Software:Tribes: Vengeance

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Short description: 2004 video game
Tribes: Vengeance
Tribes: Vengeance box cover
Developer(s)Irrational Games
Publisher(s)Vivendi Universal Games[lower-alpha 1]
Producer(s)Chris Mahnken
Tony Oakden
Designer(s)Edward Orman
Programmer(s)Rowan Wyborn
Artist(s)Andrew James
Writer(s)Ken Levine
Composer(s)Eric Brosius
SeriesTribes
EngineUnreal Engine 2 (Build 2226)
Platform(s)Windows
Release
Genre(s)First-person shooter
Mode(s)Single-player, multiplayer

Tribes: Vengeance is a science fiction first-person shooter video game developed by Irrational Games and released by Vivendi Universal Games in October 2004. It was built on an enhanced version of the Unreal Engine 2.5, which Irrational Games called the Vengeance engine. Part of the Tribes series, in addition to its multiplayer network maps, Vengeance includes a complete single-player campaign.

Gameplay

As a primarily first-person shooter, Tribes: Vengeance places the player in control of an infantry soldier in power armor. While the game is tailored for first-person shooting, the player can also toggle to a third-person view at any time. Additionally, there are multiple pilotable vehicles, which are restricted to third-person camera.

The game's most distinguishing features are the jetpacks and "skis" offered on all variants of the power armor. Jetpacks allow the player to fly for short periods of time, using the player's energy meter. This energy regenerates whenever the jetpack is not active. Skiing may be activated any time the player is on foot and does not cost energy; this switches the player to a frictionless ground-travel mode, allowing the player to slide very rapidly down slopes and (with sufficient speed before activating the skis) across flat terrain. Skiing up a slope will cause the player to slow due to gravity.

Combat occurs primarily with ranged weapons, including bullet and explosive projectile firearms. Each character, vehicle, and machine has hit points. Anything with hit points may be repaired by "repair packs"; infantry may also pick up medkits dropped by other infantry upon death. The game offers three classes of armor: light, medium, and heavy. Heavier armor offers more hit points and ammunition but slower movement.

The player has three weapon slots, grenades, and a utility slot; the utility slot holds items such as repair packs, speed packs, energy packs and deployables like repair stations, turrets and inventory stations.

The introduction of a grappler gun adds another aspect to movement in the game. This is the first and only game in the Tribes franchise to include such a mechanic.

Single-player

The single player campaign follows five playable characters (Victoria, Daniel, Julia, Mercury, and Jericho) whom the player navigates through 18 missions. The missions are played in achronological order, set either in "The Past" (Victoria, Daniel, Julia, Mercury) or in "The Present" (Julia, Jericho, Mercury), with the former detailing the story of Julia's birth and childhood and the latter describing her search for vengeance upon the Tribals and later, for her own psychological identity.

Multiplayer

The multiplayer mode offers five different default game types and a diversity of map locations. Players are ranked during matches by points they acquire through the match. You can get offensive (killing an opponent, capturing a flag, or destroying enemy equipment), defensive (returning a flag, repairing your equipment, or killing an enemy flag carrier), or by style points (hit a head shot with a sniper rifle, or hitting someone in mid-air with a spinfusor disk).

