Heavies + Spamming Explosive weapons = Tribes Ascend
The game play is fast and frantic, there are enough classes and specifications to keep you interested for a while and graphically it's all rather lovely.
The server system seems a little bit awkward and lonesome to begin with, the queuing for a server makes it almost seem like a XBL or PSN which I personally don't like but saying that you hardly have to queue at all, it's always been within 5 seconds of me pressing the button to the system finding me a server to play my chosen mode on.
There is enough options for graphics detail, screen resolutions, windowed mode etc to keep you happy, it's really nice to see a game that's made for the PC and it really shows.
So over all I think the game is pretty damn awesome, it reminds me a lot of CS:S where you use space bar to ski and mouse wheel to bunny hop, giving yourself boost and trying to keep things fluid in motion.
It plays a lot like Unreal Tournament 3 for me which is understandable due to the Unreal engines that Hi-Rez use, that isn't a bad thing for me personally though, just means it runs well, is stable and is full of action !
Now I have given the game a 6.5, even after I said how much I like it and this is due to the following reasons.
Balance - Well heavy classes in general.
In terms of classes, the heavy classes are very over powered in my view, they have 3/4 times more health then a light class, their main weapons do a huge amount of damage for very little skill, something like the Juggernaut for example will do 1300 dmg with a large blast radius from his main gun and when you compare this to a Sentinel which is the sniper class, a full scoped shot will do between 300-350 damage.
The heavy classes have some serious fire power with their secondary weapons, Spinning disc weapons, Heavy machine guns, Chain guns, Missile launchers and all of which do more damage then the main weapons of the light classes.
Heavy classes also get some totally over powered grenades which have a large blast radius along with massive damage and generally they can use their energy well so mobility isn't an issue.
When you have a top ranked heavy class with all the upgrades then your in big trouble.
When you have 80% of the server as heavy classes then there seems to be a problem, I don't know if they will ever edit it, personally I don't think they will.
Heavy class + explosive spam = Top scorer.
Sentinel - AKA sniper class.
Maybe I'm just terrible but this class is almost totally useless if it wasn't for the claymore mines which are good for defending.
A fully charged sniper shot doesn't take out light classes, you will need to do 2 fully charged shots for that and when you think the games based upon going fast, it's not that easy to hit things going at 100mph.
The secondary weapon which is some sort of laser revolver that does more damage per shot and more dps then your sniper rifle, says a lot really.
XP rate.
The rate that you win XP is super slow, you can pay for an XP boost, which will boost your XP by 50%, you basically buy some Tribes gold and the boost is included, if you really like the game then you will probably spend real money at least once, otherwise you will probably become annoyed and frustrated how low the normal XP rate is.
A great game which is slightly ruined for me due to more thoughtful and skilled classes/players not really rewarded.
It's F2P and is well worth playing.