Decent game at first, but once you gain experience you really start to see a lot of glaring issues.

For starters, the menu structure is horrible and feels like something designed for consoles. Attempting to change a weapon or perk in the middle of a game is frustrating and time consuming. It takes a bunch of mouse clicks and key presses just to change 1 item.

Weapons lack balance! The most superior weapons in the game are machine guns and sniper rifles, while the iconic weapons like the spinfusor fail to keep pace in outdoor fights. If you come across a midfield battle against a machine gun and don't have one equipped yourself, chances are you're going to die in that fight 95% of the time. Especially with the terrible design decision to make your screen compulsively shake every time a bullet hits you. Then you have the snipers that can cover an entire map single handely. It's pathetic when one sniper can shut down a whole team of cappers.

Shrike lacks balance! Again, another weapon in the game that can single handely dictate the pace of almost any game. A decent shrike pilot can run over countless cappers with absolutely no drawbacks. The shrike is also literally impossible to hit with any weapon weapon unless it's near the ground. The only real threat to a shrike pilot is the saberlauncher and everyone knows what a joke that weapon is. It's more of an annoyance to a pilot than a threat. Then you have people who will just buy a shrike and go technician and use cheap glitches like mid-air repairing, where the person hops out of his airplane mid-air, lands on the shrike and fixes it while it floats in the air. It esentially makes the shrike invicible and impossible to kill and nullifying any damage you do to it.

Netcode is awful. If anything is above 80ms ping, the gameplay is pretty bad. Everything becomes extremely jumpy and hard to hit. Have fun trying to catch some guy that takes the flag and is lagging. He will be telporting and jumping all over the place making it impossible to land a hit. Then there is also the horrible hit detection, even with normal pings. When you're involved in a chase after someone at a fast speed and shooting at them, you will at times see an explosion land directly on your opponent or very close to his character model, but it won't deal any damage.

Chasing a flag carrier is impossible at high speeds. Trying to catch up to someone who just took your flag at 250+ speed from a standstil flat land is extremely hard. Especially with the vast majority of back to front routes that let you cap the flag in a few seconds flat, or someone that is on a. Extremely frustrating game mechanic in CTF and probably why barely anyone ever chases in pub games. The only time you will see anyone go chasing the flag is when it's a very slow guy taking it and walking off with it.

No proper team balance. Countless pub games are team stacked and end in 5-0 scores very frequently.

A good majrority of people agree that most of the maps are awful, and the only good ones are the ones that are ported from earlier tribes games.

Wonky physics that makes you feel like you're floating instead of actually flying. Feels like a hover pack instead of a jetpack.… Expand

This game looks pretty, and is easy to jump in and play. For me, though, I found the physics and controls to be very wonky and unintuitive. The skiing + jet pack stuff just doesn't feel smooth to me, and I never really felt like I was going that fast either (even at speeds where I would never get shot or hit things that I was shooting at). There also seem to be class / weapon balance issues, but that's not unusual for a game like this. I can see why people would enjoy playing this, but it's just not my style I guess.… Expand

There is so much potential with this game, but sadly it falls short by straying too far from all the things that made Tribes great and adopts too much from Call of Duty. I played Beta since September so I am speaking with months of gameplay experience when I say what a huge let down this game is. 1. Physics aren't quite right. Skiing is more like skidding on ice and jetpacks don't regen fast enough. 2. Too many machine guns. All previous Tribes had one machine gun style weapon for a reason: it's by far the least interesting, unskilled and abused weapon in the game. 3. The preset load outs and 2 weapon limit greatly reduce the customization and gameplay options when compared to previous Tribes games. 4. Mortar is broken. Arc is wrong, distance is pathetic and the arming time is too long. 5. Disc jumping is terrible. Regenerating health is terrible. Spawning in your loadout is terrible. Orbital bombardments are terrible. All these things serve to unbalance the game.… Expand

Not that this is a bad game, it's free after all but its only a 5 to me. Since its only half as good as tribes 1 and 2. Way to much content have been stripped from the game and it just feels empty compared to the old ones! And it really really feels like a console game :( Would be okey if i was on a console i guess, but every console got the first 200 sci-fi shooters already. And this just feels like another unreal engine console port.
If you did play the old tribes you will know that tribes deserves a dedicated engine to handle the task.… Expand

Tribes:Ascend seems like a good game, and is mostly. However, this is the kind of game where the little things are eventually going to become annoying. I mean mostly weapons with area of effect only, deathmatch where kills do not matter (but holding the flag does) , capture the flag maps that seem to be impossible to defend, a generator that doesn't do much on the best days, and loses the game on the others. Even the unlock system is pretty obnoxious, you get to unlock a weapon or a class that might be virtually useless, without any information whatsoever, and they do cost a bit. The practice/training session could let you try all classes, but no. That would be too easy, I guess. The innovative skiing system is nice, but tbh I wasn't really so good at it. I can ski, but I can't really sky and shoot so much. I guess I should mention, most of the weapons fire plasma projectiles with weight, so you have to lead your aim. What's worse, they inherit your speed and momentum, so if you jump, for example, the plasma "blob" will inherit the jump momentum, and go slightly upwards. This is actually a pretty neat change from the usual point and click. Oh, yeah,and I forgot to mention the voice chat spam. "Shazbot" will become a part of the english vocabulary soon enough, and part of your nightmares way before that. I did have fun killing some guy or the other, so the game has it's moments, but for me, games are about winning. I couldn't figure a way to win in this game. Maybe you can.… Expand

After about a month of this game, I think I have played enough to form a proper opinion.

