Star Wars: X-Wing vs. TIE Fighter
The multiplayer-first entry, and that is exactly why it disappointed: it shipped with no story campaign at all. The Balance of Power expansion added one later. Great dogfighting engine, thin game around it.
- Released
- 1997
- Developer
- Totally Games
- Genre
- Space combat
- Platforms
- PC
Playing it today
Buy it for the Balance of Power campaigns, or skip straight to X-Wing Alliance. X-Wing vs. TIE Fighter shipped in 1997 as a multiplayer game with no story campaign, and the expansion added fifteen-mission campaigns for both the Rebels and the Empire. The flight model is TIE Fighter's, so the dogfighting still holds up.
The $9.99 Steam and GOG releases both include Balance of Power. The game will not start without a joystick or gamepad plugged in, so a cheap USB stick is the easy answer; vJoy, a community tool, can fake one if you want to try keyboard and mouse. The original online service is long gone. Valve rates it Playable on Steam Deck, and for tinkerers there is OpenXvT, a fan-made open-source rebuild of the engine.
If you only want one game from this era, it should not be this one: TIE Fighter has the better campaign and X-Wing Alliance has the better story. Come here once you have finished both and want more missions in the same cockpit.
Where to play it
On sale today · checked September 24, 2026
- GOGIncludes the Balance of Power expansion$9.99
- SteamSold as the Balance of Power Campaigns edition, expansion included$9.99
Either store works: both packages include Balance of Power at the same price. GOG's offline installer is the tiebreaker.
There is no console version and no remaster. It has only ever been a PC game.
List prices in USD. Stores change prices and listings; check before you buy. Where to buy old Star Wars games
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Sources: GOG store page; Steam store page; PCGamingWiki; OpenXvT on GitHub.