Star Wars: TIE Fighter (video game)

The game's narrative commences shortly after the Battle of Hoth, with the expansion packs progressing towards the Battle of Endor. Players take on the role of a novice TIE pilot, identified as Maarek Stele in the player's guide. Given its status as the first game to portray events from the Galactic Empire's viewpoint, some players might find the position of an Imperial protagonist unsettling. However, the pilot's character gains a degree of sympathy as he lives in constant fear of punishment from figures like Darth Vader and other superiors; moreover, the storyline eventually leads the player to confront other challenges.

In this game, the Empire is depicted as a force dedicated to upholding peace and order, while the Rebel Alliance is portrayed as a source of anarchy and disorder. Although the Rebels pose a significant threat in the early stages, many missions also involve eliminating pirates, criminals, dealing with civil conflicts, rogue Imperials, and other elements to maintain galactic stability in the galaxy.

Echoing X-Wing, the game features a central hub that offers players various options. They have the opportunity to examine spacecraft in the tech room, engage in practice missions or replay successful ones in the combat simulation chamber, review recorded gun camera footage in the film room (with the option to re-enter the mission at any point), move to a different sector or campaign and review completed campaign cutscenes, change pilots, and embark on the next assigned mission.

Although an Imperial Star Destroyer is often shown as the central base of operations for a sector or star system, the hub, designed as a circular atrium, likely represents the interior of an XQ Platform. According to The Stele Chronicles, this concourse is located onboard the Imperial Star Destroyer named Vengeance.

As previously stated, this marked the first instance of a Star Wars game allowing players to experience events from the Galactic Empire's perspective. Notably, it remains the only game to exclusively present the Empire's viewpoint, while subsequent games offering control of the Empire only provide it as an optional choice. Furthermore, it stands alone as the sole game whose opening crawl does not include the Star Wars Main Title, instead featuring a modified version of the Imperial March.

A clear enhancement was the improved rendering engine, which incorporated Gouraud shading to make the curves of low-polygon objects look more realistic.

The game engine was significantly enhanced, allowing it to support a greater number of spacecraft with more detailed models compared to X-Wing.

The AI and scripting were significantly improved, resulting in more intricate mission designs and more formidable and competent enemies and allies.

Among the many gameplay improvements were difficulty settings and options like unlimited ammunition and invincibility (although using these cheats significantly lowered the player's score).

Many new flight options were introduced, including flight dialogue and messages, a message log, a list of objectives, ship status and behavior indicators, a three-dimensional map, a head-up display (HUD), a sub-target system, and the ability to select armaments before missions.

The HUD or targeting computer, which displays a 3-D rendering of the targeted vessel, was well-received by players, as it provides real-time information about the target's orientation. This enabled players to avoid risky head-on encounters and to specifically target individual components like weapon emplacements. Numerous new hotkeys provided players with a wide range of targeting options.

The ability to match speed with a target allowed players to tail an enemy aircraft with a reduced risk of collision.

Another notable improvement is the expanded selection of spacecraft, including variations of capital ships, utility vehicles, and more. There are also space stations, such as the XQ Platform series and X7 Factory Station (replacing X-Wing's makeshift use of containers and bulk freighters to represent "bases"). Some of these were not further utilized in the Expanded Universe, such as the Mon Calamari Light Cruiser (the standard MC80 Mon Calamari Star Cruiser appears in the combat simulation chamber but not in the storyline missions), R-41 Starchasers, and T-wings. Darth Vader's TIE Fighter (TIE Advanced x1) is absent, replaced by the faster and more powerful TIE Avenger.

Players can pilot seven different starfighters. As in the films, the player initially flies craft such as the TIE Fighter, TIE/sa bomber, and TIE/IN interceptor, all of which lack shields and hyperdrives. However, there are few missions where the player is part of swarms of fragile craft conducting near suicidal assaults (as what the canonical Imperial Navy would do).

