Project Tachyon review: a one-person run and gun that cuts through bullets

Nobody paid us for this review, and the game did not come from the developer.

Arcade run and guns were always busy. You ran while you shot, you shot while you dodged, and when the bullets covered the screen your eyes gave out before your hands did. Project Tachyon was made by someone who loved that busy screen. And that someone worked alone.

A run and gun one person made

Project Tachyon was made by one person, Park Min-woo of STUDIO N9. Before launch it went to G-Star 2024 to meet players. It is the work a whole team would usually split up, held by one pair of hands to the end, so you can see on the screen exactly what its maker loves.

Block with the blade, finish with the gun

The whole game rests on two hands. The hero carries a melee weapon and a ranged weapon at the same time. The blade knocks enemy bullets away, and when an opening shows up, the gun finishes things from a distance. In the old run and guns, bullets were something you dodged. Here they are also something you can cut. That one change changes how you read the screen.

Random weapons drop along the way, too. Pick up something like an electric saw that slices bullets, and the same room plays out in a completely different way.

A different run, a different kind of luck

Arcade stages never changed, which is why we could memorize them. Project Tachyon goes the other way. It is a roguelite, and the route shifts every run. With more than 200 genes to pick and stack, each run takes its own shape. The more upgrades you pile on, the bigger the chance a harmful gene sneaks in, so every pick is a small bet.

In the old run and guns, bullets were something you dodged. Here they are also something you can cut.

Back then

When you stood behind someone at a run and gun cabinet, you watched their hands first. Where they stopped, where they jumped. Good players always seemed a step ahead. In Project Tachyon those hands have one more job. Deciding whether to dodge or to cut.

Playing it now

A soldier sent back from the future, giant bosses, a science fiction setting. It does not copy the look of the old games. But the tension of carving a path through a screen full of bullets is pure arcade shooter. Like most games made by one person, it knows exactly what it loves.