Tachyon Project

Developer: Eclipse Games
Steam Release: Jul 2015
Hours Played: 4.4
Similar To: Death Ray Manta / Mutant Storm Reloaded / Nova Drift
Rating: 2/5 Parsnips

GAMEPLAY

Tachyon Project is a twin-stick / arena shooter that, in both the area of graphics and gameplay, lies somewhere between Geometry Wars and Waves. Like the former you control a horseshoe-shaped spaceship and, in story mode, where you'll spend most of your time, complete a level of six waves while attempting to amass the best score. There are ten progressively tough levels altogether which unlock as you successfully complete each one and it's mainly about studying the attack patterns of each enemy and countering them accordingly. However, all levels follow the same structure where a pop-up appears at the beginning of each wave stating what conditions need to be met before going onto the next. In the majority of cases this includes destroying a certain amount of enemies or surviving x amount of seconds. 

BALANCE & PACE

A wave counter is displayed as six circles in the top-left and progress through the objectives is shown by way of a meter. On the top-right you have a combo meter which rises as you destroy ships. It's this that determines how many extra points you get as you hoover up those little blue energy dots left behind. As well as a score you have a timer counting down (but adds seconds as you kill) which will have further seconds wiped each time you collide with a hostile... and it's game over if it reaches zero. It's an initially complicated system that fits together nicely as you become familiar with the game. You may equip your ship with five unlockable abilities (to fit its five slots) at the configuration screen before diving into each level. With its tight rectangular open arena there is nowhere to hide and, as you'd expect, the action can get fast and intense.  

PRESENTATION & DESIGN

Graphically the game bears a resemblance to Waves. It sparkles and glows in the same way, with the background being darker but enemies more varied. Some players may not like its darkness however. With no missiles to contend with (as far as I recall), the game is purely about avoiding enemies and in this sense, once you realise the blue dots are your friends, it's easy to keep track of things. However, I did find myself getting annoyed at the rate spawning enemies appeared far too close to my ship; although it's probably my poor reactions and ineptitude that's the cause of collisions rather than the unfairness of the game. Sound-effects are fine but players who like a high-energy thumping soundtrack to roll out as they play will certainly not be disappointed.  

PROGRESS SYSTEM

Each of the ten levels in story mode is represented by a dot on a line which travels through a galaxy. The level-select screen itself is pretty dull and uninspiring. Clicking a dot takes you to the level's start-screen where you can tweak the configuration of the ship or check the level's online leaderboard. Various abilities of the ship get unlocked as you play. The online leaderboards, meanwhile, show your best score and world rank. In addition to the story mode, you get three challenges that are more or less survival levels with each having a similar start-screen to the story mode levels. Again, each comes with its own leaderboard but as I lie in 10th and 7th place in two of them and being of fairly average skill, I can't think that they're massively popular.

CONCLUSION

Players after a similar experience to the two games mentioned in the intro need look no further than Tachyon Project as it outdoes a long list of similar contenders and lesser efforts. It has enough passable bells and whistles including interesting sound-effects, offers an intriguing score system, comes with a thumpingly good soundtrack and is packed with enough punch to put it in the top half dozen of Asteroids style twin-stick shooters. What's more, with a timer indicating life, it's not afraid to throw in an innovative health-system as well - and did I mention that you can equip two special abilities (used with the left and right trigger by default if playing with an Xbox controller)? The ship's configuration system may be a tad fiddly and overcomplicated but, with this being the only real negative, there is plenty to like about Tachyon Project.