Tribes: Ascend has two severely conflicting features. It has the Tribes game mechanic, which are incredible, and it has the Free to Pay scheme, which is terrible.

If everyone was equal, this would be a truly amazing game. Combat is fast-paced, based entirely around accuracy and split-second timing, and has rich tactics. The classes all play differently in a good way, and excel in different situations, and different weapons can be used differently depending on your environment and range to target.

Unfortunately, you don't get to any of that unless you spend money on the game. You start with three classes, and those classes in turn start with less health, less energy regeneration, less ammo, less weapons, and less perks than anyone who has paid into the game, even if they're using the same class that you are. For being "not pay to win," this is surprisingly noticeable in the game. In theory, everyone would be able to unlock weapons through "experience points" at a reasonable rate, but unfortunately the way Hi-Rez has weighted the costs of the items, it takes (litterally) about 300 matches at 20 to 30 minutes each to unlock ONE new weapon, never mind classes, perks, armor upgrades, and upgrades the weapons you've unlocked.

That's right; it takes well over one HUNDRED hours of play time to get a single weapon. Grand total cost to unlock everything (currently) in the game directly? About $150. And that's only currently existing items; expect more to be added faster than you can unlock them at your pitiful one-weapon-per-month rate with free points alone.
Because different weapons are better in different situations, "all weapons are good in some way." Unfortunately, all weapons are also BAD in some way... usually some way that is extremely easily exploitable by someone using... you guessed it: a weapon they paid money to unlock. The real issue isn't the different weapon matchups; the issue is that the combat in the game is 90% about switching weapons, classes, and loadouts to exploit your opponent's weakness, which is literally impossible to do without paying money into the game. As a result, spending money on the game gives you a clear advantage, which is the one thing Free to Pay schemes should never do, from a gameplay standpoint.

To be fair, this wouldn't be a problem if it was consistent. The problem lies in the fact that some people are earning their way up the ladder, while other people bought the weapons and classes directly, and then simply spend all their XP on upgrades so that even if you DO get the same class and weapon, their version of the class is STILL more powerful than yours.

Technically, you can unlock everything in the game with XP. But you won't. You won't even come close. The most generous estimate my calculator gives me is that it takes about 1250 hours of matchmaking to unlock everything in Tribes: Ascend without any payments. That's six months solid if you treat the game like a full-time job. And by then, you'd have to start over on everything that had been added to the game since.

TL;DR: Great game mechanics, but expect 9 out of 10 of your deaths to be from someone using a weapon you haven't unlocked yet and probably never will.… Expand

Had loads of fun with this game at beta. Then it just got worse. And worse. And worse. And worse with every single update they released which is odd considering Hi-Rez studios pride themselves on listening on the community which has clearly not been the case for this game. Originally, they threw a few mixed updates both with good and bad, nerfing some of the obnoxious explosive weapons but then they tugged down the weapons that requires actual aiming and started adding more explosives instead with not the slightest hint of concern for balancement in regards to rewarding players for aim or tactics. I thought that all the good stuff had to be in the paying section so I threw them a couple of bucks to try more content just to be met with even worse weapons, including a set of daggers that you could throw for around 200-300 damage each depending on enemy armor quite slowly with extremely precise aiming and timing required or pick up the standard silenced SMG that spews out hundreds of rounds per minute for 50 damage each. I asked for a refund not too long afterwards, explaining my disappointment and they insisted on having my account closed due to their inability to retract purchases manually which is a shame because now I've lost all hope of returning to the game once things have been polished but hey, at least they honored people refunds which is more than I can say for most US companies right now.… Expand

A good break from the every other slow fps these days. Sadly the developers did not understand the importance of only the Heavy classes (other than sniper/sentinal) having high velocity projectile weapons, which prevented the unbelievable amount of spray-and-pray-spamming that takes place in this game. They also completely ruined the amazing customization of player characters. No longer can you choose Heavy, Medium, Light, instead they are uselessly split up into 9 "different" classes. Most of which have only 1 or 2 packs to choose from and as few weapons. In comparative terms its like going to checkers after playing chess your whole life.… Expand

