While many gamers will point to games like Quake, Unreal or Half-Life as prime catalysts for their current FPS obsession, many others will point at Dynamix 1998 classic Starsiege: Tribes for priming their competitive gaming beginning. One of the more revolutionary games of the day, Tribes (along with DICE’s debut: Codename Eagle) introduced the sprawling team-based shooter, complete with enormous maps, dynamic play and, of course, jetpacks.
Tribes 2 is still considered to this day to be one of the best examples of how to develop a large-scale battle, being the first title to allow for a whopping 128 simultaneous players (still uncommon over 10 years later) extensive modification and hands down delivering some of the best maps of any multiplayer sandbox FPS. Significant hype was ploughed into its sequel, which released three years later to a relatively soft critical and commercial reception.
What Vengeance lacked was the tactical functions, speed and tight precise controls that made its predecessors so popular. With a simpler, more conventional playstyle, traditional tribesmen deserted the game in droves, effectively pushing the series into obscurity as the rising tide of Battlefield and Call of Duty swept in to pick up the pieces. Tribes, to the dismay of thousands, was dead.
So when Hi-Rez Studios, the up and coming developer of a reasonably popular F2P title called Global Agenda, announced they had taken over the IP, many were naturally skeptical. While GA contained a lot of elements that had been obviously influenced by Tribes, including jetpacks, chunky weapons and fast-paced play, it fell short on almost every other level. Things weren’t looking good for a revival.
I was lucky enough to be invited to the early stages of a closed beta for Tribes: Ascend, my confidence boosted prior thanks to some amazing gameplay videos that had been released by the developer. After a long and grueling patch process, I rushed my way through the menus and found, excitedly, that Hi-Rez had Australian servers ready to go, in a beta no-less. It wasn’t long after this point that my head exploded.
Tribes: Ascend is the most pure representation of the Tribes experience since Tribes 2 perfected it back in 2001. Almost every single part of the experience has been tweaked and improved, classes reborn and expanded, maps detailed and sprawling. You can ski like a master within minutes, but perfecting your routes, jumps and jetpack tactics are still the aim of the game.
Hi-Res has spent months poring over the original games, talking to the original developers, and taking notes from the community. It shows. Almost everything, from that noise your spinfusor makes when you launch a disc, to the “SHAZBOT!” people yell in anguish once they lose a match, is all there. All of this would be unbelievable in a conventional title, but it’s the fact that T:A is free that propels this into easily one of the best games launched this year.
But enough dry humping. Tribes: Ascend is not just a remake of a classic, it’s an evolution in every sense of the word. Instead of stripping out and changing what made the original so much fun, the developers have built and improved on things, such as providing completely customisable classes through unlockable weapons, perks and upgrades. Credits earned during a match can be used to drop an aerial strike on top of your enemy, or a mobile inventory kiosk for your teammates.
But one thing that hasn’t changed is the speed. Ascend is one of the fastest games you will ever play, where it’s not unheard of to clock over 200km/hr as you make a calculated dive past turrets to punch through the open flag point, prompting your opponents to start racing behind you at similar speeds. Clever combinations of slope manipulation and jetpack utilisation can be the key between ending up like meatloaf or capping a well earned point for your team.
Playing Ascend reminds you of the days when pinpoint accuracy and anticipating movements trumped spray and pray. The emphasis on aerial combat requires a keen eye and cat like reflexes, as demonstrated in some of the videos on YouTube, where players slit throats during a midair pass, or pass the flag while evading a pursuer. It’s good, then, that the game flows at a tight 60fps and your success is linked entirely to your skill-set, equipment, and ping.
Many thought the introduction of a F2P monetisation system would ruin the game, but thankfully, it doesn’t. Progression through the classes and weapon pickups can be expedited with a few dollars, but upgrades to equipment can only be made with experience points accumulated during play. As a result, the edge you are provided by getting quick access to weaponry depends entirely on your ability to use it. Let’s just say that most new players don’t tend to have that advantage.
