Tyrian's story is reminiscent of Descent, in a fashion. You are destroying corporate property, only in this case, you are fleeing from an extremely powerful megacorporation to work for another based on the dying words of your best friend. It's all based around the mineral called Gravitium, which has the property of gravity control. While the story may not be the best, it's the little touches, also known as the datacubes, that bring everything together. Things such as restaurant reviews and enemy intel all add to the overall universe and make Tyrian feel less like a one-shot, throwaway story and more like an in-depth story-driven shooter.

The gameplay of Tyrian is standard to the genre: the screen scrolls, and you kill enemies that come from the top. There is minor movement from side to side, but not much. Overall, if you are familiar with the genre as a whole, you can pick up and play Tyrian instantly without much trouble. There are power-ups to gain, bosses to defeat, and a wide array or enemies to destroy. One of the more unusual aspects, however, is the shield and energy system. Weapons and shields use energy. Shields absorb hits, and absorb a certain amount of energy during each refresh cycle if the shield is damaged. This lets players be a little less cautious and a little more risk-taking. The weapons also use energy, and if they use it faster than it refreshes, the shields might have trouble regenerating. This makes Tyrian much more than your standard no-hit, continual fire affair.

There are three modes to Tyrian. The first, and the one that players will recognize the most, is the arcade mode. This plays like a standard arcade game, with power-ups dropping from defeated enemies and such. The second, which is much more fascinating, is the story mode. Story mode follows Trent through the cosmos and gives a greater narrative to Tyrian's setting. Not only that, but in story mode, you upgrade your fighter through the usage of cash earned on missions. Points of upgrade include shields, ship chassis, front and rear weapons, left and right sidekicks, and generators. It's a refreshing change of pace from the normal "shoot and forget" gameplay of other shmups, and takes after its competitor, Raptor.

The third mode, which is also incredibly interesting, is two-player arcade. Functioning much like standard arcade, two-player has each player cooperatively using a ship to defeat enemies Each ship has specific abilities that the other does not: the Dragonhead has front, rear, and special weapons, and the Dragonwing can charge their primary weapon as well as use the sidekicks from the main story.. While you can definitely play separated, the true strengths of the ships show when you combine to form one larger ship. In this ship, the first player pilots, and the second player uses the turret. It's certainly not a mechanic I've ever seen in another shmup, freeware or otherwise. You can even do two-player through the internet, if you so wish!

Tyrian's graphics and sound are nothing to sneeze at. Tyrian sports some of the best retro music on the PC, with tunes that far outstrip contemporaries on console systems. If you want, you can listen to this music outside of the game by using the sound test inside the setup menu. The pixel work is also incredibly fantastic, with detailed sprites that have cartoon-like sensibilities. Perhaps the funniest part of Tyrian are the graphics settings: Low, Medium, High, and pentium. Even after all these years, Tyrian is a delight to both the eyes and the ears to play.

There are a few extra upsides and downsides to Tyrian as a whole. For anybody but the most hardcore shmup fan, the different ship builds will probably just be fluff that nobody will care about. Likewise, the robust upgrades system will probably not be used to its full capabilities. Tyrian also lacks loops for replay value, although it does have several different selectable difficulty modes. The graphics and sound might seem a little dated, even if they are quite good. It requires DOSBox to function properly, especially with Windows 7. Finally, as an afterthought, there are several hilarious added minigames that were included with Tyrian. Want to try one out? Type destruct at the main menu, and see what we mean. It's always nice when player receive the little treats like that.

Tyrian is an oft-overlooked PC shmup that really deserves more than it got. When some people think of shmups, they think of games like DoDonPachi, Axelay, or Gradius. Tyrian should be a part of this list, and to anyone that has played it, it definitely ranks among the top shmups ever made. The release of the game as freeware for versions 1, 2, and 2000 only let more people experience its greatness. And how could that possibly be a bad thing? If you want to give Tyrian a try, you can download it at Camanis. We highly suggest 2000, as it is the most feature-rich version. Requires DOSBox, or some form of DOS emulator, in order to play.

For another look at freeware games, take a peek at Joystiq's Free Game Club weekly feature!