Tribes: Ascend is a solid game buried by poor balance and developer greed. At first it seems fair, everyone has the same choices in gear so it's mostly skill based unless someone buys unlockable weapons via the cash shop, but in the beginner queue these crutches don't give much of an advantage over a more skilled player. After ranking up past 6 though, the entire game goes to **** Matches are stacked regularly, all the high ranked players flock to one team and curbstomp the other, unlockable gear is extremely unbalanced/overpowered and goes weeks with no fix, certain classes are just better versions of others, and the biggest point is automatic weapons completely defeat projectiles which is the main drawing point of tribes in the first place. Weapons take over 20 hours of gametime to unlock, and many of them are straight upgrades over vanilla gear, so a person with vanilla will always lose to a person with unlocks, and this is how they make their money as you can buy unlockable weapons with real cash, 10USD for a single weapon when each class has 3+ weapons to unlock. It's a damn shame because the actual gameplay is a lot of fun, but when you lose to someone with unlocked gear every single time, not because they're better than you, but because they bought an advantage, what's the point of even playing the game? At this point the game can't be fixed barring a complete rebalancing of almost all the weapons and classes in the game, and they can't do that when people have already paid real cash for their easy mode gear.… Expand

Mediochre game. Unlike basicaly all modern shooters, Tribes does not use unlagged code, which means that latency (ping) is not compensated. This does for a "back to the 90s" feeling, where low pingers always had a massive advantage. Plus its not realy "free to play", its more "pay to win" unless you will spend hundreds of hours to even get the basics for free.

If you got a very low ping, fail to excel in modern shooters and desperately need another fps, Tribes might just be the niche game you are looking for. Otherwise, move on, waste of time. Oh, and note how most positive user reviews here have been written on certain days, like april 12th ... small and dedicated community ;) So most likely the user score for this game is fake.… Expand

Tribes is, unfortunately, a victim of the phrase "different, not better." Skiing is strange, but interesting, the wide open maps are refreshing...

The weapon balance poor, team interaction non-existent and the whole thing a chaotic mess. Spam explosives at flag and really, use only explosives in doors. It's not tense, simply manic, and in a bad way.

My god this game is bad.. How can people rate this so high?

How can people play this pay to win game?

They really have shot themselves in the foot by focussing on money grabs instead of proper balance and fixing core issues.

I hate to review games based on their business models, but Tribes: Ascend is just another low quality production with extremely generic maps (no interacts with environment available), mediocre technical work and low production value on top of being a traditional F2P.

While the main complaint about F2P is the P2W (pay-to-win) argument, it isn't reason it's bad. F2P models generally feel cheap because in most cases it is. Low production value has always been a hallmark of F2P games with the exception of those made by Valve (TF2 and DOTA2).… Collapse

Where can I start with this game? Rough edges on the graphics, boring sound effects, running around the map waiting to find SOMEONE, ANYONE to kill, and then suffer due to the atrocious controls, which are by far the worst of any game I have ever played. Not only is the game simply boring, but games often end as completely one-sided as I've seen across any game I've ever played. I realize this is a beta, but the base gameplay of this leaves me with a rotten taste in my mouth. The maps are also far to big, as I spent a good 90% of my time trying to get back to my team. All that is really left to say is: Thank God it was free.… Expand

Pay to win game. Pay to win game. Pay to win game. Pay to win game. Pay to win game. Pay to win game. Pay to win game. Pay to win game. Pay to win game. Pay to win game.

Thus far I've played about 3 hours. It has some interesting movement dynamics. The game is entirely team based however, I don't think there is a community intercom to coordinate. The game also makes the same shotguns for nubs/mgs for pros error, without a stair step for difficulty. It's a decent timewaster, its enjoyable, but it oesn't draw me in with invention or divergent playstyles. Its a fairly 1 track minded shooter without a lot of the options. the pay to compete thing here isn't as bad as say World of Tanks, but it's present nonetheless. I think a 6 is suitable.… Expand

Tribes is an okay game. It doesn't really yield anything special. It's really just another way to get your money. The game play is pretty good. I like the idea of surfing around. Because everyone is constantly moving, it's very hard to camp. If you stand still for more than 10 seconds, you are sure to be dead. Most of the weapons are total crap. The default classes are very good. They just want to you to pay money to unlock the other crappy classes. The stealth class is just absolute trash. You have to shoot at enemies and the bullets travel so incredibly slow. You can't just aim and shoot. You have to predict and hope you hit them. The bullets do almost no damage. The classes just aren't balanced at all. The only reason I give it a 6 is because it's not that bad of a game. It's just not very fun and enjoyable. Could be a whole lot better though.… Expand

This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. i got a feeling i have played games like this before, it is like...yes every other shooter game ,did not amuse me ,have nothing bad to say really but ,i would not play further… Expand

You would do well to just avoid this. As for the critics I doubt they plug this because its good.
They say its good so the public buys. Best to talk to real gamers with years of exp in games
So glad I did not try the other tribes, no surprises if this dies of within a few years tbh.