Some forums posts from Hi-Rez dudes:
Art style:
We're trying to pull aspects of the art from tribes 2 that worked. I didn't like how far away from T2 T:V got artisticly. So we're going to back and referencing almost exclusively T2 stuff. I'm sure we'll start posting *Tribes: Ass-End* concepts sometime probably on Facebook so they'll be finding their way around the net sooner or later.
Obviously we've had to update the style, as in todays market a guy in seemingly skin tight metal armor would look rather silly. Some things worked really well back then that just don't work these days, so we're updating, but I'm trying to bring many nostalgic things to *Tribes: Ass-End*.
Regarding the Unreal Engine:
I can't say much about gameplay. The engine is a pretty recent version of the unreal engine. However it doesn't have all of the newest features. We may sync but it all depends on if it will be worth the time spent. Some of the features listed are excellent for cinematic games. But we are a multiplayer shooter, so alot of the bells and whistles would be lost on us. For what it is the new features and the execution of "the samaritan" is amazing and I loved it. We have many great features with what we are currently on.
Oh and the video was shot 100% in engine.
The characters in ascend are all custom mesh/rigs/animations so we have our own proportions. Nothing used from any other ue3 game.
Weapons:
I'll speak on the aesthetic of the weapons. We're a little here and there like the original tribes. Some weapons look very futuristic, while others look a little older. You'll see some nostalgic qualities to the weapons we're bringing back though.
Regarding this T1 concept art and melee combat:
We referenced that image a good bit when we were coming up with the medium concepts. The guys shown in our trailers and shots these days are the light characters.
The tribes fiction was that the swords were handed down through the family. so they bring them to battle mounted to their jet-packs. I can't really say on melee combat though, we're not talking about the game-play much yet.
The trailer and color correction:
We're releasing some background images sometime soon. These are a more accurate representation of what the color looks like in the game. The trailer came out a little more orange. Looks nice on an HDTV as the colors are warmer. Youtube compression seems to have muted the colors.