Starsiege: Tribes, my favorite multiplayer game of all time, turned 20 years old today. It was developed by Dynamix and published by Sierra On-Line on November 30th, 1998.
Vehicles. Vast outdoor environments. Focus on teamplay. Base equipment and trinkets. Jetpacks offering full freedom of movement. Mixing and matching gear to create your own roles. Never the same game twice. Even today these features make Tribes stand out in a crowd of other FPS games, but in 1998 when the original Tribes was released, it was downright revolutionary. Whether you bought the box, downloaded the demo, or “borrowed” it from a buddy, chances are you’ve tried Tribes. If not, then you’ve still experienced its influence in any number of other games that have since embraced its successful combination of features.
Starsiege: Tribes was the first major online-only first-person action game. Long before Counter-Strike, Battlefield, and a host of other imitators, Tribes offered up more than 32 player support, different player classes, a variety of weapon kits, a handful of multi-passenger vehicles, loads of gameplay types, a wide variety of maps, and plenty of team-oriented features. This combination created a game that was an instant hit among fans.