Starsiege Tribes (Jewel Case)

by Vivendi Universal

Product Details

• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B00001IVGE
• Media: CD-ROM
• Release Date: July 1, 1999
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (50 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #40,002 in Video Games (See Top 100 in Video Games)
• Discontinued by manufacturer: Yes

Product Description

Amazon.com Review

Revolutionizing the online first-person shooter genre with a seamless indoor/outdoor game engine, Starsiege Tribes backs up its snazzy technology with sophisticated online-only gameplay. Tribes is the perfect game for action fans looking for something more cerebral than Quake but less complicated than Rogue Spear.

Players are able to customize their high-tech warrior to suit individual play styles: snipers will go with light armor, extra battery pack, and a laser rifle; fans of less-subtle tactics will grab heavy armor, a mortar, plasma gun, and shield pack to create a walking tank. This level of customization adds an unusual amount of depth for a game in the first-person shooter genre, and it's fun to mix up gear choices in order to react to battlefield conditions.

And oh, what a beautiful battlefield it is. Players begin the game within their home base, but once free of those crowded halls, a limitless vista greets the eyes. Rolling hills, snow-covered peaks, and eerie moonscapes provide a stunning backdrop to the action as players zoom around with jetpacks. Outposts, towers, and weapon emplacements provide strategic objectives and sniping platforms; hovercraft and personnel carriers allow quick transport and airborne assaults.

Blasting your way across the world of Tribes is fun, but it's not the only gameplay option. Less action-oriented gamers can assume the role of Commander and issue orders to teammates. The Commander is especially useful during matches that require intricate teamwork, such as capture the flag, capture and hold, and defend and destroy. --Mike Fehlauer

Pros:

• Can pick weapons and equipment to suit mood and play style
• Visually impressive game engine
• Jetpacks

Cons:

• Poor tutorial

Product Description

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Tribes redefined the multiplayer FPS, October 1, 2000

By 

"emariko1" (California, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Starsiege Tribes (Jewel Case) (CD-ROM)

Tribes is one of the select few games that can hold my attention. Lately I have been playing an excess of this great game. I have a GeForce II MX and a Pentium 2 - 333 mHz, and I get good framerates throughout the game.

Tribes is a team-based first person shooter (FPS), playable online only (except for 8 tutorial missions). Finding a server to play on is as simple as clicking the Refresh button, and picking a server that meets your standards. The server IP, name, game type, game map, modification, players, ping, and CPU speed are all shown, and you can set servers you especially like as a favorite to be found easily. After a few seconds, you're in the game and playing. If the server is running a map that you don't have, it is automatically downloaded (and is hardly noticable, map files are very small).

Once in the game, you will be greeted with a friendly server message, possibly what kind of computer the server is, and any special rules such as no team killing (TK). Click to spawn, and you'll be inside your base (or however the map is set up). Most games played are Capture the Flag (CTF), where you run into the enemy base, touch their flag, then bring it back to your own flag without being killed in the process. If you aren't good at capturing the flag (capping), you can buy heavy armor from an inventory station and use mortars to bomb the base, but you will move slower and the jetpack won't carry you as far. If you have a high speed internet connection, you can be a very good sniper, but even dialup users can snipe effectively.

Winning is a team effort, the individual hardly matters in a game. If an entire team is trying to cap the flag, then nobody will be around to guard the flag. If everyone is guarding the flag, then nobody will be able to score. It relies on a balance. Even if you aren't a good fighter, you can help your team out by repairing all the base equipment and manning mortar turrets via a Command Station.

Being an online only game, lag can be an issue. But the Tribes net code has been optimized so only a minimal of data is sent client-server. I have a 56k dialup, and only experience lag probably once or twice per game, and then only for a few seconds.

I only have a few gripes. This game's 3D acceleration was built for Glide, a 3dfx only API, and OpenGL was added in a later patch. OpenGL can show some strange artifacting when playing from the third person perspective, but most of your fighting will be from first person so it isn't an issue. Also, some bots would've been nice, if for nothing else than being able to practice your skills offline.

Overall, Tribes earns an A+ rating from me. Great job, Dynamix, I can't wait for Tribes 2 to be released.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Are you Deep or Shallow?, January 5, 2001

By 

John Hessler (Eureka, CA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Starsiege Tribes (Jewel Case) (CD-ROM)

What a blast. Literally, I've played many games over the past twenty years and I have to say Tribes is one of the best. If your shallow you can just run around trying to gun the enemy, his vehicles, his weapons and sensor emplacements and generally blow things up, just watch out because the enemy is human too and there's not just one at a time. The game gives you multiple types of armor with a plethora of weapons and equipment you can outfit from. The servers that run the game, and theres alot of them, can modify every thing from the maps to the armor and weapons lists and abilities (Endless combinations). If Your deep, this game is deeper still the human equation really makes teamwork and stratagy paramount while stressing the need for personal skills. There is no end to the stratagies you can evolve personally and on a team scale. If you like to tinker and have a smattering of computer skills you can modify your client side, new reticles, Heads up displays for targeting or command screens and a bunch of other modifications that are out in the tribes community just to give the game specialized flavor for the individual user. The Playing community is extensive and one of the friedliest I've found for online games of this nature. One of the best things about this game is how easy it is to get into a game. There's always a game to be had any time day or night you just point and click and zap you going. Personally I like to play 10pm to 2am pst and I usually have a choice of 30-40 different games to join into with good ping rates. I have 5 or 6 favorites but a foray into the unkown is good once in a while, just make sure your ammo is full.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great online game!, April 28, 2000

By 

"draconisman" - See all my reviews

This review is from: Starsiege Tribes (Jewel Case) (CD-ROM)

Starsiege Tribes is the best online game I have ever played. The cd itself is required only for installation, so if you lose the disc you don't have to worry. The game has a few short single player missions with AIs to get used to the missions, weapons, armor, etc. The AIs are kinda dumb though. They only use one weapon(disc launcher), and they don't use their jets, so they're kinda easy. Online, everything is amazingly clean. I mean, most people don't curse at all on the servers. There's no cheating to ruin the servers and the game itself like what happened with another game I've played, Diablo. Tks are no problem as team damage can be turned off either by vote or by the admin. There are more than a dozen different server types, so you don't have to play with the same weapons you get on single player missions. The missions themselves are usually time limited capture the flag games. The admin can change the time limit if he wants. You can generally be sure that the admin is a good guy because the only way to become an admin is to be voted admin for the server. Another good thing is that if someone with the same name as you joins or is already there when you join, the guy who joined most recently gets a .1 put at the end of his name(i.e. if your name is Guy and someone else named Guy joins the server you're on he is listed as Guy.1 while you remain Guy). The only bad thing about this game is that every few weeks you have to go to certain websites to get downloads to play new types of missions.