A great philosopher once said, "Why d'you have to go and make things so complicated?" No, wait, that was Avril Lavigne. Somehow she's pinned the essence of Tribes in a way tiny Canadian sexpots - let alone Nietzsche - rarely manage. Fast shooters such as this should be all about the killing: switch on, squeeze pad, BANG. You're dead. There really is no need for a billion other little things to get in the way of this simple three-step process.

Of course, you can just start an offline game and get going, but in doing so you miss an awful lot of details. For instance, you must understand the balance of weaponry so you don't end up firing a short-range gun at a target miles away, merely chafing it. You should know to use SELECT to pick up new guns once you've got three - simply running over them doesn't work any more. You should also know to use square to activate target lock.

You're certainly not going to guess that, because any player who hasn't got spiders for hands must stop aiming (right analogue stick) in order to press it. Watch the target you're trying to lock on to as it leaves your now-stationary vision. Like, duh.

The way to learn these and the oh-so-many many more details is through the Campaign Mode. It's prologued by training modules but, despite the futuristic weaponry and equipment (Jet packs! Energy weapons! Green explosions!) they're slightly dull. In the same way Oliver Reed is slightly dead. Adding injury to insult, the ensuing 'campaign' is just a collection of arena matches linked by far-fetched briefings. Factor in randomly-deadly computer-controlled bots and a difficulty slider that seems unconnected to anything, and solo sessions - be they deathmatch, capture the flag, capture and hold or anything else - are a lot less fun than flying robo-death-suits should strictly be. Booing noises, if you will.

Go online. Smiles return. Ignore the complexities of deploying remote stations and automated turrets... there's probably a German player doing it anyway. The massive outdoor levels are far more fun when spattered with real players as fights tend to be longer, more inept and more frequent.

You can select targeting help even online, which seems to be missing the point somewhat. But then again, you are free to switch it off. And online is where the vehicles really shine. Yes, the myopic draw distance and attendant fogging - payoff for the solid but nevertheless elderly-looking graphics - are at their worst from altitude, but the unusual and highly entertaining new dynamic forgives this somewhat. Flying over a base en mass, watching ships explode alongside you is mortally amusing. It's just a shame that this isn't true of the rest of the game.

Graphics 70%
Clean but a bit old. Some bad fogging.

Sound 60%
Big explosions but repetitive voices.

Gameplay 60%
Amusing online, but a little over-complex.

Lifespan 60%
Plenty to do, but few will care.

Overall 60%
Tribes has some entertaining elements, but is tiresome offline and fiddly. It just doesn't make the grade.