  • Arena is a 'Team Free for All' in which two teams fight for up to 9 rounds. There is no respawn, so once a player dies, they must wait for the next round before they can play again. Whichever team has more rounds won at the end of a match wins. This game type is inherited from earlier Tribes games.
  • Ball is a game type where two teams play against each other with a goal for each team. There is a single ball located somewhere on the map, usually in the middle. The objective is to get the ball and throw it into the enemy's goal. Whichever team has the most points at the end wins. This game is original to Tribes: Vengeance, but also resembles Unreal Tournament 2003 and Unreal Tournament 2004's Bombing Run game.
Maps can differ from a lush terrain like this to a rough desert landscape.
  • In Fuel, both teams have a fuel depot at their base. There is one neutral fuel depot which the players can collect fuel from, as well as a depot for each team. Players may stand within these to gradually steal fuel or, if it is their own team's, to deposit fuel. The less fuel in the depot, the slower it takes to collect it. As well as the depots, players can collect fuel cells from the ground that may have originally spawned there randomly on the game's start, or have been dropped upon a player's death. The maximum amount of fuel a character can carry is 15, and each fuel cell contains a specific amount of fuel. Whenever a player dies, their team's fuel depot loses one unit of fuel. Whichever team fills their depot first is the winner. This game type is original to Tribes: Vengeance
  • Rabbit is the only 'Free for All' game mode in Tribes: Vengeance. In this, there are no teams, but a single flag on the map somewhere, usually in the middle of the map. The objective for every player is to retrieve the flag and run. Whenever a player retrieves the flag, every other player will be alerted, and whoever has the flag will be marked as their enemy. Points are gained by holding on to the flag as long as possible and killing the other players. Points are lost by killing somebody who does not have the flag. No points are gained by killing the flag carrier. The game is timed, and whoever has the most points at the end is the winner. This game mode is common to all Tribes games, as well as many other games.
  • Capture the Flag mode is similar to its Tribes equivalent. There are two teams, each with a flag and a flag stand. The objective for each team is to capture the enemy flag and bring it back to their base. However, the team's flag must be at their flag stand in order for them to capture the enemy's flag. Points are awarded for every flag capture, and for every flag return. The game can be ended by time running out, or a team capturing the enemy flag until the max amount of captures achieved. If it is ended by time, whichever team had more points wins. Matches can end in the event of a tie.

Plot

Set hundreds of years before the events of Software:Starsiege: Tribes, Vengeance depicts the birth of the growing Tribal War. It focuses on the events surrounding five different characters over the course of two generations and how they each contribute to the developing war. The story ("The Past") begins with a Phoenix sub-clan leader named Daniel (voiced by Gabriel Olds[3]) abducting the soon to be Queen, Princess Victoria. He takes her to his home world to show her the injustices done to his people, and the two eventually fall in love. During this time, a cybrid assassin named Mercury is hired by an unknown contractor to eliminate Daniel, but the hit is called off moments before the shot is fired. Victoria and Daniel try to make amends between the Imperials and the Phoenix, but it ends disastrously when the Phoenix's enemies, the Blood Eagle tribe, stage a raid on a Phoenix base disguised as Imperial troops. Feeling betrayed, Daniel kills the Imperial King, Tiberius, whom Victoria avenges by killing Daniel. It turns out that Victoria is pregnant with Daniel's child, who is born female and named Julia soon thereafter.

Years later, Daniel's brother, General Jericho (Steve Blum[3]), raids the Imperial Palace and kills Victoria in front of Julia. As a result, Julia (Tara Strong[3]) becomes an anti-Tribal extremist and uses her standing and fighting prowess to humiliate the Tribals at every opportunity (in "The Present"). Eventually, she captures the leader of the Phoenix, Esther (Nika Futterman[3]), and stages a trap for Jericho. Jericho, however, is killed by Mercury before Julia can exact her revenge. She then learns about her true father and goes to Esther for guidance. Esther trains Julia as a Phoenix, accepts her into the Tribe, and the two try to mediate peace. At this point, news arrives that the Blood Eagles have taken Olivia (Ellen Crawford[3]), late Victoria's sister and Julia's last living relative, captive. Julia hurries to her rescue but discovers that Olivia has, in fact, been Mercury's mysterious employer and a co-conspirator of the Blood Eagle leader Seti all along. Together, Olivia and Seti try to orchestrate an industrial accident to kill a large number of Imperial civilians and escalate the Tribal War, but Julia succeeds in foiling their scheme.

Although the game's ending sees Mercury and Seti killed by Julia, Olivia escapes in the last moment, leaving the story without a definite conclusion. This may have been addressed on in the unreleased patch as an additional story mode.

