Graphics
Running a Prophet GeForce DDR at 1024x768, the graphics are very good. I especially was impressed with the lighting and artwork done on the immense space
stations and docks. Lasers are crisp, clear and well defined, as are missile trails. The capitol ships look as dangerous as they prove to be. Tachyon
also gets points for the coolest explosions I've seen, surpassing even Starlancer's.
There are drawbacks, however. There is too much eye candy. It is easy to lose sight of enemy ships amid the background of huge space stations, and every
object from other ships to the Tachyon gates has brackets and labels. One thing or another is drawing your attention away from trying to pin a laser to the
Dart fighter in your sights. But if you try to block out the eye candy and focus on your target, your situational awareness suffers.
Your ship displays and cockpit art also clutter up your view. The ship readouts, weapons indicators, radar ... all stretch across the entire bottom of your
screen, taking up too much of the outside view. To add to all of these factors, your cockpit art cramps the screen even more. Luckily you can turn at least
this option off with the F1 key.
Sound & Music
I have to mention Bruce Campbell as Jake Logan's voice in this section. The star of "Army of Darkness" and Autolycus, King of Thieves on TV's "Xena, Warrior
Princess" brings his trademark dry humor to Logan. His tone and remarks on some of the transmissions often are exactly in line with what I was thinking about
some of the base operator's comments. This is one of the more enjoyable aspects I found in playing this game.
The ships have different engine sounds, which will help the hard-core guys out in the thick of things by allowing them to target one craft while identifying
others by their sounds if they get close enough.
The music was good, but as with all sims I play, I shut it off and really only listened to it for this review. Look at it this way: I know two songs; one is
Yankee Doodle and the other isn't. I'm not the one to be judging the musical score.
