Star Wars: TIE Fighter

Moby ID: 240
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Description official descriptions

You are a member of the Imperial Navy, eager to fight the Rebel Alliance and other scum to strengthen the rule of Darth Vader and the Emperor.

The follow up to X-Wing is a space combat simulation set in the Star Wars universe. There are 7 campaigns, taking in over 50 missions. You often have wingmen who can be given orders to help you out. The detailed storyline is driven by cutscenes. You will fly a variety of craft from the lowly Tie Fighter to the speedy Tie Interceptor to the high-powered Tie Advanced. On each of these, balancing engine/laser/shield ratios in real time is crucial to getting the most power and safety.

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Credits (DOS version)

76 People (66 developers, 10 thanks) · View all

Project Leader / Translation
Voice Production
Translation of Manual
Editor
Art Director
Production
Pre-Press
Story
Concepts
Original Art
3D Models
Layout and Design
Project Coordination and special assistance at LucasArts
Project Coordination and special assistance at Lucasfilm Ltd.
[ full credits ]

Reviews

Critics

Average score: 90% (based on 20 ratings)

Players

Average score: 4.0 out of 5 (based on 117 ratings with 14 reviews)

Classic sequel to 'X-Wing'

The Good
The sequel to 'X Wing', 'Tie Fighter' added lots of improvements whilst not reducing the essential good-ness of the original. The most important addition is a difficulty slider - 'Tie Fighter' can be completed by mortal people. The plot, in which you defend the galaxy from from evil Rebel terrorists, is a nice touch. The graphics have been overhauled, and despite being gourad-shaded polygons they're effective, and move swiftly on a 486 DX/33. 'iMuse' is back (you get to hear the Imperial march in AdLib FM), and it's generally a more satisfying game, with a wider range of ships and an incentive to play it in the harder difficulty levels in the form of advancement into a 'secret society'. As a single-player game it's much more satisfying than the disappointing 'X Wing Vs Tie Fighter', too.

The Bad
Truth be told, there isn't much wrong with this game. Some of the unfair, 'protect the vulnerable crates / transports' missions are back from 'X-Wing', but they're toned-down. Even the fact that you're flying an unarmoured light fighter isn't a great problem, as you're deceptively tough. The biggest problem is technical - it's quite possible this game won't work with your modern machine due to difficulties with VESA drivers.

The Bottom Line
Still great fun today, an addictive space combat game with ridiculously cool space hardware.

DOS · by Ashley Pomeroy (225) · 2000

A game that makes you wonder - did George Lucas skip on movie starring you?

The Good
The game itself is simple - you fly around with your high-tech spacecraft and destroy others. However the best part of the game is the constant challenge. Disintegrating "bad guys" is not enough. You must protect cargo vessels from enemies and so on, similarly to some other space sims, but sometimes it is needed to defend a disabled enemy from your own of being destroyed. And there is of course, awesome variety of vessels for you to fly. Starting with the original Tie Fighters, Bombers and Interceptors, later come the Advanceds and Defenders (in the Defender of the Empire expansion pack). And besides the Ties there are Assault Gunboat with its superior successor Missile boat. The story is linear - your success in the game is in no way affecting the story. But in the story there are some great cinematic sequences that remind you all of the Star Wars movies.

The Bad
Besides everything there are some lackings in the game. You can not choose ship for your mission and sometimes not even the weaponry. If you deliberately fail a mission (to eliminate Darth Vader or the Emperor) you are forced to refly the mission. Although the game does not require a joystick, it is almost impossible to fly without one. Keyboard is too slow for even fine aiming and mouse...well, after first week of playing, half of my mouse pad was stuck under my mouse.

The Bottom Line
It is worth playing if you like space sims of Star Wars trilogy. However, it is not free for downloading and when you need to invest some of your hard-earned money into it, you would probably prefer newer versions of the game, maybe X-Wing vs. Tie Fighter.

DOS · by tige kala (4) · 2003

NO# 2 IN MY ALL TIME HALL OF FAME!!

