Tribes Vengeance Review

If one can remember back to 1992, a software company named Dynamix released a game for the personal computer called Stellar 7. This tank-based action-sim was the start of what would one day be known as Tribes. Now, for most of us gaming today, Tribes truly began with the 1998 release of Starsiege Tribes (for reasons of sanity we will skip any mention of Earthsiege). Starsiege Tribes was a fairly successful and ultimately very ambitious and groundbreaking project as it was essentially designed for online play.

After Starsiege Tribes came the follow up, Tribes 2, which stormed onto the PC back in 2001. Though a resource hog, it would later become the standard Tribes setup, as well as bring the term “ski” to the gaming community. This game was much more popular among hardcore PC gamers and featured a rabidly loyal community of fans/fanatics.

"UT2k4 beat it out of the gate by nearly one year, which is more like five in the minds of gamers."

When Dynamix closed their doors for good, many feared that the Tribes franchise was gone forever, but the folks at Vivendi Universal weren’t ready to give up on the franchise, leaving it in the hands of Irrational Games, highly regarded for their games Freedom Force and the classic, System Shock. So the question soon to come was, could the Tribes formula and community continue to make for a great game in this modern UT2k4 and Battlefield 1942 dominated online warfare genre? Despite Tribes being one of the forefathers of the MMO FPS games, it would certainly face very stiff competition as UT2k4 beat it out of the gate by nearly one year, which is more like five in the minds of gamers.

One thing different about this game is the inclusion of a single player campaign. While some may argue that even games like UT2k4 have single player components, I am talking about a dedicated, story-driven, first player experience which, by itself, would be fun to play with or without an online component.

This game follows the adventures of Imperial Princess Victoria and her daughter, Julia. The story unfolds from multiple perspectives, from the mother to the daughter, to members of the Phoenix Tribes, and even an assassin robot. All of these focus shifts serve to tell a compelling story of revenge and freedom.

One might ask why I am reviewing a game which was on store shelves back in October of last year. The answer is much simpler than I am simply very lazy to get to the games I have slated for review. The reality is, when Tribes: Vengeance was released, we were already full on into Doom 3 and chomping at the bit for Half-life 2 and, in some cases, already playing CS: Source. If Tribes had come to the store shelves back in July or even around September it may have received more of a reaction, but in the end they suffered from bad release timing, something which plagues movie companies as well. As a result this game was passed over by way too many people. A game which warrants recognition and now, four months after its release, we will hopefully give the game some of its deserved attention.This is without a doubt a hard game that you’ll likely get very frustrated with when you first start playing. Many of the maneuvers you are forced to learn can be difficult and time consuming. Online play will likely consist of you getting served on a daily basis by other players. This is where the single player campaign becomes a true gem. Every enemy you fight in single player mode is basically a bot. Unlike your normal cannon fodder in FPS games, these enemies will come after you, often very aggressively. Many enemies will stalk you and fire at you using the techniques that good tribes players use, including staying in the air as much as possible and trying to hit you with splash damage.

Gameplay
While I could just state that this game play as any FPS game does, WSAD etc - that would be understating things drastically. Tribes: Vengeance is all about the gameplay, from start to finish. Failure to master these controls will leave gamers frustrated on both the single player and multiplayer sides of the game. Be warned that this game will require you to learn and develop skills or you’ll end up playing the same stages over and over again.

 

"Everything in this game eventually deals with you and the jetpack."

The first major area of note in this game is the use of the jetpack. Everything in this game eventually deals with you and the jetpack. Holding down the right mouse button is all that is required to activate the jetpack, if only it were that easy. Each of the different character types, light, medium, and of course heavy, have different amounts of thrust that can be used in your pack. Run out of juice and down you go, the higher you are the harder you hit, although one of the special packs you can equip will give your jetpack an added boost. Simple flying and navigation are very easy to learn, though when you incorporate combat with the flying, things become a tad more involved, especially when one considers that most of your enemies also have a jetpack of their own.games is that it is not for t

This game also features a variety of vehicles which you will be forced to use in single player mode, but which can definitely make an impact in online games. Vehicles range from your standard rover, a dune-buggy like vehicle which also functions as a spawn point, the jump tank, the fighter pod, and the assault fighter. My personal favorite vehicle is the fighter pod, a slightly cheap but heavily maneuverable craft which can be used via a grappling hook to transport troops to flags or just harass enemy soldiers from above. The vehicles were designed and balanced such that though powerful, many players can handily destroy them with their basic weapons, requiring you to quickly learn the strengths and weaknesses of the vehicles and decide if they are worth committing to outside of use around the base.