Later missions become highly customized, similar to the preceding X-Wing, move away from mass attacks with suicidal TIEs, and reflect the main character's increasing importance and rank. Particularly in the Defender of the Empire and Enemies of the Empire expansions, most missions place the player against overwhelming odds, often without wingmen, to emphasize the player's role as a catalyst in the unfolding battle. Several original spacecraft are featured, including the Assault Gunboat, TIE Advanced or "Avenger", TIE Defender (later added to The Essential Guide to Vehicles and Vessels), and Missile Boat (exclusively in the expansions).

Due to the TIE Avenger, TIE Defender, and Missile Boat's superior capabilities compared to existing starfighters, later installments in the X-Wing series either reduced their effectiveness or excluded them entirely.

Like the other games in the X-Wing series that emphasize game mechanics, TIE Fighter is known to use alternate models and statistics that do not align with the films or the Star Wars Legends (formerly Expanded Universe) sourcebooks.

TIE Fighter introduced new weapons such as proton rockets, proton bombs, magnetic pulse warheads, tractor beam, and the jamming beam. Additionally, it featured advanced concussion missiles and advanced proton torpedoes, which were enhanced versions of the original warheads with improved tracking and greater power. Consequently, the effectiveness of standard concussion missiles and proton torpedoes was reduced for gameplay balance, although this conflicted with established canon. The visual representations of concussion missiles and proton torpedoes also differ from other official sources.

As in X-Wing, ion weapons in TIE Fighter gradually deplete shields like laser cannons, but against unshielded spacecraft, a few shots will permanently disable them for the duration of the mission unless a repair vessel is present. This contradicts canon and Star Wars Legends, where ion cannons can penetrate shields but only cause temporary disablement. All laser cannons are of equal strength, with no distinction between a TIE Interceptor's laser cannons and a Star Destroyer's turbolasers.

The shields of capital ships and space stations do not regenerate once depleted. Furthermore, capital ships like Star Destroyers and Mon Calamari cruisers possess significantly fewer weapons than their official sourcebook specifications. As a result, they pose less of a threat (if a player "surgically" takes out all their weapons effectively rendering it defenceless, and/or finds a blind spot by parking just behind the capital ship's engines), although destroying them still requires considerable firepower. This was a design compromise due to the limitations of the game engine at the time - since the targeting and combat AI of each turret on a starship used almost as many resources as a single starfighter, the presence of a single Star Destroyer would count almost as much as an entire squadron of fighters.

The briefing includes a dialogue-like interface with questions to an Imperial briefing officer, reminiscent of the LucasArts' concurrent adventure games. Apart from the standard briefing, some missions include a secondary briefing from a Sith-like Cloaked Figure. This person provides information about the Secondary and Bonus objectives (detailed below).

Successfully completing secondary and bonus objectives (also known in-game as secret mission objectives) does not alter the scenario or its outcome. However, these optional objectives increase the pilot's score and prestige. Upon completing a tour of duty, the medal will feature green and red pins based on perfect completion of secondary and bonus objectives per mission, respectively. Completing secondary or bonus objectives in the simulation chamber does not award the player any accolades.

• Secondary Objectives are provided by the Cloaked Figure and are intended to support Imperial Intelligence. Successfully completing them attracts the attention of Emperor Palpatine, who inducts the pilot into his Secret Order and allows them to advance within the Order's ranks. Completing all secondary objectives in a mission earns the pilot a small silver star with a green gem.

• Bonus Objectives (also known as Secret Mission Objectives) are designed to enhance the game's replayability. Bonus goals are not mentioned in the briefings and must be discovered through the player's initiative, activity, and/or luck. The player can guess or complete an objective if he is lucky or active enough to do something 'right', either by hints from secondary objectives or simply by a random action. Bonus goals typically involve tasks such as identifying a spacecraft before destroying it or destroying/capturing a spacecraft not required by the official objectives. Completing all bonus objectives in a mission awards the pilot a small gold star with a red gem. The existence of bonus objectives is revealed only after completing them in the mission log (when all of them are completed, the player will be notified audibly with the message "Secret Mission Objectives complete!"), or in the debriefing (by displaying how many out of the total have been completed). The full list of bonus objectives is also revealed in the combat simulation chamber once the player has successfully passed the mission in "actual flight".

