Tribes: Ascend Review

[BlindWorg]

Is there a somekind of plot to the Tribes series? Other than ''Here, have a jetpack and a spinny weapon and dominate the heretic reds/blues''.

 

[ResonanceSD]

Firefall has no aussie servers, this looks to be short-lived. I'm sticking to what I kniw is good

Think about it this way: Tribes is entirely free to play. It costs you literally nothing but some harddrive space to download the game and play it.

Then you can decide if you like it or not.

Meh, I've already got tf2 installed

 

[CardinalPiggles]

Way too fast paced and demanding for me I think, I can barely play well in TF2.

Also I tried the Beta and it just felt very buggy, how smooth is it now?

 

[KILGAZOR]

The review mentioned nothing about how the experience unlocks unbalance the game in favor of veteran players with lots of experience points. The paid variety unlocks I'm fine with, but when you're handing out unlocks that outright boost the stats of your character, you've gone too far, especially since everything else in this game seems to be built with competitive play in mind. It's games like Call of Duty that popularized bad unlock systems like the one in Tribes: Ascend, and now it seems that this system is being justified with the free-to-play model. I do not like where shooters are heading. If this pattern continues, true balanced, competitive shooters will be gone in a decade.

 

[Keava]

The review mentioned nothing about how the experience unlocks unbalance the game in favor of veteran players with lots of experience points. The paid variety unlocks I'm fine with, but when you're handing out unlocks that outright boost the stats of your character, you've gone too far, especially since everything else in this game seems to be built with competitive play in mind. It's games like Call of Duty that popularized bad unlock systems like the one in Tribes: Ascend, and now it seems that this system is being justified with the free-to-play model. I do not like where shooters are heading. If this pattern continues, true balanced, competitive shooters will be gone in a decade.

Sorry, what? What unlocks? You mean weapon/armor upgrades? That are exp only? And take about, hm, 3-4 hours of gameplay per class loadout to get the useful ones? And are pretty damn minor in the grand scheme of things?

Sorry, Tribes is and always was more about individual skill. If You suck at skiing or aiming projectile based weapons no amount of upgrades will help You. I can wreck as much havoc on my 0 upgrades Juggernaut as anyone else. I can cap flags at decent (200+ km/h) speed with my 20% unlocked Pathfinder.
Maybe just practice a bit more instead, hm?

Yeah, but can it compete with TF2? (or brink, but we never talk a out brink)

Dunno. Maybe because it actually has higher skill ceiling, and thus lends itself better for competitive play, while TF2 is hat grinding game? <.<

 

[remmus]

looks interesting tho I get a feeling the game seam to promote using some weapons over others, a bit sad, but it´s free so I might give a try some time, see if it´s possible to achieve my vision of sliding from hill to hill , passing enemies at high speed and killing them with a slide by shotgun shot.

 

[Terrible Opinions]

If you start playing, make sure you use someone's referal code [https://account.hirezstudios.com/tribesascend/?referral=1299756&utm_campaign=email]. It's free EXP for both you and them when you hit level 6.

Is there a somekind of plot to the Tribes series? Other than ''Here, have a jetpack and a spinny weapon and dominate the heretic reds/blues''.

Yes. The Tribes plot (and going back further, the plot of the Starsiege series, and the Earthsiege series before that) is pretty massive, though it's unclear where Ascend falls in to the timeline.

Short of it is: two thousand years from now, a bunch of people with sweet-ass power armour split off from the rest of humanity to form semi-barbaric space societies. Ascend focuses on two of the four major tribes, the warrior-philosopher Diamond Sword and the savage-yet-honourable Blood Eagle.

 

[Zhukov]

Checked it out. Was not terribly impressed.

The maps are huge and everyone moves fast. Sounds good, but the end result is that most of time you feel like you're firing at gnats.

Also, trekking across said huge map every time you die feels like a waste of time.

Lastly, the vehicle controls are arse.

 

[Rad Party God]

I originally hated it when it was still in it's closed beta status, but after it went through some upgrades, it became one of my favorite shooters and one that I will definitively keep coming back to and keep installed for a long time, if not permanently.

Just as Justin said, there's really nothing like it in the market, this game needs some serious skills to succeed and has a satisfaction that I haven't felt playing a shooter in a long time (except when I play Quake Live ).

Admittedly, I was a bit hesitant at first, considering that Hi-Rez made the godawful Global Agenda, but they seriously blew off the wall (flew over it?) with this game.

It's amazing. And it's free.

 

[MonkeyPunch]

Pretty damn fine game.
High adrenalin rush once you get the skiing down.

One downer is that the prices they ask for gold and items is way too high!

Recently I've seen Jim rave about how great Blacklight Retribution was so I downloaded both those F2P games and I must say compared to Tribes, Blacklight feels positively stale in comparison. To me Blacklight feels like a MW clone with a few variations. Basically like most current gen shooters.
I really didn't get on well with that game at all.

On the other hand Tribes feels like FPS shooters of old and considering there haven't been many of those in the last few years it goes full circle and feels like a breath of fresh air.
It's action packed and fast whereas Blacklight seems pedestrian, slow and aimed at camping (read: "careful play" if easily offended) by comparison.

There is also a much larger variety of game modes and tactics in Tribes whereas Blacklight offers the same modes and styles of play as most other current gen FPS.

Oh and if this entices anyone to try it out use this referral code [https://account.hirezstudios.com/tribesascend/?referral=633290&utm_campaign=email] for bonuses for both you and me.

 

[Baneat]

As a pathfinder, that flagcap was painfull to watch.

