Gameplay examined

The devil is in the details

Again, the main focus of Tribes 2 Classic and its changes has been speed in an attempt to restore the lauded gameplay of the first game. However, doubling or tripling movement speeds of the various armors will inevitably affect the game in numerous ways. How does it all boil down?

As we discussed before, the game has quite the faster pace, without moving into the arena of ridiculous. There is always someone at your base, and you always have someone at theirs. Only in the rarest of circumstances will you go off to cap a flag, or defend yours, and not find someone there aiding or hindering you. This has in many ways forced a skill increase in the player base, not only do you have to learn to ski all over again, find new routes and so forth, but you also have to learn to counter those aspects. The average light defense-man in the original Tribes 2 base could defend against two cappers with an ELF. Now, you’re gonna need several folks if you want to reliably stop cappers, or you’re going to need to learn how to body-block cappers, mine disk, flag-stand disk and more. Many of these gameplay changes have opened up an exponential range of skill increases, and much like the first game, there is no master player - you will not hit a skill cap any given time soon.

Soaring across the water

Note the mine he just dropped hanging out by his feet

Bird's eye-view

But the speed also has a few impacts in some areas that weren’t given as much detail. For example, if you fail to stop a capper at your stand, or the second or two thereafter, the only way you’re going to stop him nine out of ten times is via the laser rifle or let him slow down back at his base and off him there. This has to do with two crucial details, the chaingun, though serving its purpose in Tribes 2 Base against slower targets, simply can’t keep up with the average capper in T2: Classic. Therefore, chasing a capper with a chaingun is more a matter of attrition than a surefire way to stop a cap. Secondly, the air mobility given to players, while boosted several times as this point, still isn’t as concise as it was in the first Tribes with the same speed conditions. As a result, cappers don’t have the necessary air control to make them difficult to hit by laser rifles.

These details, though appearing minor are what capture the flag and Classic are centered around. Only a small handful of options are given to stop a capper. If you fail to stop a capper at your base, the best method of stopping him thereafter is having a teammate pluck the flag off their stand, allowing allied flag chasers to return the flag. The flag chase in the field, with a few exceptions, is largely a thing of the past.

It’s not impossible to disk jump after a capper and keep up with him, but the chase isn’t half as effective as the above scenarios. Caps in Classic, nine times out of ten, are stopped 200 meters from your base or theirs.

Looking for a target

All beat up.

Who turned the lights off