The story unfolds across seven different systems, divided into seven Tours of Duty, each consisting of four to six missions.

Hoth system: Pursue Rebels fleeing from Hoth.

Sepan system: End a prolonged civil war.

Pakuuni system: Establish a new Imperial base.

Mylok system: Battle pirates in the Outer Rim.

Parmel system: Capture a defecting officer.

Parmic system: Demetrius Zaarin builds new technology.

Parmel system: Stop a revolt by rogue Imperials.

An additional campaign disk, Defender of the Empire, was sold separately, adding three new tours of duty and four additional training missions.

The scenario concludes with Thrawn's promotion to Grand Admiral, and Emperor Palpatine tasking him to hunt down Zaarin. An additional campaign disk, "Enemies of the Empire," completed the plot but was never sold separately. Instead, it was included in Star Wars: TIE Fighter: Collector's CD-ROM.

Although not actual missions, players can engage in four training simulations of past missions for each of the fighters in the game. Completing at least two will result in a combat medallion of the specific fighter used, with the color indicating the number of training missions completed.

Like X-Wing, TIE Fighter was also re-released a year later (1995) in an enhanced version that included the original release and two expansions. The game engine was also rebuilt to run on Windows 95.

Similar to the previous X-Wing Collector's CD-ROM, it featured a fully voiced soundtrack and an improved rendering engine supporting a resolution of 640x480.

The Collector's Edition featured a completely redone introduction cutscene, entirely rendered in full. It now includes a Super Star Destroyer and a Nebulon-B frigate alongside numerous Imperial Star Destroyers. During the assault on the Rebel platform, the Imperials attack with TIE Bombers instead of just TIE Interceptors, making the assault more realistic since starfighters' laser cannons would be unable to inflict significant damage on a large space station. However, the specific types of bombs used to bombard the facility do not appear in the game.

The CD-ROM Edition also added a new campaign, Enemies of the Empire, with three brand new Tours of Duty that conclude the scenario.

• " Hunt for Zaarin " ( Semag system ) - Thrawn seeks the traitor Zaarin.
• " Prelude to Endor " ( Yllotat system ) - Investigate Bothan connection.
• " The Emperor's Will " ( Iast system ) - Final triumph...?

TIE Fighter underwent a significant overhaul for its release alongside the collections X-Wing Collector Series (1998) and X-Wing Trilogy (1999). The game was retrofitted with the Star Wars: X-Wing vs. TIE Fighter graphics engine, which uses texture mapping instead of Gouraud shading. Concourse graphics and some cutscenes were also updated. This version is compatible with MS Windows XP, although the iMuse music system was removed. However, the original DOS-based Collector's CD version, which includes iMuse, can be emulated using Dosbox.

On October 28, 2014, Disney Interactive revealed a new partnership with GOG.com, a digital distributor offering DRM-free content, to digitally re-release over twenty classic Lucasfilm video game titles for modern computers. Alongside Star Wars: X-Wing and Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, Star Wars: TIE Fighter became available for digital download at a price of $9.99.

LucasArts made available a demo version of TIE Fighter in early 1994. The demo was based upon an uncompleted version of the game, which resulted in a few unique characteristics. The demo consists of only one long mission where the player flies a TIE Fighter to fight various Rebellion forces. The cockpit is different from the one in the final game [1], the sound effects are different, and the soundtrack is from Star Wars: X-Wing.

Dodge sponsored the demo, and a Neon car advertisement appeared before the gameplay began. It was distributed on two 3.5" 1.44 MiB floppy disks. The demo announced the game's release date as "Spring 1994," but it was not released until July.