It’s a testament to the understanding of how a competitive FPS is played that the system is in no way pay-to-win. Experienced “free” players can still wipe the floor with their hard-earned gear, but lobbing the developers $10 will give you an EXP boost that makes progression a lot easier. It’s the first time, after playing many F2P titles, that I’ve felt a game deserved payment, since it never forced or coerced me to do so.
The game is still a work in progress, and I think Hi-Res pushed for an early launch to grow its player-base. Quite a lot is still unavailable, such as full access to custom and ranked servers, a couple of game modes and some of the equipment. There are a few niggling bugs in the menus and the UI could use a little more tweaking. But that’s really just nitpicking, since the pace of updates are almost daily, and new content has been added every couple of weeks.
If you have ever played Tribes, then you need to stop reading right now and download this game. There is no other argument that I, or anyone else for that matter, could make that should prevent you from playing this masterpiece. For everyone else, especially those looking for something different, you also have no excuses. Not only is this game free, but it has local servers, varied and challenging classes, fun maps and a reasonable learning curve.
Welcome back you grizzled, old, amazing bastard.
Posted 03:11pm 18/4/12
Posted 03:19pm 18/4/12
I should probably point out that I didn't play the original tribes much either.
last edited by Tollaz0r! at 15:19:55 18/Apr/12
Posted 03:57pm 18/4/12
Posted 04:11pm 18/4/12
Try playing on a server with people on it then.
F*** I'm funny.
Posted 04:22pm 18/4/12
Posted 04:25pm 18/4/12
I was heavily addicted to the first one back in '98, s*** was epic
I did grab the beta for this one and pre-purchased it for $29 or whatever that deal was, but I haven't played it much since so I dunno
hard to believe any game can get a perfect 10, there would be something wrong with it
does it have a dedicated server executable? if not that is instant -5 points
Posted 04:27pm 18/4/12
Posted 04:32pm 18/4/12
look at bf3, you've gotta pay money to get your own
I have a shipload of bandwidth at my disposal in Brisbane, I could have easily thrown up a few 64 player servers which would have only made the BF3 community better, but no, I can't because they don't want anyone running servers
my conspiracy theory on this is that they want the game to die in a not-so-distant future, so they can sell bf4.
if bf3 was still being played in 10+ years like counter-strike, they'd have a lot more trouble selling the latest game every 12 months.
Posted 05:22pm 18/4/12
Gonna give Tribes a shot tonight. How large/long does the client take to download?
Posted 05:24pm 18/4/12
Edit by Eorl - No referral links please.
last edited by Eorl at 18:29:19 18/Apr/12
Posted 06:06pm 18/4/12
Posted 06:10pm 18/4/12
Posted 06:13pm 18/4/12
I'm not trying to s*** on you, but seriously as if you could be bothered maintaining said servers when there is barely any beneficial gain anymore? Local dedicated servers in Brisbane were ideal back in the days of s*** network code and dialup... now with phat bandwidth pipes etc I hardly see the need to worry about all that s*** anymore.
They provide lag free, hassle free, cheat free, servers and I am definitely not going to whinge about that.
Posted 06:16pm 18/4/12
This does not deserve a 10.
-It doesn't have proper dedicated private servers (all run through Hi-Rez) so you can't set up your own rules at the moment.
-It doesn't have a decent tournament mode (even though they're going for the E-Sports angle).
-It doesn't have in-game demoing (you need to run Fraps etc).
-The balance is still off and doesn't work for pub or comp play (snipers and shrikes dominate and there is no reason to kill them as they re-spawn in the same spot 4 seconds later).
-The game is still buggy and the servers crash often (especially PUG and custom servers).
-There aren't enough maps, and all of the maps are similar size except for one.
-There is no public map-making tool.
-The CTF tutorial isn't comprehensive enough so new players (beside being absolutely slaughtered) often do the wrong thing and piss off the whole team while not understanding why.
