Here is everything you need to know aboutTachyon: The Fringe:
The main character is voiced by Bruce Campbell, and he pilots what essentially amounts to aBattlestar GalacticaViper ship.
I.E., nerd heaven.
It’s also a legitimately entertaining game in its own right, but the few times I’ve heard this game mentioned positively on message boards, the words “Bruce Motherf*cking Campbell” are not usually far away. Fans don’t focus on the branching storyline, or the hybridized flight sim/action game elements, or, you know, anything about the actualgameplay. Bruce Campbell.Battlestar Galactica. Period.
Hell, perhaps that enough.Tachyonis less of a mindblowing cult classic than it is a surprisingly entertaining artifact of a practically dead game genre. Hit the jump to find out why.
Bruce Campbell, in a Colonial Viper.
Why you’re probably not playing it:
Tachyon: The Fringecomes from a time where PC gamers used joysticks, space sims were popular, and games used every goddamn button on the keyboard. It’s a bit too complex to be a pick-up-and-play space shooter in the vein ofFreelancer, but it’s also too simple to be considered a full-on space sim in the way that, say,X-Wing vs Tie Fighteris.Tachyon: The Fringeis a moderately entertaining spaceship action game at best, and aWing Commanderripoff at worst.
But it also has Bruce Campbell piloting a Colonial Viper.
Bruce acts more or less exactly as one would expect him to, but theGalactica-esque ship he pilots is the real star of the show. WhileTachyondoes almost nothing new in 90% of its mechanics, the ship’s ability to “slide” — that is, move in one direction while turning and firing in another as your momentum carries you forward — actually makes the dogfights a hell of a lot more unusual and entertaining than they have any right to be.
Hell, the twoBattlestar Galacticagames never even bothered to implement a “slide” for their ships;Tachyonalmost functions as the true licensedGalacticatitle that never was. The branching story may be simplistic yet underwhelming, and the wingman mechanic is kind of cool, but it’s the slide mechanic that really givesTachyonwhat allure it still has. It’s just plain satisfying to make a complete 180 during a chase while still moving in the same direction, suddenly transforming from hunted to hunter as your pursuer slides between your crosshairs and is subsequently blasted out of the sky. It’s not really fun for more than a few hours, but it’s definitely enjoyable in the short term.
