Tribes: Vengeance

[A Black Falcon]

Anyway... about the game. It's got multiplayer of course, but unlike Tribes 1 or 2 it's got a single player campaign. Not surprising from Irrational Games, Looking Glass survivors who also made System Shock 2... and also not surprising from such a team it's a well crafted single player mode with a great story. The story also is realistic -- that is, I'd say that it's realistic in its depiction of why people would do the kinds of things they do in the campaign. Lots of games just stereotype one group into being "the bad evil guys" (especially in the FPS genre!) but this does a good job of it... and the great gameplay doesn't hurt either. :) I like the (more common now) aspect of how you can only have a few weapons, not a whole arsenal. And each of the three types of armor (light, medium, heavy) has a unique weapon. The combat is different... normal in a lot of ways, but then you realize that you can jetpack up and (hopefully) out of harm's way. Changes fights a lot. Also leads to a map design with lots of big open areas... sure, the areas aren't quite as big as maps in Tribes 1 or 2. Limitations of the Unreal engine. They're still quite big, though... certainly large enough that I'm not going to complain much. It's dramatically different from what you see in most FPSes... for the outdoor levels that is. The indoor ones are unfortunately much more conventional... yes, you often progress up or down instead of always forward, but still, it's just linear progression and it's almost always obvious where you are supposed to go next. It's good that you can't get too lost, but a bit more variety and choice would be good here.... ah well. I can keep hoping for that, though it sure doesn't show up much in FPSes. And the outdoor levels are definitely like that.