''Tribes'' is a series of five science fiction

first-person shooter First-person shooter (FPS) is a sub-genre of shooter video games centered on gun and other weapon-based combat in a first-person perspective, with the player experiencing the action through the eyes of the protagonist and controlling the pl ...

video games released between 1998 and 2012. The game plot is set in the far future (2471 – 3940). The series includes '' Starsiege: Tribes'', ''

Tribes 2 ''Tribes 2'' is a first-person shooter multiplayer video game developed by Dynamix and published by Sierra On-Line in 2001 as a sequel to '' Starsiege: Tribes''. Setting Set in the year 3941 of the fictional Earthsiege universe, ''Tribes 2'' ...

'', '' Tribes: Aerial Assault'', '' Tribes: Vengeance'', and '' Tribes: Ascend''. Tribes is a spin-off series from the

mecha In science fiction, or mechs are giant robots or machines controlled by people, typically depicted as humanoid walking vehicles. The term was first used in Japanese (language), Japanese after shortening the English loanword or , but the mean ...

simulation A simulation is the imitation of the operation of a real-world process or system over time. Simulations require the use of Conceptual model, models; the model represents the key characteristics or behaviors of the selected system or proc ...

series '' Metaltech''.

Plot

The ''Tribes'' series begins in 2471, when scientist Solomon Petresun invents the first cybrid, a bio-cybernetic hybrid

artificial intelligence Artificial intelligence (AI) is intelligence—perceiving, synthesizing, and inferring information—demonstrated by machines, as opposed to intelligence displayed by animals and humans. Example tasks in which this is done include speech re ...

named Prometheus. Based on its design, thousands of cybrids are mass-produced as slaves. By 2602, Prometheus grows wary of humans and rallies all cybrids against humanity. In ''

Starsiege ''Starsiege'' is a mecha-style vehicle simulation game developed by Dynamix and released in 1999. ''Starsiege'' is set in the Metaltech/ Earthsiege universe, which contains its predecessors '' Earthsiege'' (1994), '' Battledrome'' (1994), and ' ...

'', the Terran resistance manages to drive Prometheus' forces out of Earth and onto the Moon where they are believed to be eliminated by General Ambrose Gierling and his squad's suicide attack. Prometheus, however, survives the assault, fleeing into deep space. To counter this threat, Petresun (having technically achieved immortality through his studies) proclaims himself the Emperor of Mankind in 2652 and succeeds in unifying and rebuilding the Terran civilization. Pursuing his goal of fortifying the Earth against the inevitable cybrid retaliation, Petresun ruthlessly exploits Martian and Venusian colonies, spawning massive resistance movements among the colonists by 2802. The chronologically first game in the ''Tribes'' series is '' Tribes: Vengeance'' which was released in 2004. Set some time between the 33rd and 40th century, it shows the Great Human Empire, now ruled by "Imperial King" Tiberius, having hunted down (almost) all remaining cybrids and expanded beyond the boundaries of the Solar system through the so-called ''Interstellar Transfer Conduit''. While the Empire itself is prosperous, there are outcasts, known as "the Children of Phoenix Weathers", whom they consider their progenitor. Their insubordination has made the Empire dispatch a great force of elite Imperial Knights, the Blood Eagles, against them, however, by the time of ''Tribes: Vengeance'', the Eagles have fully embraced the Tribal way of life, considering themselves Tribesmen despite still having ties to the Empire. The next (chronologically) game in the series, '' Starsiege: Tribes'', 1998, sees the conflict between the Blood Eagles, the Children of Phoenix, and other tribes formed by the renegades of these two (such as the Star Wolf and the Diamond Sword) escalating into countless blood feuds before finally culminating in the devastating Tribal Wars about 3940. The sequel, entitled ''

'', 2001, deals with the insurgent uprising of ''BioDerms'', a new race of warriors/workers created by the Empire to replace the cybrids, and their assault on the ''Wilderzone'', the space frontier where the Tribes mostly reside. '' Tribes: Aerial Assault'', 2002, does not significantly contribute to the plot of the series.

