FPS-Z

First-Person Shooter-Z (FPS-Z, FPS+Z, or simply FPSZ) is a sub-genre of first-person shooters that emphasize player movement in the Z-axis through the use of jetpacks or other similar device.

Definition

The term FPS-Z was first coined sometime around 2006 of 2007 by former Tribes Vengeance: Renegades and Ascension developer Rooster128 to help differentiate games like Tribes from other first-person shooters. FPS-Z's are essentially the same as first-person shooters, with the obvious emphasis on movement in the Z axis. Generally FPS-Z's are played in the first-person perspective, but some do include an optional third-person view. Though not the first, many consider the Tribes franchise to be the quintessential and most successful FPS-Z series. While many games before and after included elements of Z-axis movement, the Tribes series completely revolves around this aspect. Although they feature the same freedom of movement, FPS-Z's shouldn't be confused with six degrees of freedom(6DoF) games. These include space combat and simulation games such as Freespace, Freelancer, and Eve Online.

When dealing with Arena shooters such as Quake there's a bit of a grey area, since while players can easily propel themselves through the air by using rocket jumps or other similar mechanics, it's hard to say whether or not there's emphasis in this kind of movement when compared to a game like Tribes: Ascend. Instead of outright saying a game is or isn't an FPS-Z, it may be better to use a scale of sorts to measure the 'amount' of emphasis in the Z-axis.

History

1990's

In 1998, Sierra On-Line released Starsiege: Tribes, the first of five Tribes games which some consider the land-mark FPS-Z video-game series.

2000-2010

In 2001 Sierra released Tribes 2, the sequel to Starsiege: Tribes. Although movement was a bit different, overall it was very similar to the first game and featured the standard Spinfusor, Chaingun, Blaster, along with new weapons. It originally included clan and player profiles, along with email, chat, league tables, tournaments and message board functionality all within the game client. In 2002 Sierra released Tribes: Aerial Assault for the PlayStation 2, the first and only Tribes game for a console. It is essentially Tribes 2 ported to the PlayStation 2, and included online multiplayer.

In October of 2004 VU Games released Tribes: Vengeance. While it was met with mixed reactions from the community, it garnered generally positive reviews from the industry. Along with the usual multiplayer modes such as Capture the Flag and Arena, Vengeance also included a complete single-player campaign, the only Tribes game to include one. Support was dropped roughly 6 months after release, including the release of a planned patch.

In 2006 there were talks of a game some simply refered to as 'Tribes Legions', which was essentially a tech demo showing off GarageGames' new Atlas Terrain. After some polish the small team from GarageGames decided to show off their work at GDC 2006, and it was eventually decided to start developing it into a full-fledged game. In 2007 GarageGames was bought by the New York investment company IAC and renamed to Instant Action. A website (InstantAction.com) was launched which featured 3D multiplayer games, one of which being Legions. In 2008 GarageGames released Fallen Empire: Legions to the public, claiming it to be a browser-based "spiritual successor" to the Tribes franchise. Like Tribes, movement was based almost entirely around the use of jetpacks and skiing. Players were able to either take flight for a few seconds or glide across maps over a cushion of air, essentially replicating the skiing functionality found in Tribes games. Development on Legions (and all other games on the platform) was halted in 2009 when InstantAction shifted focus to revamp their business. Unfortunately the company shut down in late 2010. The game was then handed to the community, which continued to develop the game for several years after.

In March of 2010, a mod for Enemy Territory: Quake Wars called Tribal Wars was released and aimed at bringing back some of the gameplay elements found in Starsiege: Tribes, such as jetpacks, skiing and similar weapons.

2011-Present

In 2011 Hi-Rez Studios started the closed beta stage for Tribes: Ascend, which was then fully released in April 2012. Like previous Tribes titles, it too featured skiing, jetpacks, large outdoor maps and popular game modes such as CTF, TDM, and Arena. Like Tribes: Vengeance, game critics praised Ascend and gave it high marks, though the game received mixed reactions from seasoned Tribes players. In 2013 Hi-Rez Studios stopped development on Ascend, and shifted focus to their MOBA game SMITE. A small team from Hi-Rez returned to Ascend in late 2015 and eventually released the 'Out of the Blue' patch. It focused on many community complaints over the years, and also attempted to make it a bit closer to the original Tribes games. While the initial announcement garnered favorable responses from the community and press, reactions to the final patch were mixed at best.

Not long after the release of Tribes: Ascend, a number of community-developed FPS-Zs started to emerge. Project Freefall technically started development during Ascend's closed beta by Cameron West, also known as Ignorance or Saccaed. Development on Project Freefall started in early 2012 originally on Unreal Engine 3, and was briefly ported to Unity before switching back after Unreal Engine 4 was released. Freefall features both skiing and jetpacks, and aims to be very open to modders. Each public build also comes with its source code for those interested. The last update came in May of 2018, though development is erratic and can go months or years without updates.

Former Tribes player and Ascension developer Rooster128 revealed Project Teamsky in early 2013. Early videos showed a game similar to Tribes, at least from a movement-standpoint. Like Project Freefall, the project is no longer in development. Rooster128 later worked with Midair developers Archetype Studios for a brief period of time.

Also in 2013 we saw the early development stages of Legacy FPS, or Legacy, by another Tribes player known as SmoothP. Developed using Unity, Legacy mainly focused on creating a stand-alone version of the popular Tribes 2 game mode Team Rabbit 2. While the game saw a brief duration of popularity within the Tribes community, ultimately development slowed down to a point where the community lost interest and moved on. Developer SmoothP showed interest in continuing development as late as April 2014, however it wasn't until late summer 2017 that the game received another batch of updates.

Midair (formerly known as Project Z) started development sometime during 2013 by former Legions: Overdrive community developers who go by Archetype Studios. While the project originally began as a port of Legions: Overdrive to Unity in 2012, it eventually grew into its own separate game roughly a year later. The game aimed to be a combination of Tribes 1 and 2, with the developer's own unique elements added to the game. The game released in May of 2018, and roughly one month later the developers announced that they would be scaling back their development efforts due to a lower than expected player population.

In late 2014 / early 2015 gameplay footage of Novakin was released. The game originally featured mechs though were eventually replaced with more traditional robotic player models, and physics and weapons very similar to the original Tribes. The developer has stated that they are looking to make the game similar to the popular Tribes mod Renegades. While development halted for some time, it recently picked up again as of late 2017. Novakin is still in early development, though the game already features CTF and Rabbit game modes, as well as a built-in map editor.

2016 saw the announcement of Jetball, which is attempting to make a stand-alone version of Team Rabbit 2 using Unreal Engine 4. As expected, it too features jetpacks, skiing, and aims to be very open to community modding. It is currently in the pre-alpha stage of development.