Tribes: Ascend Officially Launches

Hi-Rez Studios announced that they've completed the beta test for Tribes: Ascend. You can download the game and starting playing for free right away.

The company bills Ascend as the "world's fastest shooter." Jetpacks and vehicles play a prominent role in gameplay. It's a much different feel than other shooters. Finding your enemy isn't the challenge; hitting him while the two of you soar past each other at high speed is.

The full game features nine player classes, five game types and 16 maps. Hi-Rez added new content throughout the beta and should continue to do so after launch. Soon they plan to introduce a custom server feature so players can tailor matches to their liking.

"For the past 15 months, we've had a very passionate dev team working hard toward this goal," said Todd Harris, Hi-Rez Studios' chief operating officer. "Along the way some publishers told us modern gamers couldn't handle an FPS that was fast-paced and skill-based. We believe otherwise. Players seem to agree since we've had well over 500,000 join our Beta. We're excited to now grow the community further with the official release."

Ascend has been in open beta since February, and closed beta since late last year. Hi-Rez says testers racked up over 150 million kills and captured over three million flags.