Tachyon Project (PlayStation 4) Review

Giving a twin-stick shooter a meaningful story is a lot like having an ashtray on a motorbike, in that it's a purely cosmetic addition that's simply not required. This hasn't deterred Eclipse Games from cooking up a series of hand-drawn cut-scenes to chronicle the tale of a pair of rogue programmers and their creation, Ada, a vaguely sentient hack tool designed to sniff around secure networks and extract any information that can be used for unspecified purposes.

One day, after returning back to the base of operations, Ada finds that its creators (or parents as it's now taken to calling them) have been kidnapped by a mysterious organisation and so sets about hacking into numerous security networks in a bid to find out the reasoning behind the snatch and locate their whereabouts. While it's not exactly Mr. Robot in the narrative stakes, it does enough to establish that Ada is the one with the guns, and anything vaguely hostile is actually an anti-virus/security programme that's merely performing its intended function. Given that online security is actually the bad guy in this story it, therefore, needs cracking, if progress is to be made.

It's almost impossible not to notice that Tachyon Project bears more than a passing resemblance to the Geometry Wars series in both play style and aesthetic, although it's fair to say that while some of Eclipse's design choices were clearly influenced by Activision's shooter, the finished product lacks the visual flair and variety of its peer. Indeed, some of the attack patterns, and even the design of Ada itself, might feel familiar to seasoned veterans of Geometry Wars, yet given that it's probably the franchise most synonymous to the genre, it's of little surprise.

Comparisons aside, while Tachyon Project might feel a bit like a homage to all things Geometry-c, it does slip a few distinguishing features of its own into the mix, with the most notable being the addition of stealth levels. While stealth might sound like an alien concept in a game that actively encourages aggressive gunplay, it works surprisingly well as Ada is able to maintain cover until either breaking the silence by opening fire or being scanned by a scout ship's visible radar. Once spotted, the enemies will swarm at Ada until the scout is destroyed and cover is regained, which adds a 'cat and mouse' element not usually associated with the genre.

Instead of lives, Ada's lifespan is measured in seconds, which naturally tick down as play progresses. Picking up the debris left by vanquished foes will add time to Ada's clock, although, unsurprisingly, any contact with hostiles will cause the countdown timer to drop drastically, with the game ending once zero is met.

There are a total of 10 levels to play through, each split into six sections that have their own set of criteria that need to be met to move on to the next. These can vary from taking down a boss, shooting x amount of a specified enemy, or merely surviving for a specified amount of time against increasingly dense waves of adversaries. Progress through the campaign unlocks access to six primary weapons, nine secondary ones, as well as seven perks that help tackle the task at hand and provide a means to cater to specific play styles.

Despite there being little variation between the appearance of each level, Tachyon Project more than makes up for it with the variety of enemy types that make an appearance, as there are no less than 30 different foes all itching for a piece of Ada. It's a fairly short campaign, yet the inclusion of a 'New Game+' along with challenge levels that surprisingly hide local four-player co-operative options, adds more choice for skilled gamers looking to test themselves.