Releases

In December 1999, Sierra cancelled an upcoming game in the series titled "Tribes Extreme"

Dynamix

''Starsiege: Tribes'' was released in December 1998. A single player version called ''Tribes Extreme'' began development shortly after the release of ''Starsiege: Tribes'', but was abandoned before completion. ''Tribes 2'' added additional vehicles (such as a two-person tank and a three-person bomber with a belly turret), weapons, and items. A few details of gameplay were changed; for instance, the original game made a player choose his load out while he was at a supply station (sometimes resulting in long lines to use the station), while the sequel required the player to choose his load out before he used the station. ''Tribes 2'' also included many features to help its community of players: it included user profiles, interactive chat areas, and message boards. The initial release of ''Tribes 2'' was plagued by bugs and slow performance on release. While a very stable build existed as late as 1 month before release, several changes were introduced in the last several weeks of development that compromised stability on most systems configurations. Several patches were released over the following year (first by

Dynamix Dynamix, Inc. was an American developer of video games from 1984 to 2001, best known for the flight simulator ''Red Baron'', the puzzle game '' The Incredible Machine'', the '' Front Page Sports'' series, ''Betrayal at Krondor,'' and the online ...

, later by

GarageGames GarageGames was a game technology and software developer. GarageGames was the parent company of GG Interactive, developers of educational technology in the areas of computer science, video game development and programming. In addition, the com ...

) to address these issues, including a day 0 patch that had to be run after installation before the game could be played.

Inevitable Entertainment

''Tribes: Aerial Assault'' was a

PlayStation 2 The PlayStation 2 (PS2) is a home video game console developed and marketed by Sony Computer Entertainment. It was first released in Japan on 4 March 2000, in North America on 26 October 2000, in Europe on 24 November 2000, and in Australia on 3 ...

version of ''Tribes 2''. Developed by

Inevitable Entertainment Midway Studios Austin (formerly known as Inevitable Entertainment) was a video game developer established by former Acclaim Studios Austin employees, founded as Inevitable Entertainment in 2000 and acquired by Midway Games in 2004. Responsible f ...

and published by Sierra, it offered simplified but significantly swifter gameplay (fewer maps and vehicles, and a subset of the original's voice commands) and network support for up to sixteen players at a time.

Irrational Games

''Tribes: Vengeance'' is a

prequel A prequel is a literary, dramatic or cinematic work whose story precedes that of a previous work, by focusing on events that occur before the original narrative. A prequel is a work that forms part of a backstory to the preceding work. The term " ...

to the other games, was released in October 2004. In addition to multiplayer support, it featured a full single-player game with a storyline. It was developed by

Irrational Games Irrational Games (known as 2K Boston between 2007 and 2009) was an American video game developer founded in 1997 by three former employees of Looking Glass Studios: Ken Levine, Jonathan Chey, and Robert Fermier. Take-Two Interactive acquired t ...

using a heavily modified

Unreal Engine Unreal Engine (UE) is a 3D computer graphics game engine developed by Epic Games, first showcased in the 1998 first-person shooter game ''Unreal''. Initially developed for PC first-person shooters, it has since been used in a variety of genres ...

to bring the game's appearance up to par with other modern first-person shooters. This new Tribes largely de-emphasized the focus on massive maps and slower gameplay that was typical of ''Tribes 2'' in favor of the swifter action of the original, battles were faster-paced, and teamwork and vehicles were less necessary. ''Tribes: Vengeance'' was released with almost no marketing support shortly after the release of

Doom 3 ''Doom 3'' is a 2004 survival horror first-person shooter video game developed by id Software and published by Activision. ''Doom 3'' was originally released for Microsoft Windows on August 3, 2004, adapted for Linux later that year, and ported ...

and

Far Cry ''Far Cry'' is an anthology franchise of first-person shooter games, all of which have been published by Ubisoft. The first game, ''Far Cry'', was developed by Crytek to premiere their CryEngine software, and released in March 2004. Subsequent ...

