First, let me say I've been playing the DRM-free version since 5-23-2015, plus the 1.4 hours with the Steam one. So don't let that 1.4 hours mislead you into thinking I've barely played the game.
With the visuals, the CGI rendering technique that was used offers up plenty of colors used for the shading and detail in the backgrounds and the individual sprites. There are multiple layers of parallax scrolling that give the backgrounds some nice depth, and for the most part, the animation is pretty fluid. The designs for the bosses and ships are a mix, with some that look a bit generic, to others that are nice looking with some interesting traits. Either way, it's clear that the artist behind the graphics put some real effort into their work. However, there are some spots that really feel like someone slacked off. The explosions for one, look out of place and cheap. They don't match the rest of the visuals at all, and truly look like a generic effect that came prepackaged with some kind of software (Game Maker perhaps?).
The graphics also have an unfortunate amount of copy-pasting going on. The very first level features constantly repeating lines of ships in the background, as if you're flying through a parking lot. It's literally the exact same ship over and over and over, both up close and farther away. Other levels suffer from this same issue (stage 2's buildings, stage 3's crashed underwater ship, etc.), which results in a cheap look being given to the game, despite the quality of the images themselves. Factor in other issues like how your ship snaps back to its side view when you stop moving vertically, and visibility issues (the missiles fired from the little R-Type looking pod walkers, enemies/shots being hidden in explosions, etc.), and it's a game that tries to look really snazzy, but stumbles at times some keys areas.
With the sound, there's not much to get excited about. The music is incredibly minimal and very muffled. There are maybe three instruments going at once, and most of the time, the only instrument you can really hear in-game is a strings-like one. Now I say “in-game,” because if you play the ogg vorbis tracks on their own and turn them up, you can hear faint instruments behind those strings; instruments that at times sound out of tempo thanks to an echo effect that was put on them (this is the drums and timpani, namely). But they're so muffled and quiet that they may as well not be there. This makes the compositions empty feeling and leaves them offering nothing to support the action happening on-screen. Factor in that the compositions themselves aren't overly noteworthy, and it's a glaring hole in the game's presentation.
The sound effects fair a little better, but not by much. The shots being fired do their job without offending your ears, while enemy shots and missiles do the same thing. As such, those effects work well. But, there's a problem. The sound effects for things like explosions, ships flying onto the screen, missiles being fired... they all have a fair bit of rumble and bass in them. And when you have a bunch of enemies that fly in and get killed at the same time, they all play those bassy effects together. The end result is a too-loud, distorted and crackling mess of sound due to the same kinds of noises being layered over each other. So yeah, the game's aural qualities leave a fair bit to be desired, and don't stack up well against its visuals.
The gameplay is straight-forward stuff. You get powerups, you fight bosses at the end of the levels, you blow up ships during the levels... you all know the drill by now. The hit detection is pretty good, and the enemy patterns came at you from all sides as you progress through the levels. You also get a number of powerups that range from missiles and bombs, to fireballs and multi-directional lasers. These also stack up, so if you do well enough, you can have quite the bit of firepower at your disposal. However, this game throws a few unwanted wrinkles into the mix.
First, and perhaps most annoying, is that you rarely see a powerup more than once. The forward-angled side shot? Once. The up+down+back shot? Once. The seven way shot? The fireball? The enhanced electrical ball that passes through things? The bomb? All once. The only powerups you see more than one time are the missiles and the various extra life types (a 1up and a star that appears to give you three lives). So if you miss your powerup, it's gone forever. And if you blow it up...
Wait. Did I just say "blow it up"? Yes, I did. You can blow up your powerups. They can take a few hits, but if you're firing away at a slew of enemies and you're not paying attention when that powerup appears in front of you, it can and will explode if you hit it more than a few times. That someone thought exploding powerups was a good idea to implement, truly baffles me. That such an idea was coupled with how most powerups only show up once, makes for a maddening setup that defies logic. If it was done as a means to be different, then bravo. It's different alright. It's also an absolutely horrid idea that should have been replaced before it ever got programmed. Granted, when you die, you still get to keep your powerups. But that doesn't offset the ludicrousness of it all.
Lastly, the bosses in this game are pretty unremarkable when it comes to their battles. They're good design-wise, most of them animate when they fire, and they all start smoking as they get damaged. So visually, they look fine and had some nice touches added to them. But their fire patterns are simple and easily dodged, with most of the bosses simply moving up and down on the other side of the screen. It's only the last two bosses that actually start really moving around the screen more, making for some pretty dull encounters with the other four. This dullness isn't helped at all with how two-thirds of the six bosses can be easily beaten due to the huge safe spots in their simple laser patterns, or because of your being able to destroy what they're shooting at you. Sure, the last three bosses have a kind of “hyper mode” they go into when they're half dead, which then increases the intensity of their attack. But even then, those attacks are usually handled with little trouble. Frankly, only the final boss gives you a real challenge with what it does. So really, the bosses are pretty basic as all they do is shoot. No ramming, no arms to grab at you... they just shoot, and shoot easily avoided stuff at that.
In the end, what can be said about Tiamat X? It tries, I'll give it that. At times, the visuals are quite nice, the controls feel pretty solid, the hit detection's alright for the most part, and at six stages, you'll likely get your $1.99's worth. But the game's got issues. Various visual and audio problems, iffy and muffled music, little in the way of options to tinker with, no difficulty selection, over half of the game offering little to no real challenge, utterly bizarre choices for how the powerups are handled... all of this really hurts this game. The game's length doesn't help either, as it can be beaten in under 15 minutes.
Is the game busted? No. It's quite playable, though I do keep having it crash on me when I try to send my high score to the global tables with the DRM-free version that can be bought elsewhere. But it has some rather glaring flaws that really should have been addressed before this thing went live on Steam. I feel that it was a missed opportunity to spruce it up a bit for a new and wider audience. So to me, the game's a generally nice looking, but very average quality shmup whose main saving grace is its low price. And it's a game that, quite frankly, BBQ Games should have kept cooking on the grill a bit longer before they served it to everyone.
Score- 5.1 out of 10
Finally, here's a playthrough I recorded, if you want to see the game in action...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yn2wubNGZfg
