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eCS Software |
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Game Review |
OpenTyrian |
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Year:
2010 Homepage
Link: Click
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OpenTyrian Now! |
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OpenTyrian is a port of the DOS shoot-em-up Tyrian from 1995. Tyrian is an arcade-style vertical scrolling shooter that gets very crazy, very fast! You play as the terraformation pilot, Trent Hawkins who is being hunted by the evil corporation Microsol because of his knowledge of the material Gravitium which has the power to control gravity. The story plot is moved along through the collection of Data Cubes which contain transcripts (or sometimes advertisements) of various communications between Trent and other parties along the way. (2) Installation: There are two files I had to download, the data file and program file. I'm not sure why they made you do that since it is legal to download the Open Tyrian file?!? Actually the first time I downloaded the file (Program) I clicked on the Tyrian icon and I got an error. I had to go into the read me to find out that I needed the data file. That is just silly. Why make anyone have to search for a second file if there is no reason to add it to the program file? This is what I did by the way. I combined them and that is what you will download if you click on the link above. (3) Startup: There is one icon called OpenTyrian (duh) the starts the program. Upon clicking it you will be introduced to the below screen:
I was not sure you could increase the screen size, until I went into the OpenTyrian link (at the home screen) and could chose full screen. So, unless I am missing something, there are two screen sizes. I wish you could make the window any size you wanted like you can in a lot of eCS games but the full screen mode and window were very smooth playing on my computer. One note, I started this review, the sound driver was on the Uniaud16 V1.9.1. The sound was just static and I could hear nothing from the game. After installing Uniaud16 V1.9.5 the sound was perfect. Just another reason kids to install the newest sound drivers when they come out! (4) The Program: The game progresses through level where at the start of each you are in a store where you can buy new ships or various upgrades like; new shields, generators (which are used to power your shields and weapons), weapons of course and 2 sidekicks. There is a huge selection of items with all the weapons having different strength’s firing patterns and styles also there are no stats for ANY of the items displayed, the closest you get are the armor, power, and shield gauge's displayed under your ship in the store which means that you have to get a feel for the weapons rather than just min/maxing.
At first, I just held off not buying items and tried to play though, it's possible, but much harder. This game does want you to customize your ship each and every level.
One thing that makes this game stand out is its massive amount of content: 5 episodes with I-don’t-know -how-many levels, secret levels, 3 hidden difficulty levels, 8 super arcade modes, a hidden graphics setting, and even cheats that exist only to make the game harder. An it can be a hard game, I really enjoy games like this especially old school ones like this. Between levels there are data “cubes” you can read that tell more of the story. The cubes though are not given to you just from simply getting though the level. You have to capture them during that level of game play. Some of the data cubes you get are informative and some are just plan funny.
You can tell a game is good because the levels are semi short giving you the opportunity to play a 5 minute game and then get back to work. I noticed that I was always going for one more level. A 30 minute play turned into a hour or two. It is that addictive. It would be nice if you could change the resolution to something like 800x600 or more but I do understand this is a port and it might be a limitation to all the port that Open Tyrian is set to. It might be able to be done in command line but I could not find anything so all I can do is hope this happens in the future. I only had OpenTyrian crash on me once and it was after an hour and a half of playing. You can save the game after each level so it was not that painful. The OpenTyrian played nice with other programs as I had around six other apps running in the background. (5) Final Thoughts: If you like Scrolling Shooters then this is one not to miss. It brings old school graphs and sound to a frenzied,fun game. As I said before, I would like some more options graphic wise but game wise, there is a wealth of items to buy and levels to play. There are many unique enemies to kill and it is always a challenge. I hope more games like this come out for eCS as we need them. Great job to the people that made Open Tyrian and those who ported it!
(6) Updates after the review: None as of yet. |
