LucasArts' TIE FIGHTER, successor to their innovative X-WING space combat simulator is all it was expected to be and more. An excellent game engine coupled with entertaining cinematics have made it a very popular game. Part of the inevitable follow up to any successful piece of software is the "Strategy Guide".
These guides usually contain tips, tricks, cheats, and other useful information. X-Wing was no exception; an excellent book published by PRIMA was soon released to help gamers glean every possible point, goal and secret from the game. This is even more true with Tie Fighter. The game is more difficult than the original and LucasArts spent a great deal of effort developing a story line centered around a character named Maarek Stele. Part of the included documentation of the game was "The Stele Chronicles", kind of a short tutorial/story which described the events which took young pilot Stele into the Empire Elite Fighter Corps. This strategy guide picks up where the chronicles left off. This should be no surprise, since the author, Rusel DeMaria, wrote The Farlander Papers, The Stele Chronicles and the X-Wing Strategy Guide. This provides the continuity necessary to really give the feeling of being part of the whole Rebel Alliance/Empire war.
The first part of the book concerns orientation around the ships and combat in the combat simulator. Missions 2-4 in all craft, and missions 1-4 in the Tie Defender are covered in detail. Each mission provides an analysis and a debriefing (i.e. point breakdown). Note that the first mission in most craft is omitted, since they are so simple.
The next section is the meat of the game, the mission profiles. Each mission begins with a mission briefing. The "Secret Order", which serves the interest of the emperor in a more direct manner, also has it's own section describing it's goals.
The after action report is presented in the first person, with Maarek describing the craft he flies, the opposition, and the entire combat sequence. Finally, the win conditions are broken down by goal and point value. The points provide for achieving military rank and Secret Order rank (This is described in the first appendix). Since the game is divided into "battles", each battle is presented in separate chapter.
The book also has five appendices, the first of which covers scoring by craft destroyed, craft captured, and miscellaneous actions. The second appendix is devoted to tips for the training simulator and the third for use of the in-flight camera. The Mission Statistics Tables are the fourth index, which decribes in great detail all the opposing craft and their orders. The appendix is a chapter in itself, spanning over one hundred and thirty pages. Finally, the last appendix is devoted to the development team. Although this is an important part of the book, I am glad that the authors kept this to only a few pages (unlike the OUTPOST strategy guide, which took up way too many pages).
All in all, this is a fairly good product. Mr. DeMaria has put together an easy to read and entertaining book, and it is worth the $20 most book sellers are asking for it. It will help fill out the hard-core Lucas Arts game fan's collection.
This review is Copyright (C) 1994 by Scott Sumner for Game Bytes Magazine. All Rights Reserved.