Tribes license roars back with vengeance. Is anyone listening?
User Rating: 7.1 | Tribes: Vengeance PC
The Tribes license has been in hiatus for a while now, but Irrational Games has released a new game under its name after two and a half years of development. Is this game worthy of such a legacy founded by the game, which innovations are now virtually adopted by many other modern shooters? Read on to find out. I have not played any of the previous Tribes games. Of course, that was before I downloaded freely distributed Starsiege: Tribes available from Gamespot to see what possible difference the game has to offer in the saturated FPS genre. Aside from being refreshingly rooted in sci-fi elements (looked like what Planetside would've looked six years ago), the game featured an amazing amount of depth from how one has to purchase items from dispensers, how the vehicles are driven in first person perspective, how the jetpacks have this incredible amount of learning curve, and more. I realized that the game had successfully implemented many of the features that are to be embraced many years later by other developers in trying to bring something different to the FPS genre. For Tribes: Vengeance, there is no such advantage since almost every FPS released incorporates some elements introduced by its forefather, whether it be vehicles, expansive terrain, multiplayer-exclusive gameplay. Irrational Games had to really emphasize the strengths of the series and add something new to the conventional mix of gameplay to make the game stand out. And in my opinion, they just did that, in terms of adding a solid single-player component, tweaking the gameplay so as to appeal to newcomers as well as veterans of the series, and still retaining the conventions of the license that many gamers hold dear. The main gameplay element evolves primarily around the jetpack, which lets you fly and opens another dimension of movement. Amazingly, the physics of it seems as accurate as what one would expect from flying with a back mounted levitation device. Furthermore, one is able to ski for some stretch of time, with greater velocity, more if the landing is at 45 degrees to the slope of the ground. Then you can launch yourself further on your way up the other slope! It is rather unfortunate that one cannot change directions while skiing though. One of the cool touches are when a player dies in the air, his jetpack still operates for some time, bouncing the lifeless body realistically along the ground, skipping and skidding with afterburners of the jetpack drawing a red spiral across the sky. Cool stuff. There are three main classes to choose from, from light armour to heavy armour, with corresponding batch of weapons (one exclusive weapon in each class) and packs that comprise the whole load out one can select as part of their 'profile'. Each class serves its defined role, although that may not be apparent at first. Certain class thrives in certain tasks, and the highest level of definition for the tasks is either offensive or defensive. Every player can find that one role that he or she prefers above all else. The weapons are adopted from the previous series as well as new additions. They seem well balanced and accompanied with impressive sound effects. Some of the multiplayer favourites are spinfusor, an equivalent of single volley rocket launcher, chain gun, which provides with continuous fire but heats up, and grenade launcher, complete with bouncing grenades. The packs consist of repair pack, shield pack, energy pack, and speed pack, with obvious bonuses more suited to one particular armour type than the other, but could mean the difference between life and death. In multiplayer, there are also deployable turrets, deployable stations, and other amenities to lend the game a bit of tactical depth. There are four vehicles in the game, two ground bound and two airborne units. They take some time getting used to, especially for ground units that display a bit of exaggerated physics. However if they are used properly, they would be force to be reckon with. One of the ground units also serve as a mobile spawn point, making its role very important in situations where support is needed on the far side of the map from the permanent spawn point. The multiplayer game can get considerably fast, and sometimes for newcomers it can be quite confusing, never mind daunting, with trying to manoeuvre with jetpack alone. That is where the single player comes in. It is essentially an extended tutorial session, and with moves to learn and weapons to familiarize in this rather complex game, it seems only reasonable that the tutorial should have been accordingly planned and extensive. Irrational Games hit right on the mark by not only providing an intuitive tutorial content, but wrapping it up nicely with an interesting story with a vast cast of characters that are developed nicely along with good references to the whole Tribes universe. The story centers on not one, but several characters involved, many of which you take control and learn to familiarize yourself with subtle differences attributed to each. It sometimes can get disorientating as it jumps back and forth chronologically, but the developer should be lauded in making one of the most elaborate and entertaining tutorial component ever seen in a genre where 'jumping into the foray' without any guide has been the norm for many gamers turned off by mundane excuse of tutorial. There are a few problems with multiplayer. First, many complain of the fact that the spawn point can be easily overwhelmed with no protection offered for the respawned. Second, there are some sentiments that the maps are rather too small and with judicious amount of skiing and flying one would be able to traverse the entire length of the map under ten seconds, decreasing the usefulness of the vehicles. And there are only eleven maps or so, which are paltry compared to other multiplayer bound shooters and can potentially decrease its value in the long run were it not for the modders and the community support (of which, fortunately, is quite strong). Lastly, there are not enough people playing the game, yet. Come on guys, stop playing the demo and join players online with retail. :D Graphics are brought by what is a modified Unreal Tournament engine, and it is quite superb in rendering expansive stretches of land and detailed foliages in many maps. Overall, the graphics presented in the game are quite pleasant, with pixel shader 2.0 supported and bump mapping enabled. The design for the updated player models is rather nice, with different models exclusive to each faction involved in the game (Phoenix, Blood Eagle, Imperial as I recall). However, they are nothing that people haven't seen before in other sci-fi shows and various anime series. It is quite amusing to note that the game is run best with ATi hardware; looks like that all Vivendi Universal games would have that moniker from now on. The engine can be quite scaleable, as my low end machine (1.4 GHz with Radeon 9500 pro) can run the game with few slowdowns at 800x600 with medium settings. Many people attest to the increased memory, around one gigabyte of them, could prove to be a big difference in loading times and even performance. Be sure to turn on the fog distance setting to high, though, since it is imperative to field a good viewing distance as the action can evolve from quite large distances. Sound is quite good also. It does not get in the way of what is happening on screen, but sometimes in single player one can sense the impending danger due to the dynamic change cues that the soundtrack undergoes from its more ambient version. Cool stuff. The voice acting isn't too bad, but they tend to veer into abetting already stereotypical characters defined by headstrong princess character, all-around good compassionate guy, aloof noble, etc. The weapon sounds are good, and you would know you are in for the world of hurt when you hear that high shrieking mortar sounds coming your way courtesy of well implemented 3D surround sound. As for value, the single player would take you anywhere between 15 to 20 hours. The multiplayer consists of different game types, some more interesting variations including Fuel, where the goal is to gather fuel rods to be collected to each team's depot, Ball, which provides a ball and a goal to throw the ball into for scoring, and Rabbit, the goal that involves keeping away a flag. The only drawback is the limited amount of maps as previously mentioned, and the number of people rather reluctant to try out these game types aside from the tried and true Capture the Flag. I think as time goes, more community released maps would tailor to each game types and that more people would be willing to try the kind of entertainment that each mode offers. All in all, Tribes: Vengeance, is a game that has no glaring fault in any of the areas that it touches upon. It has a solid single player, equally fun multiplayer, with a lot of room to grow and still capturing the quintessential freedom of movement that is the hallmark of the Tribes series. Irrational Games tightened up the gameplay and reached a good balance between high strung action fest and a need for a coordinated teamwork to be truly successful at the game. The learning curve of the game may be a bit higher than other conventional shooters, but if the part of the fun playing the game is definitely learning its various quirks and features, how couldn't one help but not be impressed? One more thing: don't be fooled by rather boring box cover. *update (March 30, 2005): VUG has ceased all support of the game as of March 23, 2005. The patch that was slated to be released including addition of maps and punkbuster support was cancelled. I've adjusted the scoring of the game to reflect my genuine disappointment in this recent turn of events. The rather abysmal sales figure (NPD data tracks 43,000 units only moved) could've figured into this decision.
