

Over 10 years later, and not much has changed in the game's playability. After buying this game last month to play on my PC, even after the first few missions I was surprised at how challenging some of the missions still are! Having hidden objectives, with new objectives for tougher difficulties, ensures that even with predictable AI you won't be able to breeze through these missions. And unlike many games today, it doesn't allow you to save your game mid-mission. By that I mean, if you're 30 minutes into a mission and sideslip into a Corellian Corvette... well, whoops, better luck next time. Though this can be frustrating at times, as I said, it keeps the challenge level up. You are forced to adapt and change up your tactics, often losing missions only to evaluate what things you can tweak to get a better outcome. And the "flight recorder" feature definitely helps with this.

The variety of ship types you get to pilot is another huge plus. From the vulnerable TIE fighter to the advanced Defender, you get access to ships with and without shields, missiles, speed, etc. Variety, as they say, is the spice of life. And even though the AI isn't on par with today's games, starfighter and capital ship targeting accuracy is high enough to make up for it in large part. If you've played X-Wing Alliance, for instance, you know that you can take out an SSD simply by flying parallel to it, skimming along its hull, and blasting away with your freighter lasers. The enemy turrets don't lead their shots! In TIE fighter, that won't work... capital ships are nasty.

Anyway, i guess the only thing I'll add is I'm sure many of you may be concerned (as I was) about playing these on XP/Windows 7. I can't speak for 7, but for XP there are DOS emulators out there, with tutorials specifically for TIE fighter, and it worked for me. Plays just fine!

This is one of the best games I have ever seen! You can fly anything from a TIE fighter to a missile boat! Also you can fight against A,B,X,Y wings and capital ships!