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Dozens of shield and engine types, guns, reactors, missiles, and more are unlocked as you progress through missions, but your pilot begins by selecting a chassis, of which there were seven playable in the demonstration. Each hull bears different ratings for weight and energy - some lending themselves to maneuverability or hard-nosed gunnery, with more versatile variants in between. Weapon types range from energy-based to ammo-consuming models of cannons and missiles alike. But because you're not actually purchasing the munitions, trade-offs strike a balance between them: a slower-firing photon blaster might dish out more than a rapid-fire ballistic design, and the deadliest missile pack might only offer 20 rounds to work with.

Ship configuration creates an avenue to re-approach difficult missions, and even with a handful of equipment available at start-up, we got a sense that the tinkering could carry real appeal for savvy sci-fi fans. Different vessel anatomies accommodate various piloting styles and mission objectives: if you sacrifice steady shield regeneration for an extra weapon slot, you'll find yourself vulnerable in the field if you can't clean up the enemy quick. If you prefer to de -shield a bogey with a missile, then erode their armor with laser fire, your payload might prove ineffective for extended skirmishes when ammo runs tight.

For further engineering, players will turn to the workshop, where they'll craft devices to fill their pair of on-board equipment slots. Here, salvaged space mass (nanomodules, tech alloys, and electronics among them) awarded after battles is fed to your mechanic friend to fashion special items that add energy regeneration, damage, or extra armoring to your shuttle. The workshop contributes an MMO-like crafting feature to Tarr's already deep customization template.

Thirty-five missions await you once your fighter's fine-tuned. Up to three independent wingmen accompanied us on the raid and escort sorties we tried, and our allies seemed more than capable of making contributions despite our inability to direct them. Like other space sims, enemies approach in waves as you patrol past waypoints , with mined areas, asteroids, space stations, and a liberal amounts of debris in between.

Save for larger destroyers, our encounters in Tarr were relatively compact. Missile locks only take a moment, and we didn't tail enemy scouts and hunter ships for long to produce a kill; a rocket and a few rounds from our cannon was usually enough to take 'em down. Tarr maintained a good pace in this way, encouraging us to dispose of targets quickly before they got too friendly with our escort ship.