Development

On March 23, 2005 it was announced that Vivendi Universal Games was ceasing all support for the game, beginning with the termination of the 1.1 version update. In a January 2006 interview, in response to suggestions of a falling out between VU Games and Irrational, Ken Levine commented:[4]

...This falling out with VUG is some kind of Jedi mind trick, man. We just finished an expansion pack [for SWAT 4] for them, and it went as smooth as cream cheese. With Tribes, we did a patch, and for whatever reason they decided not to release it.

In 2015, the game was released as freeware by Hi-Rez Studios.[5]

Reception

Reception
Aggregate score
AggregatorScore
Metacritic83/100[6]
Review scores
PublicationScore
CGWStarStarStarHalf star[7]
Edge7/10[8]
Game Informer8.5/10[9]
GameRevolutionB+[10]
GameSpot8.8/10[11]
GameSpyStarStarStarStar[12]
GameZone9/10[13]
IGN9/10[2]
PC Gamer (US)70%[14]
X-PlayStarStarStar[15]
The Sydney Morning HeraldStarStarStarStar[16]

The game received "favorable" reviews according to the review aggregation website Metacritic.[6]

Tribes: Vengeance was a runner-up for Computer Games Magazine's list of the 10 best computer games of 2004.[17]

The game won the Australian Game Developers Awards in the categories of Best PC Game and Best Game of 2004.[18]

References

  1. ↑ Bramwell, Tom (October 5, 2004). "Tribes: Vengeance official MP demo". https://www.eurogamer.net/news051004tribesvengeance. 
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 Butts, Steve (October 5, 2004). "Tribes: Vengeance". http://www.ign.com/articles/2004/10/05/tribes-vengeance. Retrieved June 29, 2017. 
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 "Tribes: Vengeance Updated Q&A - The Characters of Tribes: Vengeance". 29 March 2004. https://www.gamespot.com/articles/tribes-vengeance-updated-qanda-the-characters-of-tribes-vengeance/1100-6092442/. 
  4. ↑ Thorsen, Tor (January 12, 2006). "Q&A: Irrational's Ken Levine on the Take-Two takeover [date mislabeled as "January 16, 2006""]. https://www.gamespot.com/articles/qanda-irrationals-ken-levine-on-the-take-two-takeover/1100-6142322/. Retrieved June 29, 2017. 
  5. ↑ Sykes, Tom (October 30, 2015). "Hi-Rez makes previous Tribes games free". PC Gamer. Future plc. Archived from the original on October 30, 2015. https://web.archive.org/web/20151030184042/http://www.pcgamer.com/hi-rez-makes-previous-tribes-games-free/. Retrieved October 30, 2015. 
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 "Tribes: Vengeance for PC Reviews". https://www.metacritic.com/game/tribes-vengeance/critic-reviews/?platform=pc. Retrieved June 29, 2017. 
  7. ↑ Chick, Tom (December 25, 2004). "Tribes: Vengeance". Computer Gaming World (246): 80–81. http://www.cgwmuseum.org/galleries/issues/cgw_246.pdf. Retrieved June 29, 2017. 
  8. ↑ Edge staff (December 2004). "Tribes: Vengeance". Edge (143). Archived from the original on May 14, 2005. https://web.archive.org/web/20050514102938/http://gamesradar.msn.co.uk/reviews/default.asp?pagetypeid=2&articleid=32693&subsectionid=1609. Retrieved June 29, 2017. 
  9. ↑ "Tribes: Vengeance". Game Informer (140): 185. December 2004. 
  10. ↑ Sanders, Shawn (October 21, 2004). "Tribes: Vengeance Review". Game Revolution. Archived from the original on September 19, 2015. https://web.archive.org/web/20150919084513/http://www.gamerevolution.com/review/tribes-vengeance. Retrieved June 29, 2017. 
  11. ↑ Colayco, Bob (October 6, 2004). "Tribes: Vengeance Review". https://www.gamespot.com/reviews/tribes-vengeance-review/1900-6109720/. Retrieved June 29, 2017. 
  12. ↑ Osborne, Scott (October 8, 2004). "GameSpy: Tribes: Vengeance". GameSpy. http://pc.gamespy.com/pc/tribes-vengeance/555578p1.html. Retrieved June 29, 2017. 
  13. ↑ Eberle, Matt (October 4, 2004). "Tribes: Vengeance - PC - Review". GameZone. Archived from the original on October 5, 2008. https://web.archive.org/web/20081005194943/http://pc.gamezone.com/gzreviews/r22041.htm. Retrieved June 29, 2017. 
  14. ↑ "Tribes: Vengeance". PC Gamer: 90. December 25, 2004. 
  15. ↑ White, Todd (November 23, 2004). "Tribes: Vengeance Review". X-Play. Archived from the original on November 24, 2004. https://web.archive.org/web/20041124154304/http://www.g4techtv.com/xplay/features/50414/Tribes_Vengeance_Review.html. Retrieved June 29, 2017. 
  16. ↑ Ring, Bennett (October 30, 2004). "Tribe vibes". The Sydney Morning Herald. http://www.smh.com.au/news/Games/Tribe-vibes/2004/10/29/1099028200792.html. Retrieved June 29, 2017. 
  17. ↑ Staff (March 2005). "The Best of 2004; The 14th Annual Computer Games Awards". Computer Games Magazine (172): 48–56. 
  18. ↑ "The Australian Game Developers Conference". http://www.agdc.com.au/about/arch04_awards.php. 
  1. ↑ Released under the Sierra Entertainment brand name
  • Official website (archived)
  • MobyGames is a commercial database website that catalogs information on video games and the people and companies behind them via crowdsourcing. This includes over 300,000 games for hundreds of platforms.[1] Founded in 1999, ownership of the site has changed hands several times. It has been owned by Atari SA since 2022.

