Star Wars: TIE Fighter
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 | |
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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)
A terrific space 'sim' in the Star Wars universe.
The Good
Well, what is there not to like?-) I mean, the graphics are quite good, cutscenes and in-game both, gameplay is great if you like Wing Commanderish games, the missions have quite nice variety and cool plot twists, and the musics.. yes, the musics are fantastic, they are full of Star Wars feel and they are dynamic, and you can easily see how well you fare in combat just by listening to the musics.. :) And, you get to fly on the bad guys' side, which is not all that usual. In fact, I rather stick with the dark side!-) Plus, the CD version has all the in-game speeches digitized so the feeling is quite awesome.. although Darth Vader sure as heck doesn't sound like James Earl Jones.. which is odd since you'd think Lucasarts would be rich enough to hire authentic crew... :(
The Bad
The only thing that goes here is that the campaign is not a bit dynamic; It doesn't branch or anything and if you fail a mission objective you either just exit to DOS or try the mission 'till you get through...
The Bottom Line
A great space 'sim' (I use the word veeery loosely here), a Star Wars game, and overall a great space battle experience!
DOS · by RmM (68) · 1999
Another one of my all time favorites.
The Good
More laser blasting, high speed chasing, dog fightin' than you could ever ask for. Wonderful graphics, amazing sound track, and a whole lotta fun.
The Bad
Only that you aren't fighting for the Rebels.
The Bottom Line
Another space shooter well worth your money from Lucas Arts.
DOS · by Attila (553) · 2001
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
Discussion
Subject | By | Date |
---|---|---|
Developer information | MrFlibble (18234) | 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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Related Sites +
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TIE Fighter Corps
TIE Fighter gaming club. -
The imperial Order
Fan site -
X-Wing Collector Series
Lucasarts's take on the entire classic product line.
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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.