Customer Reviews

Starsiege Tribes (Jewel Case)

5 star:		(37)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

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.

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.

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.

I wish that they had a rating of 4.8 since that is what this game deserves. The net code is so clean that I am amazed at how well it runs on my 56kb modem. The game is loaded with several weapons and armor classes. Only the light armors may fly planes, and the game has an interesting internal balance. But if you want crazy off the wall weapons then many servers run special mods that add boundless versions of everything. You can find servers that allow you to fly endlessly and fire hundreds of mortars in a few seconds. One problem is that I bought the game so far past its initial release date that there were few newbies for me to fight. So I basically get my butt handed to me by the experienced players. But you get better, and it has great replay value. Unfortunately I seem to have lost a little interest in it because the servers play the same maps way too often.

I agree. I have bought many games and I have found "Tribes" to be one of the best. With hundreds of servers, great graphics,and gameplay how could you go wrong?

Bought every Action Adventure game that came out for four years. Since I started playing Tribes four months ago I have bought nothing else. Nothing else compares. It's a real-time multi player universe that is only limited by the game physics. Combines the best features of every great game I have ever played, plus adds the human element in a manner never seen in any other game short of a full up military combat simulation. Pick your Tribe, pick your weapons and kick butt trooper! [GZ] Rules

TRIBES is the best game ive ever played, ive played doom and quake before but when i got tribes i was blown away! ive been playing tribes for 3years, and im still going.theres all kinds of mods to play in multiplayer and even though every year we get less players coming back it still is a populair game and lots of people still play it.

First, I'd like to give proper respects to the now defunct development studio Dynamix of Medford, Oregon. They made some of the best computer games in the business. Let them rest in peace.

Second, I'd like to review one of Dynamix's best games they created, the second game in the Starseige universe, Starseige: TRIBES.

I'd like to say that I got this game by accident. I've been a beta tester for Sierra (the owner of Dynamix), and after testing a particular piece of software, they let me pick any software title available in their catalog. At the time, since I did not have a very fast computer, I picked Earthseige 2. However, they sent me Starseige 2 (aka Starseige: TRIBES). I was not able to play it, however, I kept it on hand, and a couple years later, after I moved from Seattle to Nashville, I had a Pentium II/266, fine for this game. I first played it, and was BLOWN AWAY.

Not by it's graphics, mind you (for my current setup does not have 3D acceleration capability), but by the gameplay and the atmosphere. A purely multiplayer game, with strategic elements (where you don't necessary shoot anything that moves). This was one of the first of its kind. Also, the popularity of this game was unheard of when it first came out in 1997. Over 2 million users of the Dynamix servers - incredible. There is no lack of players to play online with Starseige: TRIBES.

This game raised the bar of FPS games, and after Starseige: TRIBES, FPS games were never the same.

Try it - you won't regret it. :)

