Remember Tribes? As the years go by, the number of people answering yes to that question is shrinking. That’s because the Tribes series arguably hasn’t been relevant for over eleven years. FPS games changed drastically, leaving words like frags, gibs, and rocket-jumping set firmly in the past in favor of Bravo teams and AK47s. There’s just no place in modern gaming for jet packs anymore. That is until High-Rez studios got their hands on the Tribes license. Tribes Ascend is their valiant attempt to resurrect a style of FPS that’s been sadly absent for far too long. Also, they’re doing it free to play.
To be quite honest, I had never played a Tribes game before. I’ve always been an avid Unreal Tournament fan, however, and watching Tribes Ascend reminded me of an open level low gravity match of UT and was enough to make me give it a shot. It turned out to be much more than that. In just a few minutes of playing TA, it became obvious that speed is just as important as height. That’s because movement around the maps is done largely by a process known as skiing.
Skiing instantly reminded me of Tiny Wings, except first person and with rocket boots. Maps in Tribes Ascend are covered in hills. As you go downhill, you hold the spacebar. This activates your characters rocket boots, giving you a frictionless glide across the surface. Once you get to the bottom of a hill, you rocket yourself upward using your jet pack, repeating the process to maintain your speed, which is displayed on the sides of the screen in km/h. The process only takes a few minutes to get used to, but seems like it will take a lot of practice to master.
After playing a round for myself, I stood back and watched a developer play on one of the larger screens. Not only did he average about 50-60 km/h faster than myself (mostly by shooting the ground next to his feet to propel him even farther), but he also had insane accuracy, allowing him to steal the flag off of a long jump and be gone before the enemy team even knew he had been there.
Most of the weapons in the game were some variation of explosive weapons except for a select few, and it seemed to be for good reason. Because the players move so fast, only the most skilled players were hitting their targets in mid air. The rest of us peasants had to resort to gauging where an enemy would land, shooting at the ground and hoping to kill him with the splash damage. But even with my sub-par skill level, I was able to get a few kills and have a great time in the process.
The two game modes that I played were capture the flag and control point. If you’ve played any other fps ever, it’s pretty much the same thing. Although, when your basic game mechanics are unique, you can make even the most standard game type exciting. Such was the case with Tribes Ascend. I was told there were vehicles and base defenses that could be set up to add an extra layer of depth, but I was too busy trying to get over the learning curve to try.
I’d like to say that my favorite game of the show was some sleeper hit indie game or a Kickstarter project, but I kept coming back to Tribes Ascend. Each match I played sucked me in even further. I honestly fear what’s going to happen when I return home to download the beta. It was definitely the most fun I had at this year’s PAX East. That’s saying a lot.
Tribes Ascend is currently in open beta and available to play by signing up here.
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