Features

Edits and submissions to the site (including screenshots, box art, developer information, game summaries, and more) go through a verification process of fact-checking by volunteer "approvers".[2] This lengthy approval process after submission can range from minutes to days or months.[3] The most commonly used sources are the video game's website, packaging, and credit screens. There is a published standard for game information and copy-editing.[4] A ranking system allows users to earn points for contributing accurate information.[5]

Registered users can rate and review games. Users can create private or public "have" and "want" lists, which can generate a list of games available for trade with other registered users. The site contains an integrated forum. Each listed game can have its own sub-forum.

History

Logo used until March 2014

MobyGames was founded on March 1, 1999, by Jim Leonard and Brian Hirt, and joined by David Berk 18 months later, the three of which had been friends since high school.[6][7] Leonard had the idea of sharing information about computer games with a larger audience. The database began with information about games for IBM PC compatibles, relying on the founders' personal collections. Eventually, the site was opened up to allow general users to contribute information.[5] In a 2003 interview, Berk emphasized MobyGames' dedication to taking video games more seriously than broader society and to preserving games for their important cultural influence.[5]

In mid-2010, MobyGames was purchased by GameFly for an undisclosed amount.[8] This was announced to the community post factum , and the site's interface was given an unpopular redesign.[7] A few major contributors left, refusing to do volunteer work for a commercial website.{{Citation needed|date=June 2025} On December 18, 2013, MobyGames was acquired by Jeremiah Freyholtz, owner of Blue Flame Labs (a San Francisco-based game and web development company) and VGBoxArt (a site for fan-made video game box art).[9] Blue Flame Labs reverted MobyGames' interface to its pre-overhaul look and feel,[10] and for the next eight years, the site was run by Freyholtz and Independent Games Festival organizer Simon Carless.[7]

