Tribes 3: Rivals - Early Access Review

Greetings one and all to my Tribes 3 review/preview article. As a veteran Tribes player of over 15 years, I was anticipating this EA release with bated breath. Well, now it's finally here, and as such, I am as well. To talk about a video game on the internet! Huzzah!

🔷 OVERVIEW 🔶

Hi-Rez Studios tried to bring back Tribes with Tribes: Ascend. A game that is near and dear to my heart, and one I am still bummed out is not with us anymore. Tribes Rivals recaptures some of that magic, but not really. 😅

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DEVELOPER: Prophecy Games
PLATFORM: Microsoft Windows
GENRE: First Person Shooter
GAME STATE: Early Alpha

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Tribes is one of the founders of the FPS genre on PC. It's no Doom or Wolfenstein, but its unique gameplay is definitely a cult classic for PC FPS gaming. And for a while, we only had Tribes 2. Wasn't years until Hi-Rez got the IP and decided to create Tribes Ascend - returning Tribes to the public PC gaming consciousness. 😀

_{Since the soundtrack for this game is yet to be released, I am linking the soundtrack from the previous game. Still good enough to get you in the Tribes mood.}

Now, a brand new studio with little to no experience gets a hold of this classic game IP (again, same as Hi-Rez) and we are left wondering whether they have the chops to pull it through the gutter and actually make Tribes a mainstay.

🔶 NEW THINGS 🔷

The original Tribes was very free-form. You have to choose your weapon and your loadout before you start playing. This made the game very free-feeling. Then Tribes: Ascend came along and introduced classes. Said classes had perks (both passive and active). This drastic shift was something the community was not fond of at the start.

Tribes 3: Rivals seems to be a bridge between classic Tribes and Tribes: Ascend.

In this new game, there are still classes. But you actually got to modify them more than you could in Ascend. Now, the game is still very early in development. So all of my statements here are also my kind of guessing of what the devs will do based on their decisions so far. 😇

There are also now Health Packs that drop when you kill someone. It's fun because these packs also have their own velocity and speed. So if someone is zooming and you kill them, good luck getting that health pack. 😁

Another difference is that anyone and everyone can repair damaged base equipment. And there are no more vehicles in the game. Like the infamous shrike. Nor are there any artillery strikes or bonuses you can get from kills.

🔷 STILL TRIBES 🔶

"This game, does, in fact, have skiing.

For those confused by this very real quote. You need to study your Tribes lore. 😁

The moment-to-moment gameplay definitely feels like Tribes. I've heard experts of the previous games comment that this interaction of the game is very easy. Or easier than previous entries rather. But, as a certified scrub, I can attest that it is still hard as balls.

Moreover, the VGS system is still present and charming as always. You get to talk to your teammates in that uniquely Tribes type of way.

When I first played Tribes 3: Rivals, during its playtest period, the VGS system was not yet implemented. I am so glad that even in this very early alpha build, it is present.

🔶 MONETIZATION 🔷

Tribes: Ascend failed in large part due to Hi-Rez not knowing how to monetize the game. So far, Tribes 3: Rivals only has two very expensive packs you can buy and that's it. That's good, but it's also not very good. And most people won't bother buying the skin packs. These skin packs are tied directly to Daily Missions, which honestly is an interesting monetization tactic that I haven't seen before.

On the one hand, I'm happy that there are no microtransactions (yet, as I'm sure they'll delve into that approach in the future) but on the other hand the current model doesn't appear to be standing on healthy legs either. But we can only speculate about the intentions of the devs here since the game is in very Early Access.

🔷 VERDICT 🔶

So far so good honestly. I am very curious how this game's development will go, and whether people will be interested enough to give it a shot. I think non-veteran players of the franchise will give it a shot, play a couple of games, get rekt by more experienced players, and never play the game again. 😁

I will be playing this with the boys so if anything gets updated or changed I'll be sure to make another article. But so far so good honestly. It's not Tribes: Ascend. That game just felt nice to play. This, while still having those very satisfying Tribes moments, doesn't give me that same satisfaction.

It's still very early days, however, and I hope that this new dev actually tries to finish this early access build, and gives us a long-lasting Tribes game. This franchise deserves it. 💯

Thank you for reading, you rock! (and maybe roll) 👏👏👏

🖼️ Image Sources: 01, 02, 03, 04 🖼️

Shout-out to the 🍕PIZZA🍕 gang, 🤙 gang. 🤙

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I hope you are having an amazing week! 🙌