Still, if they get the server and map-making issues sorted, I can see myself playing this for many years to come, and I only spent $15.
Posted 06:27pm 18/4/12
Posted 06:53pm 18/4/12
Posted 07:04pm 18/4/12
Posted 11:13pm 18/4/12
Posted 12:19am 19/4/12
If you prefer a slow paced game you will struggle. But if you dont mind fast paced games with jetpacks its pretty damn fun.
Agreed. I had tonnes of fun just camping about 20m behind our flag on one of the maps and moving to defend against incoming people after the flag/generator. And with a steady stream of enemies coming, it wasnt boring at all.
The TDM with carry the flag was kinda lame though. 1 dude grabs the flag, a few defend him, a few chase after him and the rest just clusterf*** in the middle ignoring the flag.
I should play more tomorrow.
Posted 02:37am 19/4/12
I'm a network admin for an ISP, hence heaps of bandwidth available
I was given a task of setting up game servers and making them quota-free for our customers, but that is not possible with a great many games these days
Posted 07:07am 19/4/12
Posted 08:56am 19/4/12
I easily changed to my ESDF layout although there are more surrounding buttons than normal and im still trying to figure out whats more important to have close by.
Posted 09:22am 19/4/12
But what really annoyed me was how one second I'd be aiming a Spinfusor and the next I'd get a close-up of Red teams snatch.
Worse was the external camera keybind that was in the way all the time.
Posted 09:31am 19/4/12
Posted 09:43am 19/4/12
Your point is totally valid though - most end users simply don't care about not having dedicated servers. The vast majority of noobs out there just want to click play and have it, well, play. But if you care about having games that are accessible for as long as YOU want and under circumstances you can have some control over, you need to be aware that a closed server model is simply another form of DRM that they can wield against you.
Posted 10:10am 19/4/12
Posted 10:50am 19/4/12
I find SDFC little bit too far away from shift and ctrl. WASD makes Q,E,TAB,Shift,Ctrl and what not all easily accessible imo. your middle finger is longer anyway so you're not exactly "extending" it. each to the own...thank god for key binding
played a bit last night. pretty fun but don't know about 10/10. Once I get playing a bit and get used to the game i think i'll have a lot more fun. It is nice to have a jump in and kill game again.
Posted 11:07am 19/4/12
Probably one of my favourite things about it as well. It feels really really good too. Just need to nerf all the classes except for Pathfinder ;P
Posted 06:41pm 19/4/12
Posted 09:24pm 19/4/12
There is no way this deserves 10/10 they have dumbed it down way to far, other than grav bike vehicles are useless, no mobile point bases, no bomber, no target painter, no controllable turrets, no remote sensors, no barrels on turrets, no motion sensors.
Posted 10:01pm 19/4/12
haha you would have seen some wicked skiing bra :P god i was terrible.
Posted 10:10pm 19/4/12
Posted 10:12pm 19/4/12
Posted 10:14pm 19/4/12
a game doesn't need to be perfect to score a 10.
Posted 12:20am 20/4/12
I honestly think reviews need to go back to what they used to be, too much politics these days to give good reviews even if the game is s***.
Posted 12:29am 20/4/12
Just because it's free doesn't mean it's a perfect game. Just because we're not admitting it's perfect doesn't mean we're QQing. Besides, qqing is a term from the 90's. Grow up.
Secondly to raider; also you should grow up. If you want to run your own review system, start a blog. You might have defined 100% as some kind of unobtainable theory placeholder, but the truth is that isn't how Ausgamers decides things. Stop trying to compare how some run their far more successful business than your bellyaching.
If your reviews were vs ausgamers reviews; i'd have to give them a 10 because in comparison to yours, it's from god.
Edits as i couldn't write coherently.
Posted 12:26am 20/4/12
Maybe in your mind it is, unfortunately the reality disagrees with you. Its not like the game is trying to pass a test and its scoring points for getting answers right or something. Its just a rating that indicates the quality of the game, same way that you can have a five star motel or a three hat restaurant.
