Tribes | |
---|---|
Genres | First-person shooter |
Developers |
Dynamix Inevitable Entertainment Irrational Games Hi-Rez Studios |
Publishers |
Sierra Entertainment VU Games Hi-Rez Studios |
Platforms | Microsoft Windows, Linux, PlayStation 2 |
Platform of origin | Microsoft Windows |
First release |
Starsiege: Tribes 1998 |
Latest release |
Tribes: Ascend 2012 |
Tribes is a series of five science fiction first-person shooter video games that have been released between 1998 and 2012. The game plot is set in the far future (2471 - 3940). The series included Starsiege: Tribes, Tribes 2, Tribes: Aerial Assault , Tribes: Vengeance , and Tribes: Ascend.
The Tribes series begins in 2471, when a scientist Solomon Petresun invents the first cybrid, a bio-cybernetic hybrid artificial intelligence named Prometheus. Based on its design, thousands of cybrids are mass-produced as slaves. By 2602, Prometheus grows wary of humans and rallies all cybrids against humanity.
In Starsiege game, the Terran resistance manages to drive Prometheus' forces out of Earth and onto the Moon where they are decapitation by General Ambrose Gierling and his squad's. Prometheus, however, survives the explosion and to counter this threat, Petresun (having technically achieved immortality through his studies) proclaims himself the Emperor of Mankind in 2652 and succeeds in unifying and rebuilding the Terran civilization. Pursuing his goal of fortifying the Earth against the inevitable cybrid retaliation, Petresun ruthlessly exploits Martian and Venusian colonies, spawning massive resistance movements among the colonists by 2802.
The chronologically first game in the Tribes series is Tribes: Vengeance which was released in 2004. Set some time between the 33rd and 40th century, it shows the Great Human Empire, now ruled by "Imperial King" Tiberius, having hunted down (almost) all remaining cybrids and expanded beyond the boundaries of the Solar system through the so-called Interstellar Transfer Conduit. While the Empire itself is prosperous, there are outcasts, known as "the Children of Phoenix Weathers", whom they consider their progenitor. Their insubordination has made the Empire dispatch a great force of elite Imperial Knights, the Blood Eagles, against them, however, by the time of Tribes: Vengeance, the Eagles have fully embraced the Tribal way of life, considering themselves Tribesmen despite still having ties to the Empire.
The next (chronologically) game in the series, Starsiege: Tribes, 1998, sees the conflict between the Blood Eagles, the Children of Phoenix, and other tribes formed by the renegades of these two (such as the Star Wolf and the Diamond Sword) escalating into countless blood feuds before finally culminating in the devastating Tribal Wars about 3940.