Tribes: Ascend Video Review

One of the best free-to-play games ever, Tribes: Ascend is a breath of fresh air in an overly crowded genre. Watch our video review of the latest installment in the classic FPS series then leave us a comment telling us what you think!

Get more Tribes coverage on IGN:

[robbiefazle]

This game is one of my favorite free-to-play games ever. Such an amazing game.

[alex]

Thats what made the tribes series so iconic.

[Darkwildchild]

Let me tell you a story:
The CoD series still haven't had seen the day of light when the first tribes game was released, back in 1998. And from what I remember, it always stayed loyal when it comes to gameplay. When the first CoD game came out, there were already 2 Tribes full titles released already. If you want to compare this game with something, compare it to Quake 3 (which is, btw, the engine from which the first CoD was based on).

[terrakinesis]

High speed adrenaline packed game. Still my favourite after all these years. I have never spent a thing on the game but others do allowing them access to advanced weaponry from the beginning.  I prefer it to all the games I have bought, and believe me, we have a few in the house!

[Mrcool]

1:35 FEEL THE WRATH OF MY REPAIR GUN ROCKET!

[Tneal]

This game deserves way more attention than it has. It was instantly fun the first 10 minutes i played!

[davidee]

It was unveiled on March 11, 2011 at the Penny Arcade Expo East, and was released on April 12, 2012

Borderlands 1 was released 26 October 2009.
Halo : The first title in the series is the Xbox version of Halo: Combat Evolved, released on November 15, 2001.

[gmanist]

I have so many memories playing the original Tribes. I can't believe I haven't heard of this new one!

[Katabatic]

The first Tribes game released in 1998. It had skiing (which was a bug, but they kept it because it made the game more fun)

[Aukerai]

In regards to weapon upgrades (T:A specifically) they are unlocked as you play (ie. +20% dmg on armored target) now, or can be instantly granted for 15k xp. This was the major change in the 'Accelerate' patch a while ago.

In regards to the weapons themselves, few weapons offer an advantage. Even the Nj5b, which grants additional damage, comes at the cost of lower firerate and slightly more skill in leading. There are a few expections (Plasma Gun), but these are banned in competitive play.

[FreestylaBoy]

Please people. Continue to play this! I want to continue to play this awsome game.

[zephyr]

VEHICLES ARE NOT LAME GOD DAMMIT.

Alot of the best fun ive had in this game has been riding with friends in bikes, suiciding in shrikes, or going on killstreaks in tanks

[ThysiosX]

For $30 you can buy more than you need. I spent $30 and I unlocked every class, then I found some classes I liked and unlocked some weapons/upgrades for them. That was more than enough to keep me going until I earned a lot of experience so I could just use that to buy further unlocks.

You can't unlock 'everything' but I'm pretty sure there isn't many people who play every class with every possible weapon.

[deathrow]

When you're speeding along at 180 and you nail that kill, oh so satisfying.

[sladikk]

1:34
Oh no! An incoming missile as a soldier! I better repair my lack of talent with my repair tool that I took on offense!
1:44
Using a combination of skiing on the completely flat parts...
2:40
Strikes require a lot of skill and timing to use(which I obviously don't have)
2:44
DURP DE DURP, I'LL JUST LUMBER OVER HERE WITHOUT SHOOTING ANYTHING

[Zoran]

I would disagree with the vehicles part. The Cycle doesn't do much damage but it gets you around the map and serves as a great distraction, the Tank is quite powerful if you can score a hit, just don't rush into the enemy base with it, and the Jet is actually really good overall.

[Daxter]

When the game was still controller enabled, I managed to get two blue plates with my controller :P but it was a pain in the ass to move around at fast speeds, hold on to the jetpack and aim properly.

[FLDS]

not to start a flame war, but why do you think of BLR as paytowin? it may be because i am very bad at Tribes, but it feels as though things are unlocked way faster in BLR.
what do you think of the upgrades on weapons? more ammo capacity, more firerate (if i'm correct, haven't played in quite a while) etc. that sounds like a straight upgrade to me, but i don't know if it makes much of a difference.
( my connection is very bad, sorry if this is a double post)

[CrunchyPotatoes]

It's built with UT3. It even says so when you start it up.

[CrunchyPotatoes]

The veichles aren't "lame", just difficult to use and if they spawned for free it would ruin the competive side of the game. For example having a Shrike can seriously help out your team a lot.