The original Starsiege Tribes was a landmark game for the first-person shooter genre. Combining huge maps, deep team-based multiplayer mechanics, jetpacks, and drivable vehicles, Dynamix' imaginative game laid the groundwork for the design of many of today's most popular multiplayer shooters, including the Battlefield games and Unreal Tournament 2004. The sequel, Tribes 2, was hampered by serious bugs upon launch and it disappointed many players in the Tribes community. Although the game was patched later and modded to a great degree by third parties, the damage was already done, and Dynamix was disbanded shortly thereafter. The development of the next Tribes game on the PC was then handed over to Irrational Games, best known for developing another classic first-person game, System Shock 2. The good news for Tribes fans is that Irrational's stewardship over the Tribes license is a resounding success. Tribes: Vengeance effectively captures the spirit of the original game, and adds a very good single-player campaign to a deep and addictive multiplayer component.

But the multiplayer aspect of Tribes: Vengeance is still the primary selling point of the game. It features a good amount of content out of the box, as well as a refined implementation of the tried-and-true mechanics that made 1999's Tribes game a hit. Maps support up to 32 human players, though it's a bit unfortunate that there's no option to play with or against computer-controlled bots. The base game type of Tribes: Vengeance, as in previous Tribes games, is capture the flag. Each of two teams has control of a complex base. Bases include sensor arrays, stationary turrets, inventory stations (for respawned players to pick up different armor and weapons), vehicle-spawning stations, and generators to power all these items. Successful teams have to manage not only offense and defense with regard to the flags, but also make sure that all base equipment is in good working order. This turns out to be an intense and interesting endeavor in Tribes: Vengeance.

One of the major disappointments of this game was the cancellation of the promised patch to follow the 1.1 patch.
"On March 23, 2005 it was announced that Vivendi Universal games were ceasing all support for the game, beginning with the termination of the 1.1 version update. This disappointed many members of the Tribes community who had been anticipating the release."

• Mobygames entry
• Wikipedia entry
• Official website