If I remember correctly, we played a good amount of Tribes back in the day. Although FPSesseses aren’t my preferred genre, Tribes was more arcade-y then what we’re seeing today, with the RPGness crammed into places where it really doesn’t fit, which leads to stat-mongering and progressive unlocks and maybe some dust-up over selling said unlocks to new players. We really haven’t had a good just-jump-in-and-kick-ass online shooter for a while. Now it seems we’re going to get buried by them, and one of them is Tribes: Ascend from Hi-Res Studios, the people who brought us another online shooter, Global Agenda.

Tribes: Ascend appears to be a pretty good option for scratching that quick-combat itch. Technically, it’s as silly or as serious as you want it to be: my first public match last night was on a huge map, team deathmatch, and everyone was just jumping everywhere. I had one kill and one assist, and that was actually more then I had expected, given the chaos. Of course, I expect that the mechanics from the original Tribes are still there: the turret placement strategies, the vehicles, and most importantly, the commander role which allows one player to see the action on an overhead map, and to direct his or her team members to where they’re needed the most. But that all depends on the group you’re with. Simple PUG matches will probably be a free-for-all like mine last night; the more involved capture-the-base maps will undoubtedly require more teamwork and organization, and a willingness to listen to the commander.

Tribes: Ascend also has some interesting errata this time around. Naturally, as a free to play game, there’s a cash shop which allows you to unlock different armor sets, XP boosts, and other kinds of stuff you’d expect for a Modern Game of that financial persuasion. Even more interesting is that it seems like Hi-Res is going to offer some kind of bespoke server rental. One of the cool things about Games of Yore was that you could operate your own server for your own friends and outside the obnoxiousness of the general public, but you had to host that on a machine in your own house or pay a hosting provider for it. I guess Hi-Res is cleaving closely to the old school vibe by offering their own hosting for people who want to keep their community intimate, which is something I applaud. It’s a service that’s not active yet, and no word that I have seen on the pricing for that.

And, as always, I’m Scopique in-game. I can’t promise accuracy, but I’m a pro at taking one for the team.