Tribes 2

Tribes 2 is a multiplayer online game, designed for Internet or LAN play with up to 128 players (64 vs 64) or bots per match, although a small single-player tutorial mode is included. The game may be played from both first- and third-person perspectives. Each match takes place on an Earthsiege-themed map. The Tribes 2 engine, an early version of the Torque Game Engine, is capable of both indoor and outdoor maps, with expansive play areas. Player movement about the map may be on foot, using a jet pack, or in various ground and airborne vehicles as pilot, co-pilot, or passenger.

Each match is played according to one of a number of possible game modes, which dictate the rules of the match. These modes include Capture the Flag, deathmatch, Rabbit, Arena, Hunters, Siege, Gauntlet, and Bounty. Players are free to choose their own role, and may deploy various items of weaponry, vehicles, and emplacements. Many of these items can be left unattended to operate automatically, or control may be assumed by players.

Set in the year 3941 of the fictional Earthsiege universe, Tribes 2 allows the user to play as a soldier in one of several factions (referred to in the game as tribes), namely the Children of the Phoenix, the Blood Eagle, the Diamond Sword, and the Starwolf. Players can also choose to play a rebelling human-created soldier/worker race called the BioDerms. None of the factions differ from each other in strengths or weaknesses, but each has a distinctive look and background story.

Tribes 2 was developed by Dynamix as a sequel to Starsiege: Tribes. Mötley Crüe recorded a song for the game that was never released with the game.

On November 2, 2008, Sierra/Vivendi disabled the authentication servers required for its online multiplayer and dropped all official support for the Tribes franchise.

Tribes 2 received "generally favorable reviews" according to the review aggregation website Metacritic. Kevin Rice of NextGen said of the game, "It's not terribly friendly toward newbies, and the system requirements are stiff, but wow... There's nothing else this incredibly good for team-based multiplayer mayhem." Human Tornado of GamePro said, Tribes veterans will want to pick up Tribes 2, but newbies will need some patience to enjoy the game."

The game was commercially successful. Its sales had surpassed 200,000 units and were steadily rising by the time of Dynamix's closure in November 2001, according to the company's Dave Georgeson. Sales in North America alone reached 245,069 units by the end of 2001, according to PC Data. 7 million in revenue.