Tribes 2 is an awesome sequel to one of the most beloved multiplayer games of all time– Starsiege Tribes. This game oozes with all the super gameplay, graphics, and sound that its predecessor was known for. Complete with new weapons, new vehicles, and new skins, Tribes 2 has made asexual beings out of every fan of the franchise out there.
The new weapons of death and destruction are the missile launcher and the shocklance. The missile launcher can take down moving targets like the bomber, assault vehicle, or even a fleeing flag capper. It can also destroy stationary objects such as turrets or sensors. All you have to do is lock on the target for a few seconds and fire. With a carefully coordinated strike, the use of missile launchers can completely destroy an enemy perimeter defense in the first few minutes of a game. To balance the gameplay, only players wearing medium or heavy armor can carry it. Since incoming missiles are attracted to heat/energy, they can be thwarted by anyone who releases flares.
Moving on to the shocklance, it is quite the opposite of the missile launcher. It can only be used at very close range. At full charge, the shocklance releases a death dealing current of electricity when lunged directly into another player's back (it deals less damage from the side or front). Couple this weapon with the new cloaking pack and you can sneak up on unsuspecting campers with glee *evil laugh* Ever watch the Predator? Activating the cloaking pack creates a shimmering effect over your armor that renders you invisible to other players in seconds. It’s a perfect tool for assassinating players or destroying generators and inventory stations. And for even more giggles, the satchel pack is a nifty little explosive device that has made its debut into this game. This little monster can be thrown to the ground and detonated remotely from a safe distance. Ground zero anyone?
Speaking of inventory stations. Remember those long lines at the “invy” when newbie players slowly picked out weapons as if they were pinching tomatoes at the supermaket? Well, fret not. Players can now pick and choose their weapons and armor prior to walking into the stations for a quick-change. There’s a beam that wraps around you when you walk in. Very cool, very sci-fi. The armor themselves are sporting more polygons and are more polished looking than the previous game. Throw in a new species, and all you fashion conscious players out there will revel in the new garb.
Back to weapons...an assortment of fresh pineapples has now been included in T2. The new concussion grenades can throw players off kilter and even knock weapons out of their hands. Also, the White-out grenade can be thrown for a much needed getaway as it explodes into a blinding flash of light. As for deployables- anti-personnel turrets can now be mounted on the side of walls or even ceilings.
All the original weapons that made Tribes such a great game are back and have been re-skinned with better designs. Not much has changed except for the way they look when fired. For example, the plasma gun when fired on the ground creates a more fiery luminescence and roar than the original. One exception is the blaster. For those that remember, the blaster in the original game was almost useless as it gave very little destructive power in return. In Tribes 2 though, the physics have been changed so that shots from a blaster will bounce off surfaces and hit people around corners. A full-out exchange of blaster fire in enemy hallways is quite reminiscent of Star Wars.
The maps in Tribes 2 were designed to be as vast and unending as the maps in the first game. Although skiing (an unintentional physics anamoly that allowed players to skim across terrain by hopping up and down hills) is still possible in T2, most of the maps are now littered with terrain features that can only be traversed by jetting or by flying in vehicles. Other terrain features such as water allow players to sneak up on their objectives. Water is not lethal when you are submerged for long periods of time but constricts movement severely enough to make you the proverbial duck. Certain weapons like the laser rifle can’t be fired underwater.
Above water, weather effects such as rain, lightning, and fog affect your visibility. It can even kill you- I once saw a guy get toasted by lightning as he walked back to his base.
The vehicles are now lightly shielded and supplied with a turbo feature. The one-manned Shrike flyer can actually pull off some serious loops in the sky. For some cooperative play, the Thundersword bomber accommodates three people – a pilot, tailgunner, and bomber. The bomber has a birds eye view of the ground via a belly turret and can shoot at enemys or bases with either plasma or mortar ammo. The tail gunner sits in the rear of the vehicle allowing him/her to light flares, shoot at enemy flyers, or even paint a target for teammates to shoot at. An even larger flying vehicle is the Havoc Heavy Transport which can carry up to six passengers total. When you think about it… six people playing from different parts of the country are hopping into the same virtual vehicle. Even more amazing is that the same six guys can be seen in the sky by other players on the ground right before they bomb the hell out of them.
As for ground vehicles, a hover bike called a Grav Cycle shoots you across the landscape at frightening speeds. Another devastating vehicle featured in the game is the Beowulf which is basically a 2 man tank that holds a driver and a gunner. And when the time comes to set up a forward base, the Jericho can be driven to the enemy lines to help fortify and provide offensive support with its missile launcher an inventory station.
Too bad that World wars aren’t fought with Tribes 2 because it is the closest thing to waging one without actually spilling any blood.
Here’s a quick summary on graphics, gameplay, and sound:
Graphics
The graphics are simply spectacular in this game. However, the steep system requirements will have many adjusting their detail levels way, way down. Also, this game reaks of incompatibility issues with certain video cards (namely Voodoo). I was able to run this game on a Pentium 2 with two Voodoo II 1000s in SLI and 64 megs of RAM. The result was a nerf-like terrain (well, it looked soft and spongy to me) due to the detail levels I had to sacrifice for decent frame rates. However, I had some good framerates on a Pentium 4 using a GeForce 2 Pro card and 128 megs of RAM. So needless to say, not a whole lot of people can play this game to its intended look.
Gameplay
The gameplay is very fun, very dynamic, and an all out blast. There were only 27 servers when I first started playing T2. Now, the numbers are way over a thousand. So this goes to show you how many individuals and clans are playing the game. The funniest two weeks I had was when no one quite knew how to pilot the vehicles. I saw tanks going off cliffs, bombers going into nose dives, and people sending teamates into oblivion when they stood right on the vehicle spawning pad. I saw bodies and debris being strewn across the landscape like yard sales gone horribly wrong. To limit the amount of unnecessary carnage and destruction, Dynamix has opted to improve the training mode this time around. Also, newbies may find it less intimidating to host a server by just using bot for teamates and the opposing team so they can improve their learning without stepping on anyone's toes.
My only caveat is that Tribes 2 shipped with so many damn bugs. Before the first half-dozen patches came out, I was plagued with screen freezes, redjacks (semi-permanent lag), and even drunken pilot problems (couldn’t get inside the vehicle). All of the above problems have been fixed but I imagine that Dynamix is still trying to hammer the rest of the kinks out.
Some of the outstanding features, if they could only work, are the community features. There’s an in-game email system along with chat channels and discussion boards. You can do all this without even having to quit out of the program. This makes it easier to talk to people you normally play with – fellow tribesman, local pub w*h*o*r*e*s (defined as people who play on the same game servers for hours at a time). In addition, a filter built into the server menu is supposed to weed out the servers that your buddies are currently playing on.
Sound
The most notable sound changes were made to the weapons. They now fire with more ferocity than the ones from the first Tribes. Even subtle sound effects can be heard when you stand near perimeter defenses or when you plant a pulse sensor or landspike turret on the ground. In some maps, you can hear crickets in the background.
In closing, T2 is a very good buy and comes highly recommended from this gamer. It is a nicely finished game(apart from when I saw it at E3 two years ago)
Enter breathtaking worlds where brainpower and teamwork are the only true keys to survival . Plus, join an existing Tribe or start one of your own!More at BargainStation.com
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