Every once in a while, a computer game is released that changes the whole landscape of the industry. First there was Wolfenstein, the first person shooter developed by id. Then there was Doom, which is arguably the most popular game of all time. The five-year-old quake engine is still being used to develop games. Now, there is Tribes, a revolution in the gaming industry; the original first-person shooter that caters only to multi-player online users. Is it a revolution in the gaming industry? That's what this article intends to find out.
We will evaluate this "evolutionary step" and see if it can hold up to all the hype. How does the game compare to traditional first-person shooters? Graphic quality and sound are important aspects of any game; we'll how Tribes holds up to the competition. Finally, how we'll was the games designed. What is it replayability? What options are available?
There are a total of nine weapons to choose from. You can never have all of them. Which weapons you carry also depends on your armor class. There are three armor classes, light, medium, and heavy. The larger you get, the more weapons you can carry, but the heavier you get the less mobile you become. Also, certain weapons are restricted to certain groups. For instance, the laser rifle can only be carried by the light armor class, and the mortar launcher (my favorite weapon of mass destruction) can only be carried by the heavy armor class, or heavies as they are often referred as.
These different armor classes are another innovating feature. Your suite comes with an infinite supply of energy, but you can easily outpace energy generation by using certain weapons, backpacks, or your standard jet pack. Yes, that's right, you can fly. You can also enhance your suite by acquiring performance enhancing backpacks. There are five to choose from . The most notable are: the energy pack, the repair pack, and the shield pack. You can use these to enhance you players ability. The energy pack give your suite a larger energy reserve and helps your suite regenerate its energy faster. The repair pack is used to fix breakable objects in the game, including yourself, but it does so at the expense your suites energy. The shield pack does what the name says. It provides extract protection, also at the expense your suites energy.
There are also deployables. These are objects you can carry around instead of a backpack. You can deploy remote inventory stations (that's were you have to go to get all this neat stuff), motion sensors, remote cameras, and most importantly turrets. Turrets are gun that automatically shoot at an enemy when they are close enough. There are seven deployables in all. The way you use these is the difference between surviving, and becoming mortar fodder. You can carry miscellaneous other things like grenades, mines, beacon, and extra ammo.
Another innovating idea was to include vehicles. All vehicles can only be driven be the driven by the light armor class. You can choose from three vehicle: the scout, the LPC, and the HPC. The scout is a small, very fast, and maneuverable person hover jet. It is the only vehicle with a weapons, a single missile launcher. The LPC, or light person carrier, is used to carry people. It can carry three people in all, including the driver. The LPC is considerably less maneuverable than the Scout. The HPC, or heavy person carrier, can carry five people total, and is even less wielding than the LPC.
With all these different choices, you would expect it to take a while before you're proficient. The general first-person shooter ideals hold to the game, but you aren't playing with stupid artificial intelligence anymore. Tribes takes a little more time to figure out than most games, only because you have so many options available to you. There are eight single person training missions. They teach what Tribes is all about, and they take about an hour to finish. With the jet pack, Tribes utilizes the third dimension extremely well. It takes practice and a little help to be able to truly believe you "own" your opponents. Luckily, there is a dedicated core of Tribes players to help you along the way.
Tribes supports the community aspect of the first-person shooters (FPS) extremely will. Before, if people wanted to take the initiative and form some sort of group, it was very hard to communicate. Most often, group member would be spread out across North America, and the traditional FPS didn't have a way to help their players communicate. Tribes includes a chat client built into the game. People are able to, instead of automatically starting to play, join different chat groups. This feature was essential to the survival of Tribes. It gave people the ability to communicate easily. Now, there are hundreds of teams where thousands of people practice and play together. As a result, the Tribes community is extremely eel versed in the nuances of the game, and the overall player population is quite proficient. This also causes problems with new players. With almost almost anybody can start playing Tribes right away, the curve to be able to compete and get to a point where you can find a team to take is very steep.
All of these aspects involving the concepts and game play mean nothing if the game isn't good to look at. Let's face it. In today's computer world, if a game isn't some kind of amazing graphical miracle, it doesn't have a chance. Tribes would be a let down to some people in this department. While game like Quake 3 take great pride in graphical detail, the Tribes designers used the minimalists approach to graphics. While you can't say that graphic design is shoddy, the barren landscape and inornate buildings give the game sparse feeling. It's my belief the designers had very good reasons for this. This game is designed to have around 20-30 players in a game at one time. It's also designed to move fast. These two things take a huge hit on you computer's performance. When the game was originally released in 1998, the average computer just didn't have the processing power for a while bunch of pretty eye candy. I'm not saying that this game doesn't look good. The characters and weapons are well rendered, and over all the game is fun to watch. I'm just saying it is very, vary barren. As a courtesy, Tribes also includes a sound track which helps get you into the game. The sounds match game play very well and do nothing but enhance your gaming experience.
This game offers a ridiculous amount of game play. I've been playing since it's release, and I see no end to the options. Because of the huge amount of talented and enthused supporters this game has, different groups have taken it upon themselves to add to the game. Now, there are so many variations to the game, the only way it could die is if the developers decide to stop supporting it. Even though the game has been out for two years, there are hundreds of players on a number of different servers at any given times. This is a tribute to the game's innovation.
Tribes is definitely a revolution in the gaming industry. While the graphics reflects the two-year-old gaming engine, this game will continue to wow audiences world wide. Its innovating ideas in game play and design ensure Tribes a place in history. The additions of armor classes, vehicle, and team play are just the tip of the iceberg. This is definitely one game yo should own.

Tribes is a great ON-LINE game! I was extremely happy with the fact that is runs very very smoothly on-line with my 28k modem! Of course I also am using a P3, and 450 Mhz... But the MAJOR flaw in this game is that fact that basically, there is NO single player game... You have a couple training missions, but hardly tells you what you need to know... But it is still a GREAT GREAT game...