Heh, what's wrong with my slow as molasses Infiltrator cap? I'm pretty sure I ran that one back too, which probably says more about the disorganized enemy then my own skill.

I think I just didn't record any that night or Paul didn't find any of the better flag caps when he was editing the video.

Ahem... about your skill overall: no comment! :X

 

[OldNewNewOld]

Firefall has no aussie servers, this looks to be short-lived. I'm sticking to what I kniw is good

Think about it this way: Tribes is entirely free to play. It costs you literally nothing but some harddrive space to download the game and play it.

Then you can decide if you like it or not.

Meh, I've already got tf2 installed

Why not have both?
I have both and enjoy both on regular basis.

The games are so different that you can play one to get rest from the other.

Trust me, it's worth it.

Captcha: yes,sir
See, even captcha will play it.

And if anyone feels like, please use my referral link to register.

My referral link [https://account.hirezstudios.com/tribesascend/?referral=1328541&utm_campaign=email]

Thanks.

 

[Slycne]

Ahem... about your skill overall: no comment! :X

I can own up to that on some level. That said my main focus during actual play is the Infiltrator, but 5 min of me blowing up generators wouldn't be all that interesting.

 

[KILGAZOR]

The review mentioned nothing about how the experience unlocks unbalance the game in favor of veteran players with lots of experience points. The paid variety unlocks I'm fine with, but when you're handing out unlocks that outright boost the stats of your character, you've gone too far, especially since everything else in this game seems to be built with competitive play in mind. It's games like Call of Duty that popularized bad unlock systems like the one in Tribes: Ascend, and now it seems that this system is being justified with the free-to-play model. I do not like where shooters are heading. If this pattern continues, true balanced, competitive shooters will be gone in a decade.

Sorry, what? What unlocks? You mean weapon/armor upgrades? That are exp only? And take about, hm, 3-4 hours of gameplay per class loadout to get the useful ones? And are pretty damn minor in the grand scheme of things?

Sorry, Tribes is and always was more about individual skill. If You suck at skiing or aiming projectile based weapons no amount of upgrades will help You. I can wreck as much havoc on my 0 upgrades Juggernaut as anyone else. I can cap flags at decent (200+ km/h) speed with my 20% unlocked Pathfinder.
Maybe just practice a bit more instead, hm?

Oh yes, because I find something wrong with the game, clearly I just suck at it. That is a completely rational and mature argument.

Sarcasm aside, I never said that the unlocks gave you that much of an advantage in the first place. They don't. Whether you win or lose is mostly determined by skill, as it is with most shooters. But with experience unlocks (upgrades, whatever, they're the same thing), you do get a small advantage, the few extra hit points or the few extra rounds in your magazine provided by unlocks can be the difference between life and death, and very close matches can be decided by a single kill. It removes some of the competitive satisfaction from kills and victories if, in the back of your mind, you know that they may not have been exactly fair.

Also, thank you for recognizing my godhood by capitalizing the word "You".

 

[KillerMort]

Yeah, but can it compete with TF2? (or brink, but we never talk a out brink)

i love both and in a F2p shooter generalization i think it could but on different levels of fun in certain areas. with tribes i get that great quake-esque feel that hasn't been done lately (not counting quake live) and with TF2 i get the powerful ground-based team battle with it's absolutely wonder full class based warfare.(+hats!)

 

[KillerMort]

The review mentioned nothing about how the experience unlocks unbalance the game in favor of veteran players with lots of experience points. The paid variety unlocks I'm fine with, but when you're handing out unlocks that outright boost the stats of your character, you've gone too far, especially since everything else in this game seems to be built with competitive play in mind. It's games like Call of Duty that popularized bad unlock systems like the one in Tribes: Ascend, and now it seems that this system is being justified with the free-to-play model. I do not like where shooters are heading. If this pattern continues, true balanced, competitive shooters will be gone in a decade.

Sorry, what? What unlocks? You mean weapon/armor upgrades? That are exp only? And take about, hm, 3-4 hours of gameplay per class loadout to get the useful ones? And are pretty damn minor in the grand scheme of things?

Sorry, Tribes is and always was more about individual skill. If You suck at skiing or aiming projectile based weapons no amount of upgrades will help You. I can wreck as much havoc on my 0 upgrades Juggernaut as anyone else. I can cap flags at decent (200+ km/h) speed with my 20% unlocked Pathfinder.
Maybe just practice a bit more instead, hm?

Oh yes, because I find something wrong with the game, clearly I just suck at it. That is a completely rational and mature argument.

Sarcasm aside, I never said that the unlocks gave you that much of an advantage in the first place. They don't. Whether you win or lose is mostly determined by skill, as it is with most shooters. But with experience unlocks (upgrades, whatever, they're the same thing), you do get a small advantage, the few extra hit points or the few extra rounds in your magazine provided by unlocks can be the difference between life and death, and very close matches can be decided by a single kill. It removes some of the competitive satisfaction from kills and victories if, in the back of your mind, you know that they may not have been exactly fair.

Also, thank you for recognizing my godhood by capitalizing the word "You".

i feel you on those armor/weapon upgrades being a massive factor in breaking the whole skill barrier. (especially with doombringers) but if we just keep playing ,have fun with the game, and progress with it along the side it will surely be worth our while. just play more it is after all a free game it's not like you have wasted your money on something you wouldn't like yet.

 

[SL33TBL1ND]

Yeah, but can it compete with TF2? (or brink, but we never talk a out brink)

It's really good. A lot of the time in TF2 a game is won by around 3 people on the team and everyone else's contributions were basically nil. In Tribes, everyone is doing something that actively furthers your goals.