and just before the releases of

Half-Life 2 ''Half-Life 2'' is a 2004 first-person shooter game developed by Valve. It was published by Valve through its distribution service Steam. Like the original ''Half-Life'' (1998), ''Half-Life 2'' combines shooting, puzzles, and storytelling, and ...

and

Halo 2 ''Halo 2'' is a 2004 first-person shooter game developed by Bungie and published by Microsoft Game Studios for the Xbox console. ''Halo 2'' is the second installment in the ''Halo'' franchise and the sequel to 2001's critically acclaimed '' ...

. Sales were predictably poor. After six months, only 47,000 copies of the game had been sold. In March 2005, all support for ''Tribes: Vengeance'' was dropped, including a planned patch that would have addressed several bugs and added

PunkBuster PunkBuster is a computer program that is designed to detect software used for cheating in online games. It does this by scanning the memory contents of the local machine. A computer identified as using cheats may be banned from connecting to pro ...

support.

InstantAction

InstantAction InstantAction was a web gaming site and digital distributor featuring 3D, browser-based games. The site was created by GarageGames after being acquired by IAC/InterActive Corp in 2007 and released a year later. InstantAction's goal was to allow ...

announced ''PlayTribes'', a planned browser-based version of ''Starsiege: Tribes'', in March 2009 along with their acquisition of the ''Tribes'' intellectual property. An

open beta A software release life cycle is the sum of the stages of development and maturity for a piece of computer software ranging from its initial development to its eventual release, and including updated versions of the released version to help impro ...

was scheduled to release that summer but was continually pushed back. The game was shown publicly in September 2009 at PAX in a relatively playable state, but was eventually canceled after InstantAction sold the Tribes IP to Hi-Rez Studios in October 2010.

GarageGames

In February 2006,

"leaked" short videos of a tech demo which featured "tribes like" game play on their

Torque Shader Engine Torque Game Engine, or TGE, is an open-source cross-platform 3D computer game engine, developed by GarageGames and actively maintained under the current versions Torque 3D as well as Torque 2D. It was originally developed by Dynamix for the 2001 ...

. The demo made its debut at the 2006 GDC as "Legions", an allusion to the ''Tribes'' series for which the team is famous for. Announced officially in 2007 as a "spiritual successor" to ''Tribes'', '' Fallen Empire: Legions'' was marketed to the public in June 2008 on

, with development being handed over to the community after InstantAction was shut down in November 2010.

Hi-Rez Studios

On October 23, 2010, Hi-Rez Studios announced that they had bought the Tribes IP from InstantAction. Hi-Rez Studios released Tribes: Ascend, a multiplayer-only successor to Tribes 2 for the PC on April 12, 2012. ''Tribes Universe'' was a

massively multiplayer online A massively multiplayer online game (MMOG or more commonly MMO) is an online video game with a large number of players, often hundreds or thousands, on the same server. MMOs usually feature a huge, persistent open world, although there are ...

shooter developed by Hi-Rez Studios. The game, along with Hi-Rez Studios' ''Tribes'' IP acquisition from InstantAction, was first announced on October 23, 2010. While alpha testing was said to begin at the start of 2011, development on ''Tribes Universe'' was canceled when Hi-Rez Studios decided to start working on ''Tribes: Ascend''.http://forum.tribesuniverse.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=398&p=4937#p4937 Hi-Rez has been criticized by gaming communities for their handling of ''Tribes: Ascend'' and ''Global Agenda''. In 2013, Hi-Rez Studios announced they would stop releasing updates for both games, but planned to maintain active servers and customer support. Hi-Rez Studios did eventually come back to ''Tribes: Ascend'' in late 2015 and released several patches. The final patch for Tribes: Ascend was released in September 2016. In 2015 Hi-Rez announced that in celebration of the Tribes franchise 21st anniversary, all games in the franchise (starting with 1994's Metaltech: Earthsiege) would be free to download on the ''Tribes Universe'' webpage.