This game has so much potential for greatness but it falls quite short, feeling raw & unrefined. Its worth a try tho
Unlike your regular "space sims" out there, Tarr Chronicles doesn't try to be an open-ended space sim with varying missions & goals. Instead it strictly aims to become a linear space shooter that is very mission driven. While this in itself isn't quite bad, it does mean that replay value of this game is small as there is little room for change. But what really brings this game down is the story telling, awful is too weak a word to describe it. Unlike other games that usually take the time to explain the past & the present so you can connect with the storyline, Tarr chronicles thrusts you deep into the game's universe with very little to go on. You constantly feel like you're trying to make sense of your surroundings and where you are in the storyline as you never really feel like you know whats going on. The game's universe does seem to be well developed and seems to have a lot of detail put into it, however since you're not familiar with this universe to begin with its hard to relate to the game or get a feel for the story at all. It's like trying to get someone who has never seen any Star Wars movies to play a star wars game, it'll be hard for him to learn the game's universe unless the game helps him. However Tarr chronicles doesn't even try which further complicates the situation. The intro & your cabin encyclopedia briefly explain a little history about the game and tells you about this ever-expanding material devouring entity that is called the Mirk. There seems to be several alien factions as well but how they fit into this game is never really explained. As soon as you begin to make sense of your position in the universe, the game takes a huge leap forward and puts you back into the middle of ignorance. With so little understanding of the story, the game fails to immerse you in its universe if not alienate you altogether.
The missions themselves are quite linear, however they do try to seem more fluid as you get new objectives occasionally according to your progress in the mission. These new objectives can differ greatly from your original mission objective like getting diverted to escort some other NPC ships or squads like missile frigates and other ships that are usually vulnerable to enemy fighters. However all the missions are plagued with so much meaningless NPC chatter during combat that you unconsciously start tuning out, missing out on sometimes important details that can affect the mission. The game's save system also complicates matters further as failing an objective (or dying) means you'll have to redo everything since your last completed objective.
About the only things this game has done right is the graphics & gameplay. The graphics are quite appealing and rarely disappoint you while the gameplay is fun and engaging. While the AI can be a bit dumb and the missions can seem repetitive, the good graphics & controls help in making the many dogfights a pleasant experience. Another of the best features of this game is the hangar which lets you customize your ship with various hulls, reactors, engines, weapons...etc as long as they meet the weight & energy requirements. Although this area isn't really well explained and might feel daunting at first, it should be really easy to quickly get into on your own and adds a lot of much needed depth & character to your ship and this game in general. The hangar has a separate area called the workshop which isn't even mentioned anywhere at all. The workshop can be used to manufacture devices that can be attached on your ship, these devices usually offer some boost to the ship statistics. However with so little explained about this feature and much of the statistics, its hard to figure out what you want and how to get it.
If thats not all, the game is quite buggy. Although some of these bugs have been fixed since the patch, there remains quite a few issues including a terrible memory leak that can reduce the most powerful systems to skeletons. This effectively forces you to shut down the game every once in a while, otherwise it eventually crashes as it slowly grinds to a halt.
In conclusion its obvious that this game could've used a bit more time in the design & development stage. It seriously lacks on the storytelling area & fails to immerse the player in its universe. However it is a fun diversion and a decent space combat sim so it might be worth a try if you have nothing else around.