Tarr Chronicles Preview

You feel the darkness of space engulf you, corner you like prey with its back to the wall. You know your enemy is there, your fingertips itch to fire your guns into the darkness but you remain silent. Your nerves are stretched to the limit waiting to give the call to your flight team. You watch as the enemy scouting party arrives, hunting for your people but in turn, they are the ones being hunted. They are the obstacle between you and freedom, you and your home, and they must be destroyed. You are the last hope for the lost flagship of the alliance, do you have what it takes to guide them home?

Tarr Chronicles: Fade of Ghosts, published by Akella, is a flying space adventure that puts you in the cockpit of a personalized ship of the alliance. From there, you launch into space with your team on various escorts, protections, and search-and-destroy missions against the vile De’khete. They are the only thing standing in your way of home and freedom and it is a long journey back.

The basic storyline is filled with background information streamed from subtitles (hopefully voice-overs are added) and small cutscenes of movies. You are made aware that you are part of a team that is cut off from the rest of your fleet aboard the flagship of the alliance named Talestra. From there, you are divulged into this in depth storyline of the enemy that surrounds you, which for you story lovers, only intensifies the significance of every battle.

You control one of the elite fighter planes that you are able to customize before every mission. Every ship that you build has a weight and energy limit, but there are many variations of a ship that you create. You could create a ship that turns on a dime for fast-paced kamikaze action or design a flying tank that moves like a turtle and hits like a Mack truck moving downhill with no breaks. Either way, your ship is personalized to the T and gives every mission a new feel to it when playing them.  Your weapons are personalized based on the ship hull that you choose and can be cycled through during game play. Between missiles, ion cannons and lasers that penetrate hulls and shields with different damage results, you are in complete control of the destruction your ship is capable of.

The rich, detailed environment of space - filled with debris of ships destroyed, broken asteroids and your flight team - explodes onto your screen with every new mission you face. The ambience and lights set a mood of loneliness until the missiles start flying and the action quickly picks up into heated dogfights. You listen to your team that is constantly calling out attacks and adjust to helping you. They consist of AI controlled partners that will follow your attacks and a little HUD will show when a teammate of yours is under fire.

Flying your ship is easily adjusted to if you are accustomed to flight simulators, but for those that are virgins to this type of a game it will be a little shaky at first. Learning to fight in dogfights along side a team could be the difference between you flying alone or with them. Wave after wave of enemy fighters are thrown your way and you must successfully achieve each directive in order to move through the missions. The ability to change around your ships composition and flight mechanics should be played with until it suits your playing style.  Once you have found something you enjoy flying, every fight along side your AI friends becomes that much easier.

Overall, Tarr Chronicles: Fade of Ghosts is shaping up to be one intense space dogfight. With the addition of voice-overs (and a few tweaks) look for this game when it comes out, it will definitely keep your flight adrenaline pumping.