Team Fortress 2

Team fortress 2
Console: PC, Xbox360, PS3
Release date: October 10th 2007
Publisher: Valve
Developer: Valve
Players: Up to 32 per server
ESRB: Mature

*This review focuses on the PC version ONLY


After 10 years of development the supposed “king” of class-based first-person shooters has finally arrived! Team Fortress 2 is extremely different from most other games because it can only be played as multiplayer! The game lets you play as one of nine unique classes which should appeal to everybody.


Storyline:

The year is 1960. Two large rival holding companies secretly control every government on the planet. These rival companies use the names RED (Reliable Excavation Demolition) and BLU (Builders League United) as a front for their secret efforts at world domination. To settle problems with the opposing team these two companies send in highly trained mercenaries from around the world on missions to take care of any problems that need brute force to be solved. There are many different missions and although you CAN win battles, you cannot win this game. It’s a multiplayer experience that allows you to continue replaying missions as many times as you wish.



Graphics:

This game has some great visuals. They’re borderline cell-shaded and very cartoony-looking. They were inspired by an artist from the 60's.

Each character has been designed so that even at a distance you can tell exactly what class it is simply by their silhouette. You can also tell if they’re an enemy or not by the color of their uniform. RED team gets red uniforms and BLU team get blue uniforms.

The settings are all well-lit and look incredible. The levels take place in an assortment of different evil genius/mad scientist-looking locations. Some levels take place in the basement of barns which are secretly giant bases, near giant nuclear missile silos, in train yards, in lumberyards and more! The game supports custom levels so many user-made levels of different variety also exist. The game is also extremely gory and isn't for the faint of heart.


Gameplay:

As I said earlier on, there is no single player mode in TF2. Instead It's entirely multiplayer missions that you perform with the rest of your team. These missions range from capture the flag to arena. The game is a bit difficult to get into at first because you have to understand how all the classes work.

The different mission types are diverse enough so that everybody should be able to find at least a few that they like. Capture the flag has you running back and forth between bases, control point has you taking over territory, payload is a bomb on a track that you either have to push towards the enemy base or stop it from being pushed towards yours, there's also arena mode which is basically a no-respawn death-match.




There are nine classes should appeal to gamers of all types, from strategy game lovers to point-and-click adventure players. Each class has three weapons (with the exception of the engineer and spy), a primary, a secondary and a melee weapon. The classes are divided into three groups: Offense, Defence and Support.

The three Offense classes are the Scout, the Soldier and the Pyro these three are the three classes you’ll often see on the front lines pushing forward.

The Scout is the fastest class in Team Fortress 2; his weapons aren’t very powerful and he doesn’t have much health but his quick movement speed, his ability to double jump and capture control points twice as fast as other classes make him an extremely important part of any team.

The soldier is one of the slower classes. Despite his slow speed he can still pack a punch with his rocket launcher and reasonably high health. He can also shoot rockets at his feet and jump simultaneously to ‘rocket jump’ to high locations which are inaccessible to most classes.

The pyro has decent health and speed. He’s equipped with a short-range flamethrower which he can use to ignite enemies and deal damage to them. He can often retreat after lighting enemies on fire because the burning will often kill them. He can also shoot back projectiles such as rockets and demo-man bombs.


The three Defence classes are the Demo-Man, the Heavy Weapons Guy, and the Engineer. These three classes (as the name implies) are the ones primarily in charge of defending your base or key points of the map.

The demo-man is a pretty quick class with decent health who is armed with a grenade launcher and a sticky bomb launcher. Sticky bombs can be stuck to walls and detonated whenever the demo-man chooses. His weapons aren’t very helpful at long range or close range but he does pack a punch.

The Heavy Weapons Guy is the largest and slowest of all the classes, his weapon is powerful and his high health can make him difficult to take down. His primary weapon is a large and powerful mini-gun which can shoot continuously until it runs out of ammo.

The Engineer is an extremely important and unique class. He can build three different buildngs to protect the base: A Sentry Gun which locks on and attacks nearby enemy units, a Dispenser which heals and supplies ammo to nearby units and a Teleporter which can be used to get your team to the front lines of battle faster.



The Three Support classes are the Sniper, the Medic, and the Spy. These three classes support your team in other ways than direct combat.

The Sniper stands far back in the base where nobody can spot him and uses his sniper rifle to pick off enemies with head-shots. He has a fairly quick movement speed but doesn’t have much health and isn’t as useful against nearby enemies. As of recently he also has a jar of pee called Jarate (Jar based Karate). This weapon can be thrown at enemies and allies. If an enemy gets hit by Jarate they take 30% more damage because they lose the will to live. Allies who have been lit on fire can have their fire extinguished by having Jarate thrown at them.

The Medic moves very quickly and has a good amount of health. His main goal is to heal injured teammates with his Medigun. Once he has healed enough damage he can use an "übercharge" which makes him and whoever he’s healing temporarily invulnerable and lets them run past tough enemy lines and take out engineer buildings with ease.

The Spy has a good movement speed but has a very low amount of health. This class is armed with three weapons: The Butterfly Knife, the Revolver, and the Electro-sapper. The spy can get one-hit kills by backstabbing enemy players with the knife and can disable and destroy enemy engineer buildings with the Electro-Sapper. The spy can also turn invisible and disguise as enemy units to sneak his way deep into the base without drawing suspicion.



One problem with most FPS games is people who "camp" in one place and continue to pick off enemies without people knowing what’s killing them. TF2 has a solution to this problem: The freezecam. Whenever you die the camera focuses on whoever just killed you and then pauses so you know where he is next time you play.
This game keeps a personal score that only you can see. There is no leaderboard pressuring you.

It does lag, but it really depends on how fast your computer and Internet connection is. On a fast computer it should run perfectly. On mine it runs well enough to play.

To communicate with team-mates you can use voice chat or type. In a team-based game like this, communication can mean the difference between victory and defeat.


Music/Sound:

Valve games always have some great tunes but TF2 overdid itself. They all sound like classical 60’s spy music. Unfortunately they only play in the game trailers and on the main menu. Fortunately, some servers have a radio feature which allows you to listen to internet radio tunes while playing the game! You can choose from a large list of musical stations which range from trance to death metal. This makes the in-game music library virtually endless!

The game has some phenomenal voice acting that really brings the game to life. Each of the nine classes represent a different stereotype and speak with different accents and all have a bunch of hilarious quotes.

Longevity:

I bought the Orange Box last year and I still play TF2. There are almost 250 achievements and more are added every few months. Valve continues to provide downloadable support for this game by adding new weapons, achievements, patches, hats, missions and game modes. This is a game that you can really keep on playing for ages because it just has so much replay value.


Overall:

Oh yeah, and did I mention that it's only a $20 game? Not only that, but some weekends you can play for free and buy it for as little as $10! You can also buy it along with the Orange box for only $30 which means you get 4 other great games bundled with it. With this game's charming artistic graphics, huge gameplay diversity, great sound and cheap price there shouldn’t really be anything stopping you from buying this awesome game if your computer can handle it. I highly reccomend it.

Videos:

Meet the team!