Tribes 2 Multiplayer Showcase: Day Five

Day Five: Deathmatch and Bounty

This past week, we've been profiling all the different multiplayer modes in Sierra's upcoming Tribes 2. We've spent countless hours playing with the latest beta, and we've reported on five of the ways you'll be able to play the game when it ships in the coming weeks. Today, we wrap up our weeklong look at the game with impressions on the last two multiplayer modes, deathmatch and bounty. Both have similar gameplay in that they have no objective but to frag other players. No pesky flags to hold and return, and no points to sit around and defend. They are straight-out free-for-all action modes.

Deathmatch is the same every-man-for-himself kind of mode that's typical of first-person shooters. It's a staple FPS game mode, and it's almost necessary to include it so that deathmatch players are not alienated. Because maps in deathmatch are so large, quite a few players are required to make the mode fun. Otherwise, the pace is far too slow to be able to compare it to other games. However, the fact is that people are not going to buy Tribes 2 solely for deathmatch. But in light of this, deathmatch in Tribes 2 is actually useful in that it builds combat skills. If a player constantly loses confrontations in any of the other game modes, then perhaps deathmatch is the way to learn how to start coming out on top.

There are a variety of maps, which range from large open areas to close-quarter combat indoor areas. Through lots of practice, you can learn which weapons are suited for every situation and test the ranges on projectile weapons. You can also learn the limitations of each armor-type in terms of speed and strength. In open areas, you need to learn how much energy to conserve so that you can move quickly when a disk or grenade comes toward you. Indoor areas are perhaps the most useful because almost all the weapons have splash damage, so in close situations, you can hurt yourself or your teammates. You can practice where to aim your weapons in these situations to prevent this from happening. Just like controlling weapons and armor in other games, Tribes 2 deathmatch players should prevent anyone else from using the inventory station. You start with only the spinfusor, and once the ammo is gone, you are defenseless.

Bounty is a very fun form of deathmatch. You are given a target to kill and are awarded a point for eliminating the target. A new target is then assigned to you, and it eventually makes its way through the list of other players in the game. If there are seven players in the game, the first player who kills all seven targets on his or her list is the winner. The other players (who aren't the target) are called bystanders, and a player is penalized for killing a bystander. In fact, not only does the player lose a point for killing a bystander, but his or her list becomes offset by one target as well. So by using this scenario of seven players, a player who kills one bystander will have to eliminate eight targets. However, players are not penalized for killing the person who is in pursuit of them.

Thanks for being a part of our weeklong Tribes 2 feature. If you missed any of the daily entries, simply follow the previews archive link in the upper right-hand corner.