The 1001 list entry for Tribes 2 makes it clear that, after all this time since its original launch, to experience the game at its fullest is to put in hours of practice before going up against professionals on fan-run servers.
I'm relatively confident in saying that I'm not going to be experiencing Tribes 2 to its fullest, then, but let's see how far we can get.
Fun Times
Playing this FPS game today is much easier than I thought it'd be, because it, along with a load of other Tribes titles, is freely available for you to download and fire up, patched to still work and capable of chucking out silly resolutions for today's monitor setups.
The intro video is short and simple, centred around some guys defending a flag. If there's one multiplayer first-person shooter mode to describe Tribes 2, it would appear to be Capture the Flag. I can respect that. It's been a long time since I've played a proper game of Capture the Flag. Excluding previous entries on the 1001 list, at least.
I have only seen Tribes 2 in video form. It's not an oft-referenced game, so I've no idea how I came across it, but to see it in motion is to see a game with the movement more fluid than liquids. Players can jetpack into the air and ski down hills as though the game is running on some kind of skateboarding engine. It's marvellous.
Frustrations
But I saw none of that. Bar the tutorial mission that taught me to hold Space when going downhill, I saw nothing as cool as the videos of the game. What was I missing, other than skill?
I hopped into a random Capture the Flag map against a bunch of average bots, but there was nothing but flat land or jagged peaks. It was snowing, so skiing would have been appropriate, but I couldn't gracefully traverse the map as I wanted to - like a pro.
Instead, I was fumbling with movement, which defaults to ESDF, and trying to get a handle on the shooting mechanics. Because of the movement possibilities, a lot of the weapons dish out splash damage, so that you don't have to be a wizard with your shot placement. That's fine, I won't be complaining about that. But some weapons' usefulness is directly tied to the amount of energy you have, and that energy is shared between weapons, a jetpack and a shield if memory serves. How can you pull off all these maneuvres with so little?
Turns out, I couldn't. I resorted to playing Tribes 2 like I would any other FPS. I know I'm not a crack shot, so my skills are more suited to strategy and approach. I can get you in, but you'll have to do the rest, so to speak, and got in I often did.
Getting out was just not happening.
I tried three maps and quit each one of them. I've no idea what the scores were, but I don't think there was a lot of success from either side. Where I was, the maps were empty, and as soon as I nabbed a flag, the defence turrets spun around to wallop me in the face, and there were the defenders who just weren't there a minute ago.
The bots were chattering away, telling each other who was going forward and who was hanging back, but it did nothing. They were doing their own thing, I was doing mine, neither plan worked. I just wasn't having any fun with Tribes 2.
Final Word
"So play against people, then. Get good, then. Learn the controls, then. Remap ESDF to WASD." Why? I'd have to put in hours of practice to be able to traverse the entire map in seconds, gracefully skirting above the floor at the speed of sound, launching myself so high into the air that the draw distance beneath my feet fails me, and I have to rely on my own map knowledge to know where I am.
There was a time in my life where I would dedicate that many hours to an FPS game, but those days are long gone. Tribes 2 is for the truly dedicated, especially after nearly two decades now, and that isn't me.
I was expecting the whole game to be about people whizzing across the map as though it wasn't even there, but that's just not the case. That's what it looks like when you're in the top 1%. Down with the riffraff, Tribes 2 is just another FPS, and not a terribly good one until you put in the work.
Fun Facts
Mötley Crüe apparently recorded a song for Tribes 2, but it was then never released with the game.
Tribes 2, developed by Dynamix, first released in 2001.
Version played: PC, 2001.
Version watched: PC, 2001 (multiple YouTube highlight reels)