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.
Hi-Res has spent months poring over the original games, talking to the original developers, and taking notes from the community. You can ski like a master within minutes, but perfecting your routes, jumps and jetpack tactics are still the aim of the game. Almost every single part of the experience has been tweaked and improved, classes reborn and expanded, maps detailed and sprawling. Tribes: Ascend is the most pure representation of the Tribes experience since Tribes 2 perfected it back in 2001. It wasn’t long after this point that my head exploded. 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. 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. Things weren’t looking good for a revival. 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.
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. Tribes, to the dismay of thousands, was dead. 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. What Vengeance lacked was the tactical functions, speed and tight precise controls that made its predecessors so popular. Significant hype was ploughed into its sequel, which released three years later to a relatively soft critical and commercial reception. 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. 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. 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.
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