Tribes has been reborn from the ashes.
One thing that immediately sets Tribes: Vengeance apart from its predecessors is the inclusion of a full single-player campaign. It's filled with the characters, plot twists, cutscenes, and scripted events that you'd expect from any good single-player shooter, and it serves double-duty as an extended tutorial. The irony is that such help isn't as vital now as it was in the previous, more complex games.
The story follows the intertwined fates of a royal family and the proud outcast tribesmen who give the series its name. It's a tale of love and vengeance, closed minds and opened eyes. It may seem a bit clich¿d and juvenile at times, but it stays interesting by letting you play as various main characters -- even a villain -- at different points in the timeline. It's also nice to see the Tribes universe used to good effect instead of being employed solely as empty window dressing, as in the first two games.
The single-player campaign offers tons of exciting action in varied settings. You'll fight indoors and out, man turrets, pilot vehicles, defend a base, confront a jumping puzzle or two, crawl through vents (well, we didn't need that), and more. Unfortunately, the missions are hurt by horribly long load times and some bugs and balance issues. The missions can seem a bit old-fashioned, too, but in the positive sense of relying on proven ideas and finely polishing them instead of trying to be novel for the sake of it.