Tribes: Aerial Assault

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Tribes: Aerial Assault
Tribes Aerial Assault.jpg
Developer(s) Inevitable Entertainment
Publisher(s) Sierra Entertainment
Director(s) Bey Bickerton
Producer(s) Jaime Grieves
Designer(s) Bey Bickerton
Jim Richardson
Eric Lanz
Dave Meddish
Artist(s) Cyrus Lum
Composer(s) Timothy Steven Clarke
Series Tribes
Platform(s) PlayStation 2
Release
  • NA: September 24, 2002 [1]
Genre(s) First-person shooter
Mode(s) Single-player, multiplayer

Tribes: Aerial Assault is an online first-person shooter video game released for PlayStation 2 in 2002 by Sierra Entertainment. It was one of the first PlayStation 2 titles designed almost exclusively for online play and was the first online PlayStation 2 shooter that supports both modem and broadband connections. [2] It was announced in tandem with Sony's online strategy for the PlayStation 2 at E3 2001. [3]

Contents

Gameplay

Tribes: Aerial Assault is a first-person shooter game with an emphasis on mobility. There are many game types in the single-player campaign and multi-player, including capture the flag (CTF), capture and hold, hunter, team deathmatch, and deathmatch. Campaign usually consists of some mixture of these game types.

In all games but hunters and deathmatch, there are team and player points. Depending on the game style, team and player points can reflect two completely different things. Player points are usually earned through an individual player's accomplishments that help the team as a whole. Player points are earned by setting and deploying equipment, repairing friendly assets, destroying enemy assets, defending friendly assets, and completing objectives of the game.

Like most first-person shooters, Tribes: Aerial Assault has a Heads Up Display (HUD). The HUD consists of a crosshair, health, energy reserve, grenades and grenade type, pack type, armor heat, lock-on detection, and vehicle condition. The HUD also has target identification, that is, a red arrow over the target is an enemy, a green arrow is a friend. An unusual feature of Tribes: Aerial Assault is the jetpack feature. The jetpack runs on armor energy and allows players to fly for short to medium distances.

Story

It is the year 3945 A.C. (five years after the events of Tribes 2). On the frontier "Wilderzone" of human space, hardy neo-barbarian tribes compete for possession of new worlds. Tribal warriors enter combat in powered armor, relying on skill and bravery to win glory. BioDerm Hordes have started to invade tribal space. Though the tribes boast of being the finest warriors humanity has ever produced, they face a genetically modified race that has literally bred itself for battle. The stakes are epic, and the Wilderzone is aflame with a new kind of war. The player controls J. Ransom, a recently recruited newblood. After a training segment, the story follows J. Ransom through missions to fight off the BioDerm horde and keep control of tribal space.

Development

Tribes: Aerial Assault for the PlayStation 2 demonstrated at the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) in 2002 Tribes Aerial Assault for the PlayStation 2 at E3 2002.jpg
Tribes: Aerial Assault for the PlayStation 2 demonstrated at the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) in 2002

Like Halo: Combat Evolved the year before, Sierra had hoped that gameplay elements popular on the PC would translate well to console and would catch on with a much bigger audience. Unlike the Xbox however, the PlayStation required an external device for online connection, which despite the console's success, limited the game's potential audience. In addition, PlayStation online functionality did not arrive in Europe until June 2003, and Ethernet ports were not added to the PlayStation 2 until 2004.

Sierra Entertainment was the publisher for Tribes Aerial Assault. Tribes Aerial Assault was developed by Inevitable Entertainment. As Tribes Aerial Assault was a port from the PC game Tribes 2. Essentially making it a simplified Tribes 2 for the Playstation 2 console. [4]

In early November 2008, Sierra shut down the online servers for 21 games, including Tribes: Aerial Assault. In 2015, the game was released as freeware by Hi-Rez Studios. [5]

Reception

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

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References

  1. ↑ "Tribes Aerial Assault Ships". IGN . September 24, 2002. Retrieved July 17, 2024.
  2. ↑ "Tribes Aerial Assault online update". Gamespot. September 26, 2002. Retrieved December 28, 2020.
  3. ↑ Shoemaker, Brad (May 17, 2001). "E3 2001 Hands-on: Tribes 2 PS2". Gamespot. Retrieved December 28, 2020.
  4. ↑ tribesaerialassault.com. "tribesaerialassault.com". tribesaerialassault.com. Retrieved November 8, 2023.
  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. Retrieved October 30, 2015.
  6. 1 2 "Tribes Aerial Assault for PlayStation 2 Reviews". Metacritic . Retrieved June 16, 2017.
  7. ↑ EGM staff (November 2002). "Tribes Aerial Assault". Electronic Gaming Monthly . No. 160. p. 292. Archived from the original on June 4, 2004. Retrieved June 16, 2017.
  8. ↑ Brogger, Kristian (November 2002). "Tribes Aerial Assault". Game Informer . No. 115. p. 116. Archived from the original on November 19, 2005. Retrieved June 16, 2017.
  9. ↑ The D-Pad Destroyer (September 27, 2002). "Tribes Aerial Assault Review for PS2 on GamePro.com". GamePro . Archived from the original on February 6, 2005. Retrieved June 16, 2017.
  10. ↑ MacDonald, Ryan (October 1, 2002). "Tribes Aerial Assault Review". GameSpot . Retrieved June 16, 2017.
  11. ↑ Satterfield, Shane (October 30, 2002). "GameSpy: Tribes Aerial Assault". GameSpy. Archived from the original on November 7, 2005. Retrieved June 16, 2017.
  12. ↑ Bedigian, Louis (October 6, 2002). "Tribes: Aerial Assault Review". GameZone. Archived from the original on December 27, 2008. Retrieved June 16, 2017.
  13. ↑ Smith, David (September 26, 2002). "Tribes: Aerial Assault". IGN . Retrieved June 16, 2017.
  14. ↑ Rybicki, Joe (November 2002). "Tribes Aerial Assault". Official U.S. PlayStation Magazine . p. 194. Archived from the original on June 19, 2004. Retrieved June 16, 2017.
  15. ↑ "Review: Tribes Aerial Assault". PSM . November 2002. p. 51.
  16. ↑ Lee, Ed (October 14, 2002). "'Tribes: Aerial Assault' (PS2) Review". X-Play. Archived from the original on December 16, 2002. Retrieved June 16, 2017.
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