Tachyon Project – review

Ever wondered what it would be like to be a computer virus? Of course you have! Well all you wanna be Lisbeth Salander’s ( The girl with the dragon tattoo ), now’s your chance with Tachyon Project on Playstation 4!

Tachyon Project from Eclipse Games has you play as a virus called Ada. Ada is a computer virus, born from the programming of a couple of computer hackers, who on her first mission for her creators or as she calls them; “parents” cracks a bank but is traced back to the “parents” home. To save the data they have stolen her parents let Ada loose in the internet rather than be caught. Ada then has a desire to find her parents and goes off in search of them by hacking various establishments’ computer systems to try and trace them.

It’s actually a very neat idea for this twin stick, top down shooter game, to have an engaging and well presented story, as it does actually encourage you to complete more of the game, rather than just get bogged down with just another level.

“The enemy types were pleasingly varied and all had different characteristics to figure out”

If you have played any of the Sly Cooper games, you will have come across Bentley’s mini hacking games when he gets to a computer terminal. Well the concept of the Tachyon Project is exactly like that, but for much longer and much harder.

The character you control looks like a crescent moon, that moves around with the left stick and fires it main gun at attacking bugs that are trying to destroy it with the right. You also have two secondary weapons that start off as two bombs, but then can be upgraded into things like freeze bombs, or shields etc. The main weapon an also be upgraded to a machine gun, or missiles etc, or more as you progress.

The enemy types were pleasingly varied and all had different characteristics to figure out. There are 30 types in all. Some, for example, called “Bulls” are big and charge at you from across the screen. “Darts’” en masse, hunt you down, “Snakes” are exactly as you expect, etc.

To complete a level you are generally tasked with destroying a certain amount of an enemy type before then moving on to the next challenge. Being tasked to destroy one type does not mean that they are the only enemy on the screen though. At times you have to slaughter you’re way through a plethora of enemies before you encounter the one you need.  The next challenge might simply be to survive for a certain amount of time.

There are around 5 challenges per level, and of course the difficulty ramps up the further you go. It was only until level 5 that I encountered my first boss which was very challenging, but then it also highlighted why hadn’t there been bosses to fight in the previous levels ?? In all there are 4 bosses in the game, but it would have been better to have had more.

“the particle effects are great and it’s very easy for the eye to pick up enemy types”

The graphics are very clear, and work very well and smoothly. It’s not uber detailed but the particle effects are great and it’s very easy for the eye to pick up enemy types. The only issue would be the colour of the main weapons ammo, is the same as some of the enemies which makes it hard, when things get very hectic and you’re flying around the screen, to make sure you don’t mistake the two things.

Once you’ve mastered the basic controls, played the fairly short, but very challenging campaign, and compared your scores to the leader boards ( TVGreviews1 is currently 3rd in the world on level 5 J ) that’s about all there is.

It’s pretty hard to define what “old skool” gaming is, but something about Tachyon Project gives me that same feeling. It’s gloriously non complicated, bloody hard, but simple to play and all the better because of it. It’s how I remembered the games from back then.  You have a simple idea, make it fun, make it hard, and you just have to get on with it. No fluffy stuff to distract you here!

It’s also not an original game concept either, but even so they have made it interesting by simply adding a decent story to the proceedings.I also got the feeling there is a hint of Resogun about the game, in its quality of manufacture, and testing of the skills.At the end though, it a fun, super little game, with very little fault, other than maybe a split screen or online mode to give the game more depth. For the price it is though, it’s still a very good value for money game.