On November 24, 2021, Atari SA announced a potential deal with Blue Flame Labs to purchase MobyGames for $1.5 million.[11] The purchase was completed on 8 March 2022, with Freyholtz remaining as general manager.[12][13][14] Over the next year, the financial boost given by Atari led to a rework of the site being built from scratch with a new backend codebase, as well as updates improving the mobile and desktop user interface.[1] This was accomplished by investing in full-time development of the site instead of its previously part-time development.[15]

In 2024, MobyGames began offering a paid "Pro" membership option for the site to generate additional revenue.[16] Previously, the site had generated income exclusively through banner ads and (from March 2014 onward) a small number of patrons via the Patreon website.[17]

See also

  • IGDB – game database used by Twitch for its search and discovery functions

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Sheehan, Gavin (2023-02-22). "Atari Relaunches The Fully Rebuilt & Optimized MobyGames Website". https://bleedingcool.com/games/atari-relaunches-the-fully-rebuilt-optimized-mobygames-website/. 
  2. ↑ Litchfield, Ted (2021-11-26). "Zombie company Atari to devour MobyGames". https://www.pcgamer.com/zombie-company-atari-to-devour-mobygames/. 
  3. ↑ "MobyGames FAQ: Emails Answered § When will my submission be approved?". Blue Flame Labs. 30 March 2014. http://www.mobygames.com/info/faq7#g1. 
  4. ↑ "The MobyGames Standards and Practices". Blue Flame Labs. 6 January 2016. http://www.mobygames.com/info/standards. 
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 Miller, Stanley A. (2003-04-22). "People's choice awards honor favorite Web sites". Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. 
  6. ↑ "20 Years of MobyGames" (in en). 2019-02-28. https://trixter.oldskool.org/2019/02/28/20-years-of-mobygames/. 
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 Plunkett, Luke (2022-03-10). "Atari Buys MobyGames For $1.5 Million". https://kotaku.com/mobygames-retro-credits-database-imdb-atari-freyholtz-b-1848638521. 
  8. ↑ "Report: MobyGames Acquired By GameFly Media". Gamasutra. 2011-02-07. https://www.gamedeveloper.com/game-platforms/report-mobygames-acquired-by-gamefly-media. 
  9. ↑ Corriea, Alexa Ray (December 31, 2013). "MobyGames purchased from GameFly, improvements planned". http://www.polygon.com/2013/12/31/5261414/mobygames-purchased-from-gamefly-improvements-planned. 
  10. ↑ Wawro, Alex (31 December 2013). "Game dev database MobyGames getting some TLC under new owner". Gamasutra. https://www.gamedeveloper.com/business/game-dev-database-mobygames-getting-some-tlc-under-new-owner. 
  11. ↑ "Atari invests in Anstream, may buy MobyGames". November 24, 2021. https://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2021-11-24-atari-invests-in-anstream-may-buy-mobygames. 
  12. ↑ Rousseau, Jeffrey (2022-03-09). "Atari purchases Moby Games". https://www.gamesindustry.biz/atari-purchases-moby-games. 
  13. ↑ "Atari Completes MobyGames Acquisition, Details Plans for the Site's Continued Support". March 8, 2022. https://www.atari.com/atari-completes-mobygames-acquisition-details-plans-for-the-sites-continued-support/. 
  14. ↑ "Atari has acquired game database MobyGames for $1.5 million" (in en-GB). 2022-03-09. https://www.videogameschronicle.com/news/atari-has-acquired-game-database-mobygames-for-1-5-million/. 
  15. ↑ Stanton, Rich (2022-03-10). "Atari buys videogame database MobyGames for $1.5 million". https://www.pcgamer.com/atari-buys-videogame-database-mobygames-for-dollar15-million/. 
  16. ↑ Harris, John (2024-03-09). "MobyGames Offering “Pro” Membership". https://setsideb.com/mobygames-offering-pro-membership/. 
  17. ↑ "MobyGames on Patreon". http://www.patreon.com/mobygames. 
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