It sets a new level of net play, and is the mark against which Team Fortress II and Quake III Arena will have to compete. It's pretty hard to add plot to a game that's based completely around multiplayer mayhem, but Dynamix gave it a good go. By holding one eye shut and squinting out the other, they ve managed to port yet another facet of Battletech without actually breaking the copyright, and have given us robotic body armor covered Tribesmen who resemble, minus the giant robots, Mechwarrior's Clans. It might be a bit cheesy, but it works, and gives a theoretical background for all these constant battles. Plus, with the title of Tribe those who formed Clans and Companies in other multiplayer games now have a sense of legitimacy, and a reason for their purpose.
Battlegrounds cover miles of territory, with rolling hills, valleys, bridges, and floating citadels.
For the first time in any first person shooter I've played, the sense of a tight battle within confined quarters has been removed. Even in Quake II CTF s relatively large levels, the space between bases was always less than a ten-second crossing, because of the engine limitations on level size. With Tribe s huge levels, battle has a more realistic feel than ever before. There are only a few downsides in an otherwise superbly attractive game, and most of them have to do with both people and the weapons being excessively blocky. It's not bad, and the levels don't suffer from the same, but some of the weapons could have done with a bit more oomph to both their appearance and effect, with the lovely exception of the mortar cannon.