I have to admin, I never really played the original Starsiege: Tribes.  I almost didn't get Tribes 2 either.  The graphics didn't really impress me (lacks cute anime models ^_^), and the idea of 40 people flying around with jetpacks and blowing each other away didn't quite seem that appealing.

Fortunately, it's quite difficult to read online web comics and not get bitten by the Tribes 2 bug.  After hearing guys at Penny Arcade talk on and on about strategic battles, powerful vehicles, and team play that actually worked, my interest was piqued.  Actually, it was the ELF Projector that made me look more into the game.  ^_^  I had no idea what it was, but it sounded silly enough to get me to buy the game!

The Game

The developers of Tribes 2 have created a masterful teamwork system.  Tribes 2 is all about groups of players working together, and the game has implemented the most intricate and beautiful system I've ever seen in an online game.

First of all, once you register your copy of Tribes 2 you get an account to go along with your unique CD-key.  You can setup a buddy list using this account to easily find games that your friends are playing in.  You can also join tribes (clans of players) to quickly find a group of common people to play with.  Each clan gets its own forum, and each player has a tribes e-mail system and can post a personal profile.  The forums, tribes e-mail, and profiles are all accessed within the Tribes 2 software itself.  These tools allow players to easily communicate with each other, schedule games, and so forth.

In most games, there are generally several people on your team willing to cooperate together in order to win.  However, there will usually be a few players who tend to solo or ignore commands, which makes it much harder to achieve victory, particularly over a refined or well-practiced team.  Playing with tribe members usually leads to more organized teamwork, since you can rely on communication to ensure that all of the required objectives are met.

Besides the buddy lists, forums, and e-mail system, there is also a very intricate command and communication system that is easily accessible during game play.  By pressing a series of keys, you can quickly cycle through voice command menus, which will cause your character to broadcast a voice message to other players.  For example, by pressing V (voice), then S (self), A (attack), G (generator) keys, your character will say, "I'll attack the enemy generator!"  This is played as a pre-recorded wave file that is part of the game.

There are well over 50 quick voice command that can be accessed this way, and while it may be a bit daunting at first, with practice it doesn't take long to quickly rifle through the commands.  Even if you need to read the commands available for each menu category, it's much faster than typing a sentence, which must also be read by other players, and can be easily missed.  Of course, team and universal text chat is still available, as is voice-over-net if you have a microphone.  For those who haven't seen it, voice-over-net allows you to record your voice and send it to players, sort of like if you had a walkie-talkie.  But I like the Tribes 2 pre-recorded voice command system better, since most users of voice-over-net don't role-play enough.  From experience in other games, I've found it loses some of the atmosphere when you hear a 10-year-old tell you to make an attack run on an enemy carrier. ^_^

I really can't say enough good things about Tribes 2's communication system.  They've really figured out how to get people to stay connected, both inside the game and out.

Weapons

Tribes 2 has an odd, but very effective array of weapons.  It took me a while to get the hang of it, at first.  There aren't really any quick kill weapons in Tribes 2, like Quake's rocket launcher or Unreal Tournament's flak cannon.  There aren't any BFG's exactly, but that isn't to say Tribes 2's arsenal doesn't pack a wallop.

I guess for the most part, the action in Tribes 2 is a bit slower (don't confuse this with being less intense).  In Quake 3, just about any weapon will kill you in a second if you stand still.  In games with numerous players, I generally don't expect to live much longer than a minute, even when I'm winning.

In Tribes 2, players are just harder to kill.  The jetpacks make people more evasive of course, and situations often call for having the right kind of weapon.  For example, the disc gun is a lot like the rocket launcher in other games in that it does a lot of splash damage (but I think the disc is a lot slower).  But when people can fly, and not just jump, aiming at feet requires you to wait until they land, which happens a lot less than in other games.  So learning to use faster weapons like the chain gun (both projectile speed and re-fire rate are important) can be helpful when shooting someone down.

Other weapons include a sniper rifle (A good weapon, but not the annoying one-shot kill of other games.  This is a good balance in Tribes), plasma rifle (for taking out machinery), grenade launcher, fusion mortar and several others.  The weapon load-out you can carry is restricted by the type of armor you're wearing.  Lighter armor means you can move faster, but carry less weapons.  Heavy armor can carry more weapons (and of greater power), but moves slow and can't pilot vehicles.  Overall, it's a very balanced system.  It's not perfect, but you'll tend to use or need different weapons for the various situations that can arise during a game, unlike other FPS games where 3 or so weapons are dominantly used.

Vehicles and Equipment

The other thing that makes Tribes 2 so enjoyable is the wide array of...stuff you can blow up, or use to blow up other stuff. ^_^

There are 6 different vehicles available, 3 ground based, and 3 that fly.  The Jericho deploys as a mobile base, while the Wildcat is a hover-bike that scouts can use to quickly move across the map (the ultimate in flag capturing getaways!).  3 of the other vehicles require multiple players to operate at full efficiency.  For instance, with the Beowulf grav-tank, one player drives, while the other one controls the turret, equipped with a machine gun and a high power fusion mortar.

The bomber holds a pilot, bombardier, and tail gunner.  While the pilot files, the bombardier can drop devastating bombs or fire plasma bolts down on the enemy.  A good bombing run can quickly wipe out enemy units on foot, or make a mess of defensive structures.  Meanwhile, the tail gunner can fire on pursuers, or more importantly, launch flares to decoy incoming missiles that are sure to be fired at the ship.

Besides vehicles, there are other equipment that heavily influence the game.  Turrets are basic unmanned defensive structures that fire on opposing players.  Radar sensors can be deployed to mark (highlight) incoming enemy units on your screen.  Motion sensors allow some other equipment to detect players that a cloaked.  Generators can be as important as a team's flag, because when an undefended generator is destroyed, other equipment will cease to function, including the support stations that allow players to rearm.  All equipment can be fixed with the repair kit, but bringing back defenses online can waste important time, and leave the team flag vulnerable to attack!

Overview

Graphically, Tribes 2 is decent.  There doesn't seem to be quite as much detail in player models as in other FPS games.  Indoor areas also seem to have slightly less atmosphere than Quake 3 or UT, but most of the game takes place outdoors anyway.  Most maps consist of fast terrain, including rolling hills, canyons, lava pits, and wastelands.  In this respect the game is very sharp, and plays quite well.  However, I've tried clocking my frame-rate, and I have trouble getting over 60 fps when using high end graphic settings on my 1Ghz AMD, which has 512 MB RAM and a GeForce 2 GTS graphics card.

I've found that by setting slightly less colors and textures I can play at 65-70 fps and still have a decent looking game.  Originally though, I turned the graphics down too low, and with the resulting textures I couldn't tell if I was looking at an opponent's face or backside when approaching from a distance.

As far as connection speeds go, I've played many games with 20 or more people over my shared cable modem connection.  Even with Wallin playing Everquest on his computer over the same cable line, I am still able to play without any major connection problems.  Occasionally, some lag will pop up for a minute or two before going away, and I have been disconnected from a few games (probably around 10-15% of the games I play).  Sometimes servers crash, and I've heard from other people online that this is due to bad game patches.  For the most part though, my experiences have been positive, and I'm trying to get Wallin to start playing. ^_^

If you like capture the flag (CTF) or siege first-person shooter games, you will probably like Tribes 2.  If you have ever played Team Fortress (in any form) and enjoyed it, put Tribes 2 on your must-buy list!