Tribes: Vengeance Hands-On

Respawning at my base I noticed that there was about two minutes left on the map. Not enough time for me to get in and clear out the defenses at the red base. Still smarting from demonstrating how much of a n00b I am, I decided I should use the time left to get familiar with the layout of the map for future reference. I took off for a building on the map midway between our bases. Upon arrival I found that this was a building that could be captured by either side. In the old games capture was accomplished by throwing a switch. After a short period, the tower and its inventory stations and defenses were useable by your team. This time around, a central console began flashing as I got close enough to it and in ten seconds of close proximity, the console turned blue and the inventory stations powered up, ready for use. While it would not do me much good this time around, it was not a wasted effort, as I understood a bit more how things worked and will be able to take advantage of the station the next time I play that map.

Soon thereafter the mission ended. A summary showed what each side had earned in the way of points. Another nice addition in Tribes: Vengeance is that points are not solely gained by flag captures. Rather you are awarded points for taking out key objectives like sensors and for things like executing difficult shots in midair. The enhanced scoring system is sure to bring bragging to a whole new level as people can now compete on a variety of levels depending on their play style.

The next map opened onto a lush green world with a suspended pathway above the heavily foliaged ground. Again, I thought this is going to be a fun map. The dense undergrowth will provide ample cover for the would be sniper to creep through while he looks for that perfect shot. Blood and guts commandos can barrel down (or over) the suspended pathways as they make a bee line for the enemy base. As I stood there taking in the sights, my flag was stolen! Loosing no time, I leapt off after my flag and was soon gaining on the thief. He had nearly used all of his jetpack charge taking the flag and was costing closer to the ground as I gained on him. Gauging his path I fired off a spinfusor disc that meet him dead on as he hit the ground. My skills were not so rusty after all it seemed. Something in our base must have softened him up as he made his escape because my single shot was enough to send him sprawling sending his equipment and the flag to showered the ground around his corpse.

Landing neatly on top of the flag I returned it to base and took off again towards his base. A minute later I found myself outside a small room that housed the enemy flag. Proceeding more carefully this time, I stole a quick look inside. Yes, there were the mines and the sentry guns. Sensing that my enemy may be doing a quick tour around his base to ensure everything was fine, I jumped outside and saw him coming around the corner. I mowed him down with my chain gun before he could react and then set to destroying the defenses around the flag. I had to hurry now. He would respawn and be back any second and if I guessed correctly, he would be outfitted in heavy armor.

As the last sentry gun blew up, I had the flag and was on my way out the door. Sure enough, there was my opponent and like I assumed he looked like a Hummer on two legs in his heavy armor. This was bad. If I was to go toe to toe with him, it would take a lot of jumping on my part and a good deal of luck to punch through all that armor. Likewise, he had much heavier weapons and full ammo while I was down to less than a third of ordinance after dealing with his flag defenses. But since I was the one in light armor, I was much faster than he was. And I could cover much more ground. He who runs away, lives to fight another day! I turned tail and ran so fast, that it would have brought a tear to a Frenchman's eye.

As expected, mortars and other heavy weapons fire rained after me but luck was with me. (As is with the running Frenchmen. - Ed) Soon I was out of range and in the home stretch. I was so juiced on adrenaline when I made it back to my flag that I had to make three attempts before I successfully made it through the doorway to complete the capture. Ahh! This felt like the good-old days indeed!

I am very excited for the chance to mix it up online again. Those afternoons and late nights I spent jetting around far flung planets locked in mortal combat with dozens of other players from around the world are some of the best multiplayer experiences I have had. Likewise, I am intrigued to see what they have dreamed up for the single player game. It's clear that this early in the beta, there will be many changes due to balancing and quite a bit of polishing and refining that is yet to come. From what I have seen so far, it looks like the next version of Tribes is moving in the right direction.