The Good
WHERE DO I START!!! In 1994 I was already a game vet with 7 years of great gaming experience, when my friend said you have to try TIE FIGHTER. At that time I had only ever liked one filight sim of any type. (F-15 II,Microprose) I had bought with much lothing other flight sims that made me a usual customer at the return desk of EB. I had looked at X-Wing and then Tie FIghter in stores but scoffed at them and said you will never see me buy that thing! One day at my friends house I watched him play and 3 minutes later after he agreed to let me take it for a spin, I was on way home faster than the law allows. 6 glorious years later It is still on my hard drive (note it has outlasted 3 computers) and just yesterday I was out and fighting for the empire. I wont bother to tell you why it is so good just trust me, "buy it borrow it plead for it rent it what ever just try it". WSM

The Bad
I wish that the medal section of the game was as cool as X-wing.

The Bottom Line
See above section if you still havent went to buy it.

DOS · by William Shawn McDonie (1131) · 2000

[ View all 14 player reviews ]

Discussion

Subject By Date
Developer information MrFlibble (18144) Feb 13, 2013
Star Wars: TIE Fighter tuxu tuxu (2) Jun 18, 2008

Trivia

1001 Video Games

Star Wars: TIE Fighter appears in the book 1001 Video Games You Must Play Before You Die by General Editor Tony Mott.

Coruscant

The high-orbit view Coruscant as seen in the intro (when the Star Destroyers approach it), looks curiously faithful to how Coruscant looked in the prequel movies, which were filmed five years after the game.

However, the collector's CD-ROM enhanced intro cutscene, features a different view of Coruscant orbit, blue with clouds, totally unrelated to the appearance of the planet-wide city we know.

Demo

In an early coup for advergaming, TIE Fighter's demo dropped jaws when it opened with a brief ad for the then-new Dodge Neon automobile.

Manual

Included with the game was the shortstory The Stele Chronicles which follows the young Maarek Stele, a top notch swoop jockey who's home planet has been at civil war for decades. When The Empire arrives and declares martial law in the system Maarek see's his chance to join up with The Empire and become one of the greatest Imperial pilot's of all time...

The manual has been merged together with shortstory, meaning that you learn tactics and instructions on how to operate your fighter whilst Maarek Stele is being trained at the academy. In the Offical Strategy Guide to Tie Fighter you learn more about what happened to Maarek Stele.

References

  • In one of the training missions, you're called upon to protect a "Star Tours" ship from attack, a reference to the popular ride at the Disney theme parks.
  • Many of the 'pirate' ships (neither Rebel or Imperial) have cryptic names. It's worth checking what they say in reverse. For example, on Mission 1 of Battle 11, the pirate ship is called 'yrabrab". In reverse, this spells 'barbary', which was a Mediterranean coast base for pirates from the 16th-19th Century. In missions that involve 'space pirates', look at the names yourself and try to figure it out!
  • In Battle 9, mission 6, there is a Nav-Bouy with the designation CRM-114. If it looks familar, it should. It's the designation of the decoding device in Kubrick's Dr. Strangelove: or, How I learned to stop worrying and love the bomb.
  • The creators were obviously quite fond of pop culture. In mission 1 of Battle 10, there is a buoy designated "MST-3K", aka the acronym for Mystery Science Theater 3000

Awards

  • Computer Gaming World
    • July 1996 (Issue #144) – Introduced into the Hall of Fame
    • November 1996 (15th anniversary issue) - #56 in the “150 Best Games of All Time” list* PC Gamer
    • April 2000 - #23 overall in the "All-Time Top 50 Games" poll
    • April 2005 - #13 in the "50 Best Games of All Time" list

Information also contributed by Apogee IV, Boston Low, Cameron Rhyne PCGamer77, Pseudo_Intellectual, Quackbal and WizardX

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Contributors to this Entry

Game added by Droog.

Additional contributors: Trixter, William Shawn McDonie, Adam Baratz, Patrick Bregger, darkpilot, FatherJack.

Game added August 21, 1999. Last modified January 24, 2024.