I’m so thankful for Tribes 3 Rivals. Developer Prophecy Games has brought back the fastest multiplayer shooter on PC, eight years on from the final update to Tribes Ascend, and it’s already seen a positive reception, becoming the most played FPS game during the recent Steam Next Fest. Now, we have a release date for the official early access launch, and it’s surprisingly soon. Outpacing the likes of Call of Duty, Halo, and Counter-Strike 2, and even zooming past the high speeds of Titanfall 2 or classic Doom and Quake multiplayer, it’s time to get ready for Tribes 3 Rivals.
For those of you who missed out on the previous games, which date back to the ‘90s and the pioneering original Starsiege: Tribes, Tribes 3: Rivals is very much a return to the fast-paced format that won the hearts of many, myself included. The key here is its combination of jetpack flight and ‘skiing’ – the ability to hold a button to effectively ignore the usual laws of friction and slide effortlessly across the rolling hills of its open-world maps – to build up phenomenal speed as you zip around.
That makes its core capture-the-flag format unlike anything you’ve played in other top FPS games before or since, as you can soar in and out of the enemy base in a flash with a little practice. With its pick of light, medium, and heavy class types, Tribes 3 offers you the choice of how much you want to lean in on this mobility, or if you prefer tooling up with heavier weapons to blast those annoying targets out of the sky as they hone in on your flag. Judging an enemy’s trajectory just right and nailing a mid-air kill on a moving target – a trick known as a ‘blue plate special’ – is perhaps the most fist-pumping feeling I’ve ever felt in any multiplayer FPS.
Prophecy Games, built as a spin-off studio from former Tribes developer Hi-Rez, says that Rivals “is crafted with input from the Tribes community, ensuring an experience that honors the series’ legacy while introducing fresh elements to keep gameplay exciting and engaging.”
At launch, it will offer a competitive 7v7 mode and a more casual 16v16 format, along with additional modes such as time trials, a tutorial and shooting range to help you perfect your technique, and custom lobbies. Personally, I’m hoping it follows the recent trend set by Palworld, Helldivers 2, and Last Epoch and soars up the Steam charts faster than I can slide through an enemy base.
Tribes 3: Rivals launches on Tuesday March 12 via Steam Early Access. It’ll be on sale at a discount for launch, so expect to pay $17.99 if you buy it then, down from its usual price of $19.99. If you want to try it right now, however, there are a few hours left on its current playtest at the time of writing, so you might be able to get in a few rounds if you’re quick. If not, however, you won’t have long to wait.
Can’t get enough of the competition? Worry not, as there’s plenty of the best multiplayer games to keep you busy until then. Or, if you’ve just got to go fast, check out the best parkour games for a multitude of ways to do that.
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