Combat becomes both a game of angles and of weapon swapping when it comes to air combat. You must learn to time your flights to maximum efficiency, and learn to gauge your opponents’ flight as well, as often the first one to land may get hit with a grenade or a Spinfusor disc. Learning to shoot and anticipate where your opponents will land is crucial to defeating them, whether you play offline or on. This game features some of your more standard weapons, the chain gun, the grenade launcher, the sniper rifle, even something very similar to a shotgun. There are a few unique weapons which deserve consideration, such as the flame cannon, a flammable device which fires normally but leaves a flame cloud, burning anything inside its radius of effect. A wonderful close-quarter’s weapon, the flame cannon can easily clear a corridor, yourself included, in a matter of seconds. I would be thoughtless if I didn’t mention the very versatile grappler. Functioning exactly how it sounds, the grappler can be used for such tasks as hanging from buildings, providing harassing fire, or attaching to enemy ships and providing easy opportunities to blow enemy fighters or assault ships away.

A unique feature of this game is the way in which your weapons can be used. The Spinfusor can be used to perform what is known as a disc jump, whereby you shoot straight into the ground providing a huge boost and then follow through with a full burn from your jets. This maneuver will save you more often than you think, but beware that this can cause major damage to your character. The Spinfusor can also be used to propel you forwards at great speeds, done by shooting the disc into the ground while facing backwards of where you want to go. When used with the ski ability, you can cross maps in a very short amount of time.

…"if you can make it through the single player game on either medium or hard, you will likely be ready to get online and play."

One thing I need to make clear to those who don’t know much about the

Fear not, though, for if you can make it through the single player game on either medium or hard, you will likely be ready to get online and play. There were portions of the single player game that I literally had to replay 30 or more times. Often without realizing it, the things you do in the single player mode have a direct bearing on things you will do in the online game, such as protecting your base, generator, and flag. One mission alone requires you to defend your base generator, the base control point itself, and four towers from wave after wave of enemies. This mission was by far the most difficult for me but taught me valuable techniques for taking on vehicles on foot.

The gameplay for this game is so tight that I found no major faults with it. I am a fan of games which require you to be - if not perfect - at least very good. I started out being barely able to kill another player and ended up scoring both on offense and defense online. This game merely demands that you respect it and come ready to play… and if you don’t, well, the other players will let you know how bad you are.

Finally, I must take a moment to mention how impressively set up the single player campaign was. The storyline jumped perspectives quite often, forcing you to learn to use the three armor settings and all of the vehicles in your missions. This allows you to be fully exposed to the game and the way it works without just being a UT2k4 where you go through all the various online modes fighting bots while learning how to play the game.

Graphics
For a game which uses a revved up version of the aging Unreal Engine, I am surprised to say that graphics are rather well-done. The game features some very well done cut-scene graphics as well. The character models are all fairly well done, even if they are overused in the single player.

I was very impressed by the level of detail that went into areas like the vehicles or the first person views which show different appearances of the same weapon based on your armor class; for instance, the weapons in heavy armor tend to be larger and look slightly off from the original, likely due to the way they would have to be mounted on the heavy armor in the first place.

"As in Star Wars, the prequels look better than the original."

The graphics for the weapons themselves and of course, being fired, are also very well done. From the tell-tale flash of an incoming Spin disc to the red beam which is the international symbol for ‘take cover, snipers afoot’, it is obvious that attention to such small graphical details was given. The flame cannon was also a very pretty weapon to use, especially given the way flames would fill up a corridor and even how they could temporarily catch your character on fire.

This game also features some of the best rag doll physical I have seen in some time, even when compared to UT2k4. It was impressive the way that certain weapons can send you flying back from the impact and the tight controls of the vehicles which often needed to be flipped back over as I learned that they were capable of turning on a dime. The physics for the jetpack and skiing are very well-done, improving upon those used in Tribes 2 exponentially. As in Star Wars, the prequels look better than the original.

While this game cannot begin to compare to Valve’s Source engine, it does bear some amount of praise. To be able to get such great graphics and physics included off of the Unreal Engine took some real craftsmanship and dedication.

