Each job that you accept is somehow interlaced with elements of the overall story that add relevance and meaning to the objectives, and because there is so much in the ways of communication and events that take place in flight, no mission is ever boring or seems routine. As you begin to accept and complete missions given to you in the Hub, evidence of a feud becomes apparent between a group of colonists called the Bora and a corporation known as GalSpan. One of the aforementioned storytelling vehicles is the news service offered on every colony station. The news service, which for the most part is spoken and includes graphical representation is surprisingly entertaining and always informative. It is through the news that Jake learns of GalSpan’s intent to reclaim a region of space now home to the colonists called Bora. Long ago GalSpan made legal claim to the region, but never acted upon their claim until major mining resources were discovered by the Bora.

At one point not too far into the single player campaign, the player is presented with the choice of joining the Bora resistance or becoming a full-time employee of GalSpan. A nice feature that allows you to copy your game-state and player at any time ensures that both sides of the conflict can be played. No matter which avenue you choose initially, your experience will no doubt be strong enough that you’ll come back and play the other; and when you do you’ll find that both endeavors are worthwhile. There are a number of constants that no matter what side you choose however, will remain the same. On both sides of the fence you’ll be given a wide variety of choices to make that will determine your fate and rate of progression. At any point during the conflict multiple jobs will be available, some will advance the storyline, others will simply provide diversion and a means of gaining more money and possessions. The strategic portions of Tachyon are really good. There are over ten ships that you’ll be able to buy, all with varying capabilities, and dozens and dozens of weapons and items to configure them — personalizing its effectiveness based upon your skills and preferences is good wholesome fun.

After playing through with both the Bora and GalSpan, I can’t decide which one offered more fun. The Bora campaign appealed to me with its underdog mentality. You gain a real sense of belonging with the people you fly for and they become like a family to you. But the jobs don’t pay nearly as well as do those offered by GalSpan, and often times the technology isn’t available or quite as advanced, although in some cases this isn’t the case. As for flying with GalSpan, well the pay is really good, newer technology is offered a lot sooner and often times it’s a lot better than the Bora’s. However, being part of GalSpan is like working for the government, no loyalty and knowing you’re working for the bad guys doesn’t help you sleep at night. I hope what you’re getting from these descriptions is the sense of immersion and high-quality storytelling that goes on in Tachyon. There’s nothing earth shattering about the material itself, but the way it’s delivered is surely worthy of high praise. Part of the appeal and reasons why Tachyon is so successful in its execution is the delivery of the voice-acting. Bruce Campbell of “Xena: Warrior Princess” fame provides the talent for Jake Logan, and coupled with a fine cast providing the remaining in-game speech, Tachyon‘s use of high-quality voice acting is well received and appreciated by this veteran space combat sim pilot.

There are, however, a few things about Tachyon that I would like to see improved. There seems to be a problem with some of the large structures in that the player’s ship can easily get stuck in or on them. I also am a little disappointed in the lack of 32-bit rendering, as the other space operas available today seem to offer. This isn’t to say the visuals in Tachyon aren’t as good overall, just that from a technical perspective I’d like to see them improve the rendering quality of the engine. And while I’ll get into a lot more detail regarding the graphics in the criterion section, it’s worth mentioning here that Tachyon’s visuals represent the best implementation of scale I’ve ever seen. While the graphics may not be the most sophisticated in terms of ocular splendor, there’s no questioning their impact on future designs of space combat simulations.