Tribes 2 is the most graceful game ever devised, a subtle and deadly dance of flight-capable exoskeletons, rolling hills and explosive projectiles. Over spring break, having neglected to bring any games home with me, I impulsively dug the CD out of the closet and fired it up on my laptop. My old account, created in June of 2001 and unused since April of 2002, was just as I'd left it. The game's community has shrunk to a core of the most dedicated players, but the online infrastructure -- the browser for viewing the profiles of players and tribes, the internal email system, the master server, the chat interface -- remains completely functional, with the abandoned avatars of past players persisting long beyond reason.
However, the remaining host-servers are still quite lively, and the average player far more skilled than before. As I relearned the motions of jetting, skiing, aiming, and piloting, I realized that no game has approached the refinement of mobility and combat exemplified by Tribes 2. A veteran knows how to exploit every angle and contour of a vast landscape, how to transform a crushing plummet into a skyward soar; jetting hundreds of feet high, he hefts a spinfusor, compensating not only for the immense speed of his airborne target but also for his own, and sends an explosive disc spinning forth, watching as it glides with impossible accuracy to an aerial rendezvous.
Of course, the game is defined by much more than the intricacy of its duels. Complex, sprawling bases house the static equipment -- power generators, inventory stations, long-range sensors, automated turrets, and vehicle bays -- that enables a team to fight effectively. The variety of available armor classes, supplemental packs, weapons, deployable miniatures of base equipment, and vehicles creates a huge array of possible tactical niches, from flag-runner, to engineer, to saboteur, to sniper, to bomber pilot, to one-man artillery unit. A command interface, featuring a battlefield map updated in real time via the team's sensor network, allows a leader to monitor the enemy, issue specific directives, and coordinate assaults.
Games age most quickly with respect to their visual presentation, but for Tribes 2 the beautiful harmony of design that informs every object and landscape transcends the inconsistent detail of the newer Tribes: Vengeance and defies any first-glance dismissal. Although I remain ambivalent about the loss of classic Tribes' charming and grotesque neo-barbarian theme, which has been entirely supplanted in its sequel except for the occasional fanciful light fixture and a bit of wood paneling on the blaster, Tribes 2 achieves an aesthetic adequately unique and wholly united.
Basically, it's a good game.
posted on Friday, March 24, 2006
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