Posted 07:52am 20/4/12
Posted 08:54am 20/4/12
Posted 03:30pm 20/4/12
Posted 08:38pm 20/4/12
Nerd weekend this weekend - dota2 and tribes
Posted 09:17pm 20/4/12
Posted 09:25pm 20/4/12
Posted 09:42pm 20/4/12
You are everything wrong with everything ever.
Posted 09:47pm 20/4/12
Posted 11:35pm 20/4/12
Posted 11:43pm 20/4/12
Personally, id prefer an invulnerable generator option for servers so that the game would just be a simple CTF with jet packs but i know there are the hardcore tribes fans who love the tactics of structure destruction.
I havent even moved past the initial light armour dude. Having fun upgrading his s*** to better pwn people trying to steal the flag.
Posted 05:43am 23/4/12
So like the original Tribes its way old school! My username is Viper119 if any peeps want to jam.
Posted 07:35am 23/4/12
Oh ps people should add me to their freinds list, i'm either "Casa" or "casacains" can never remember which one.
Posted 07:56am 23/4/12
Posted 01:05am 24/4/12
Posted 08:45am 24/4/12
Of course, this is 100% the exact opposite thing to do if you want to make money from your games over a long time period, as the freemium industry has demonstrated - it generates all that cash and results in massive revenue increases by keeping players interested enough to keep playing to the point that they are prepared to dump money into the game to enhance the ecosystem for them in various ways (like.... hats?).
last edited by trog at 08:45:48 24/Apr/12
Posted 10:05am 24/4/12
Posted 09:06pm 25/4/12
There's nothing like getting you and a mate to singlehandedly decimate the enemy team. Like flying at 200km/h and grabbing the flag MILLISECONDS after your mate did an orbital bombardment.
There's so many skillshots in this game that will make you jizz. 10/10 will probably be spending some $$ on this
Posted 10:08pm 25/4/12
I also like how they made skiing a button feature, rather then the old school repeat jumping.
I do hope they fix some of the minor buggyness in future updates. It'd also be good if they reverted to a bit more traditional Tribes-esque stuff in relation to the vehicles and inventory/class management.
Does anyone know if there's visibility of their development roadmap for stuff like the above?
Best fun I've had playing online multiplayer in years!
Posted 09:51am 26/4/12
The biggest mistake I made was not paying for a booster before staring playing. The unlocks are the biggest pain in the ass in this game - I haven't yet accumulated enough XP to unlock the raider.
However I've spent a bit of XP upgrading the Pathfinder (35%), which I have to say makes a massive difference to your survival; when you're playing at the pointy end of the rankings on a public server, an extra shotgun shot in a clip makes all the difference; 4% regen makes the difference between a 228km/h ski and a 245km/h ski (or it could just be me getting better at it, but I'm not convinced that's it).
One thing I haven't quite nailed yet is how lag and latency affect hit zones. Ie server vs client calculated. An ITTS mod would be awesome, though maybe cheating a little (lot), but my accuracy is getting back up there after what, 7+ (?)* years of having never played an FPS outside Portal.
Is buying the 49.99 gold pack enough to unlock everything?
That seems to be roughly the equivalent of buying an off-the-shelf game.
* = Note that no, this is not a regular expression.
Posted 10:38am 26/4/12
how to spend your xp/gold
Don't unlock any classes or perks with gold, use xp.
Don't unlock Sentinel if you don't like sniping
Go to target practice to try out all weapons before unlocking them.
last edited by focal at 10:38:17 26/Apr/12
Posted 12:26pm 26/4/12
I had issue with that. A few times i flew head on @ an enemy and fired shotgun @ near point blank range and found hitting was difficult. Not sure if i have to aim ahead to take lag into consideration.
Nailing a spinfusor long range shot on the enemy flag carrier is still awesome though although i had a dude raging that it was the noob tube of the game. WTF.
Posted 11:10am 01/5/12