Tribes Ascend Review

Ascend is a great entry into the Tribes series. The fast team based gameplay is preserved and modern features make it feel fresh.

Posted by Ben Thomas on April 27, 2012 - 9:30am EST

Buying alternative weapons, like the MIRV launcher for the Juggernaut, may cost around $8 each. Or you can play for 2 hours a day, with $4 worth of paid boosts, and unlock that weapon in under a week. Impoverished gamers will need to play for about four weeks to unlock the same weapon without boosts. Buying 12 weapons using boosts is cheaper than a full priced game and the quality is comparable. With more weapons and skins being added the price to buy everything could skyrocket. However, if you are continually playing, the XP will keep accumulating

Sticky grenades are immensely satisfying when you land them

Being F2P opens the floodgates to a wider audience. One challenge is making this high skill shooter a viable long term option for new players. The immediate problem is the skill disparity between veterans and newbies. A hard problem to tackle in any online shooter, but better matchmaking and ranked games may alleviate the growing issue. Alongside the inclusion of many automatic weapons, Ascend draws inspiration from modern shooters. You can call in an orbital strike with credits earned during a match. Health regenerates without the flag, so multiple disc jumps along a route are common. Players can even select from perks that might give you an extra grenade or jetpack energy after taking damage. Ranking, badges and accolades freshen up the experience.

Ascend will change over the following months although it’s hard to see it changing as much as some other F2P shooters. The framework allows a natural expansion of classes with skins and weapons. New maps are going to be free, so as not to fracture the community. We will attempt to revisit the game in a few months to see how much has changed and if the game is still on the right track. Right now it’s easy to get into a game with good player populations. Ascend captures the magic of the series without feeling dated.

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Our ratings for Tribes: Ascend on PC out of 100 (Ratings FAQ)

Presentation

The weapons and effects are great, even the character models are well designed. Levels are fairly simple to suit the franchise, has some mediocre LOD transitions.

Gameplay

It�s all about speed and air time, combine that with a class system and you have the opportunity for some exhilarating moments in a variety of modes.

Single Player

No single player apart from free roam, a training map to try locked weapons and a skiing challenge map.

Multiplayer

The core of Tribes has always been multiplayer. Ascend has solid net code and very fast matchmaking into dedicated servers. Easy to pick up and play for short or long durations.

Performance

(Show PC Specs)

CPU: AMD Phenom II 955 @ 3.2GHz
GPU: Sapphire Radeon HD 5850 1GB
RAM: 4GB DDR3
OS: Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit