Tribes Vengeance is a sequel, being preceded by Tribes 2, and the original Starsiege: Tribes. Most sequels get penalized for staying the same. Tribes 2 got penalized for doing somewhere different. Thus Tribes:Vengeance is almost a throwback to the original Tribes game. But wow it looks so much better! The Unreal engine is beautiful with its ample metallic sheens, foliage, and poly-rich environments.You may not think it looks better than Doom 3, but...how good would Doom3 look if the lights were on? When I'm standing in a pitch black closet, I can't complain about the decor. Most players today are more familiar with Battlefield 1942. Pretty much everything that makes that game fun was pioneered by Tribes: Wide open battlefields. Seamless indoor/outdoor fighting. And of course, vehicles. They started with the first Tribes, got bigger and more central in Tribes 2, and return in Tribes Vengeance...although this time, it's not the only game in town that does them. Nor does it do them the best. It still gets the job done with some very nice vehicles that look like they might have been prototype designs for the movie Aliens. Now for a quick breakdown on new and old stuff: - Vehicles are now spawned instead of summoned on demand - There is a grapple gun - Maps now have impenetrable play boundaries, which you cannot pass - Skiing is a much more refined experience - some changes in the weapons The vehicle spawning does not create a bad camping problem, as the vehicles are not overly powerful. The enemy can be at your doorstep without a vehicle in moments, so waiting for a vehicle is just as quick or quicker way to die than rushing into the battle. The grapple gun is what really differentiates this game from older Tribes games. In great Tribes tradition, this is a gun that will respond very well to nuanced use. Expect to see people do amazing maneuvers with it. Both on purpose and by accident. Some things you won't find: - built in community features - the large sense of scale from Tribes2 is gone; it's more Tribes1-like now - the targeting laser The built-in community will not be missed. It was an interesting experiment that turned out to be a cumbersome interface that did not compete nor sit well with communities that already existed on fan sites. The sense of scale is disappointing, but it's replaced with something just as good if not better: a fast-paced, in your face team battle. The missing targeting laser, on the other hand, is a travesty, and penalizes the game a half of a point. In the end, I don't want to blab too much, yet I can't say enough. There's a lot to this game, and if you don't see it, give it another look. Maybe watch some other players. The jetpack and weapon physics to this game put it on a whole different level than the typical shooter. There is a lot to learn, the curve for getting proficient at this game is much steeper than most, but the rewards pay off even more handsomely. Fortunately, Tribes Vengeance also marks the first time the series has offered a fun way to actually learn how to play it...and that would be the excellent single player campaign, with its fun and excellent missions (although slightly less than excellent cut-scene body-movement articulation). That's fun stuff, and it really goes a long way to introducing Tribes newbies to the controls and how to play--but in a fun action packed way. There are no pedantic tutorials here.. This is the second (maybe third time) that single player was promised, but the first time it was actually delivered. We are blessed.
Tribes Vengence is a good game in its own right, but it is not TRIBES. The game plays more like Unreal with spinfusers (Very nice looking spinfusers mind you) and jet packs. This game is one of the best looking games... Read Full Review
The addition of the single player campaign really added a nice touch to the franchise, and the story it involved was pretty decent, if not something taken straight from Quinton Tarrentino's book. To be honest, the singl... Read Full Review