Sound
The sound was one area I felt needed improvement, despite the initial patching. Often in the single player game, I would find sound effects going off in cut scenes for no reason, often drowning out the sounds of the characters speaking. If not for subtitles, I would not have been able to hear all of the game conversations, as at times I would lose speech all together.

All that aside, the game did feature decent voice acting which often went a long way towards advancing the plot and making for an enjoyable experience. I particularly liked the small Starcraft-esque window which appeared when NPCs contacted you, whether to be mocked or pointed in the right direction.

"Few will be looking for Tribes the Soundtrack."

The game music itself was decent, but not necessarily noteworthy and I am certain that few will be looking for Tribes the Soundtrack, a standard futuristic techno soundtrack which fit the game fairly well. If I hadn’t died so many times learning to play it I likely would have appreciated it more, but after 30 deaths or so and hearing the same song in the background it did get old.

The sound effects for the weapons themselves were also familiar, but appropriate. From the sharp sound of the sniper rifle to the whoosh of the Spinfusor, the sound effects for the weapons were all dead on and fit this type of game perfectly. Many times during the single player mode, I only proceeded into a room when I could determine the sound of what weapon was being fired at me and then developing my strategies accordingly. By this I am referring to the tell tale sounds of the Spinfusor and grenade launcher which both require different strategies, especially in close quarters.

Multiplayer
When this game was first announced, I, like many Tribes 2 gamers, was immediately wondering what the multiplayer component would be like. While this game does feature the industry standard FPS modes, it does feature a few newer ones.

Arena mode is your more standard deathmatch game with a slight twist: once you die you are done. Arena combat is often done by rounds and it can truly test the ability of the gamer as you get few second chances after mistakes.

Ball mode is best compared to Blitzball from Final Fantasy X. In this mode you essentially grab the ball and attempt to score by throwing the ball into the opponent’s goal. Believe me when I say it’s harder but more fun than it sounds.

"Ball mode is best compared to Blitzball from Final Fantasy X"

In Fuel mode you fly around the board attempting to collect fuel crystals placed throughout as fast as possible using the crystals to fill your fuel depot. Deaths in this mode actually subtract from your fuel total so remember to tread lightly.

Rabbit mode is an old favorite for many Tribes gamers and is basically a good old-fashioned game of keep away.

Last but not least is the standard Capture the Flag, the mode that the majority will be playing. In capture the flag you have two goals, protect your flag while stealing your opponent’s. Goals are scored by carrying your opponent’s flag and running over your downed flag. The various vehicles, the jet pack itself, and even the weapons used in this game all lend towards making CTF a very fun experience. I spent the majority of my time playing this mode and found it to be the best one available for this game.

Replay Value
With a lengthy (10-16 hours) single player campaign with multiple difficulty levels, this game would get a great recommendation based simply on this. Then, when one adds the deep multiplayer component with various gameplay modes and a dedicated gaming community, you realize that this is a complete game on all levels. This game also features a dedicated modding community and, while perusing the Tribes websites, I saw some very promising mods in the works, particularly Starsiege: 2845, a full fledged game being built off of the source code from Vengeance.

Conclusion
This game is easily the most challenging FPS I have ever learned to play since the beginning of my PC gaming days. Many were the times that I got stomped online or would have to take a break in order to regain my composure after dying right before completing an insanely difficult task required of you in singe player mode. For all of this, I truly enjoyed my time playing Tribes: Vengeance, and felt that I came a long way in playing the game from start to finish. The way the single player mode provided a compelling storyline featuring focus shifts as you played different characters in different time periods while still preparing the player to play in the online mode and still be competitive was extraordinary. This is one of the rare games that manages to stay true to both the single player and multiplayer modes and should be given praise for doing so. At $29.99, you would be hard-pressed to find a better game for your money. So, whether you like single player FPS games or you are a devout online gamer, be sure to give

Tribes: Vengeance a try. Look below in the links for a link to both single player demos and the official multiplayer demo for this game.

Key High Points

• A compelling storyline told through many perspectives
• Excellent in-game use of rag doll physics
• Good use of voice acting
• A learning curve that requires patience and practice

Key Low points

• A learning curve that requires patience and practice
• Occasional sound effect glitches which can cause the speech to go silent

Further Reading:

Official Tribes: Vengeance Website

Starsiege: 2845

Official Tribes: Vengeance Demos