Tribes 2 was developed by the now-defunct Dynamix and published by Sierra in 2001. It is a multiplayer sci-fi action game set in the year 3941 in which the player can play as one of several factions including the Diamond Sword, the Blood Eagle or the alien race known as the BioDerms.

What made the Tribes series different from competing games such as Quake III Arena and Unreal Tournament was its use of vehicles and large open map areas. In addition to this, gameplay was given an extra dimension by equipping every player with a jetpack.

The game has a very steep learning curve. It would take newcomers a long time to be able to move precisely with the jetpack. Entering vehicles was a particular problem for the inexperienced, which Dynamix aided with a later patch by allowing players to automatically respawn inside a vehicle when they purchased it. Skiing also took time to learn and, whilst it wasn't essential to get around the map, it was very useful for negotiating hills.

There are three classes available. The Scout class is very fast but has very little protection. Scouts do not have many weapon slots and cannot weild some of the more powerful ones but they alone can pilot the Wildcat grav cycle, use a laser rifle and use a cloaking pack.

The Assault class is the middleweight class with a decent level of armour and a decent amount of manoeuvrability. The only caveat is that it cannot pilot the speedy Wildcat grav cycle.

The Juggernaut class has a high level of protection but is very sluggish. He cannot pilot any vehicles (although another player can pilot him in a Havoc Heavy Transport vehicle) but can weild the Fusion Mortar, one of the most devastating weapons in the game.

Tribes 2's weapons require a great deal of skill in order to be used correctly. The most popular weapon is the SpinFusor which fires an exploding disc at the enemy. This would be easy to use in Quake but not in Tribes, where your opponent has a jet pack. Hitting an enemy in mid-air requires a lot of skill and practice. Other weapons include a Chaingun and an ELF gun which drains the target's energy reserves (whether it is a player or an electrical object).

Several vehicles are available, which can be spawned from vehicle pads. These include the lightweight and speedy Wildcat grav cycle, the one-man Shrike Scout Fighter, the Beowulf Assault Tank (with a gunner's seat as well) and the Thundersword Bomber for bombing enemy targets.

One of Tribes 2's most interesting features is that of the packs that players can obtain from inventory stations. These include the Energy pack which enables players to fly further with jetpacks; the Repair pack for repairing damaged objects, vehicles, other players and yourself; the Sensor Jammer which does exactly what it says it does and the Cloaking pack which makes the wearer invisible to players and sensors, but not thermal sensors.

Each team's base has several assets. These include generators for powering shields, vehicle stations and inventory stations; inventory stations for equipping the player with weapons, armour and packs; vehicle stations for spawning vehicles; base turrets and sensors for detecting and firing at the enemy. In addition to this, players can deploy remote inventory stations, turrets, sensors and security cameras. They can also change the barrels on the base turrets from say, AA (laser fire which is useful for taking out infantry) to missile (useful for taking out vehicles). These elements provide tactical depth to the game and it means that people can take on different roles (such as disabling the turrets in order to make life easier for flag runners) instead of everyone running for the flag.

There are lots of game modes available but Capture the Flag remains the most popular (as does the Katabatic CTF snow map). The other game modes are as follows:

Capture and Hold - you  gain control of towers (like Unreal Tournament's Domination mode) for a certain amount of time in order to score. However, be warned - if the enemy claims a tower, all of the turrets in the tower will attack you.

Siege - one team is charged with defending an objective, the other with attacking it. This is similar to Unreal Tournament's Assault mode.

Hunters - every time you kill an opponent, they drop a flag. You have to gather up these flags and take them to a central nexus in order to score. The more flags you score at the same time, the more points you get per flag. This can be risky though as other players will be on the lookout for someone carrying lots of flags.

Team Hunters - the same except flags points count for the whole team.

Deathmatch - probably the least popular mode as it's included in practically every other shooter.

Bounty - you must kill a particular target. If you kill anyone else, you will be penalised. Be warned however - someone has been instructed to kill you too.

Rabbit - this is basically tag but is very fun to play. One player grabs the flag and has to hold it for as long as possible whilst everyone else tries to grab it.

Team Rabbit - the same, only team members try to defend the carrier.

Team Rabbit 2 - included in a later patch, this was very much like soccer in which the player had to fire the flag through a goal.

The Tribes series has always been hovering close to the mainstream but never quite reaches it. Tribes Vengeance was aimed to bridge this gap but was commercially unsuccessful, probably due to the steep learning curve and the accusations of "dumbing down" by Tribes 2 purists (Tribes 1 purists said the same about Tribes 2).

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