The cult first-person shooter series Tribes was feared dead, but Hi-Rez Games has jetpacked in to resurrect the franchise, this time as a massively multiplayer shooter – Tribes Universe.
Tribes was a well regarded series of run’n'gun shooters with an emphasis on teamwork, vehicles and large battlegrounds. Hi-Rez have snapped up the rights the the game and are said to be hard at work modifying the Unreal Engine servers that powered earlier version’s online play so that they can accommodate 100+ combatants in a single battle.
HI-Rez have their own multiplayer shooter, Global Agenda, which is designed around team play. The decision to extend Tribes seems to have come about because Global Agenda’s code doesn’t lend itself to the massively multiplayer direction in which Hi-Rez wanted to take their game.
The game is set to begin alpha testing early next year and Hi-Rez has said that it will be opening a site for alpha and beta testing registrations soon, with priority given to existing Global Agenda players.
Available TBC | £tbc | Tribes Universe (via Joystiq)
