Tribes: Vengeance Updated Q&A - The Characters of Tribes: Vengeance

The Tribes series arguably helped define team-based shooters. While many first-person shooters put a weapon in your hand and let you run through environments so that you can shoot at anything hostile, team-based shooters emphasize teamwork and coordination in the accomplishment of goals, such as those of capturing enemy flags or seizing and holding important territories. Starsiege: Tribes was one of the first games to place heavy emphasis on teamwork, and its innovative gameplay, which involved playing as one of three different kinds of futuristic soldiers (armed with a jetpack for limited flight), earned a loyal fan following that still plays the game to this day. However, Vivendi Universal Games and members of the original Tribes team, along with Irrational Games, are now hard at work on the next game in the series, Tribes: Vengeance.

While the previous Tribes games focused solely on online multiplayer play, the new game will actually have a complex single-player story that chronicles a power struggle between three major factions of soldiers: the Imperials, the Blood Eagles, and the Phoenix. Interestingly, the single-player game will switch between different characters in different points in time. So in one mission, for example, you may play one character as an adult, and then you'll flash back to another sequence to play that character as a child. Then you'll switch to an entirely new character. This narrative method will switch you between characters that use different types of armor and weapons, so it should familiarize you enough with the game to prepare you for multiplayer. However, it's also intended to bring you closer to each character, rather than having you play as only one character and then meeting up with the others just a few times. Producer Chris Mahnken reveals Tribes: Vengeance's cast of characters for the first time in this updated interview.

GameSpot: Thanks for sitting down with us, Chris. Could you tell us about the major characters of Tribes: Vengeance? Which ones will you be able to play as?

Chris Mahnken: We have 10 new characters to reveal.

General Albrecht has trained Julia from a young age and keeps her out of trouble as much as is possible. His position in the empire's military is vague, as he is actually a mercenary, but he frequently joins Julia on missions and has been chief advisor to the Empire for many years.

Daniel is the popular "political" leader of the Phoenix. He's a good fighter, if a bit brash. He wants better things for his tribe, and he's willing to take what he sees as reasonable risks to attain them. You will be able to play as Daniel.

Esther is the religious leader of the Phoenix. She is both their soul and their conscience. Like all Phoenix, she can fight if the need arises, but she would rather think her way out of a problem, if possible.

Julia is heir to the Imperial throne and is fully trained in the arts of combat. She is driven by her own inner demons to defeat the various tribal factions. She is also the number one player in the coliseum battle-sports that are played within the empire. You will be able to play as Julia (both as an adult and at the age of five).

General Jericho is the military leader of the Phoenix. He's not interested in politics or religion. He sees both the Empire and the Blood Eagle tribe as grave threats to the safety of the Phoenix, and he will do anything to protect his people from these threats. He is the older brother of Daniel. You will be able to play as Jericho.

Mercury is an assassin. You will be able play as Mercury.

Olivia is the oldest daughter of the emperor. She was gravely injured as a child and has some illegal cybernetic implants that were used to save her life. As a result, she was removed from the chain of succession. She advises her father well and later performs the same role for her sister, Victoria, and her niece, Julia.

Seti is a Blood Eagle warlord. He liked to pull the wings off of bugs as a child.

Tiberius is the emperor. He is very formal and is a good businessman, but he's not a military leader. Under his reign, the economy runs well for the empire (and poorly for the tribes), and political intrigue runs rampant.

Princess Victoria is the youngest daughter of the emperor and is heir to the throne. She is a bit spoiled but is very bright. You will be able to play as Victoria.

Playing Different Characters

GS: Could you explain how the main characters will be developed over the course of the story, and how will they change? How will the game's narrative structure, which switches between different characters and different time periods, further develop the characters?

CM: It's difficult to give an example from the game without giving away too much of the plot. Imagine a scene in a movie where the main character in the scene is in a bar with her boyfriend. He goes over to a booth to talk to somebody, and the guy he's talking to shoots him under the table. Your vision of this scene [might initially be] that the guy who shot the boyfriend is probably scum. However, when we saw this same scene from Han Solo's point of view, we were just watching a cool smuggler as he protected himself from Greedo.

The viewer's perception of a situation depends entirely on the orientation from which it is seen. Since we're showing you our characters from different viewpoints, you will see them in a different light.

GS: We understand that Irrational is attempting to flesh out the game's story to make the characters seem like actual individuals (rather than just different-looking character models)--by even changing their innate abilities and movement speeds? How will each of the characters play differently? Different speeds, control schemes, jetpack properties, weapon handling?

CM: Each character has his or her own preferred selection of weapons, armor, and other equipment. Going head-to-head with enemy army while playing a character who has light armor won't get you very far, so you'll have to fit your strategies to the equipment you have. Of course, this leads to a very different feel for each character.

GS: We've also heard that Tribes: Vengeance's characters will be made distinct with professional voice acting. Who are some of the actors, and why were they chosen? What do they bring to the table in terms of making the game's characters come to life?

CM: Most games are using good voice actors from Hollywood these days. The difference between high-quality Hollywood actors and the actors used in games 10 years ago is like night and day. A few of the actors we have for Tribes Vengeance are Gabriel Olds as Daniel; Steve Blum as Jericho; Tara Strong as Julia; Ellen Crawford as Olivia; and my favorite voice in the game, Nika Futterman as Esther.

GS: Without spoiling too much, how much freedom will players have to make significant choices with the characters and their destinies in the game? What kind of far-reaching consequences can we expect to see from the main characters' actions that may affect the different tribes--or perhaps the entire Tribes universe and its history--in a larger sense?

CM: With the type of narrative we're using for Tribes, it's simply not possible to give players the ability to affect the outcome of the story. That said, players will be able to achieve their objectives within the story in any way they see fit.

GS: When we last checked in, the team was spending a great deal of time polishing up levels and working on the game's audio. What's the team focusing on now? How far along is the game at this point?

CM: The artists and level designers are probably going to be polishing levels until we pry them from their hands. Right now, we're working out fine-tuning on some of the new vehicles and also on some of the new multiplayer game types. The art staff has produced some alternate skins for some of the different armor types, including a ninja variant of the Blood Eagle light, which you'll have to wait a bit to see.

GS: Interesting. Thanks Chris.