OMG OMG OMG OMG VALVE GAME TIME. For the PC, only for it, because the 360 and PS3 versions are silly. A bit of history of the Team Fortress franchise. Team Fortress started out as a Quake mod way way back in the day (1996) . The premise was two opposing teams with different classes with all different abilities and weapons doing objective, like capture the point, and capture the flag. Eventually, it got extremely popular by the time they moded Half-Life, at that time the mod was called Team Fortress Classic, it features the same premise as the original but with upgraded graphics and physics. There are still servers running TFC to this day, just like Counter-Strike. Neat! The Team Fortress mods went from games to games, it went from Quake, to Quake 3, to Quake 4, to Unreal, Alien VS Predator, to Half-Life and now the Source engine. It took Valve 9 years to make Team Fortress 2, and it underwent several changes. The most severe was the art style, the original had a dark, realistic style, Valve tried to replicate it but it did not work. Instead they chose a cartoony stylized look to the game, so the classes looked like what they're job is. From TFC to TF2 They also changed a couple of other minor things that didn't promote teamwork. Team Fortress 2 is a Online only First Person Shooter that promotes teamwork and strategies to complete an objective. There are many game types, some of which are completely new and are really creative. 9 classes that all focus on an area, that anyone can easily be good at, they also all promote teamwork in some way or form, and there are unlockable weapons for every class (eventually). I'll describe everything starting from game types. Arena: An elimination Team Deathmatch gametype where the objective is to kill the opposing team. Capture the point: The Red team attacks while the Blue team defends points, usually you have to take over Point A to move to Point B. A lot of strategy is involved. Payload: Move the cart filled with explosives to the opposing team's base, while the other team defends. To move the cart the team members have to be near it for it to move forward, when there isn't team mates near it by a certain time it can move backwards. Capture the Flag: Capture the enemy's intelligence, bring it back to base. If you didn't know this game type then, wow. Payload Race: Same as Payload but both teams have a cart. All these Game types have different strategies, different out comes, and the most important thing is that they are all fun and everyone plays them. Strangely enough, Arena is the least popular game type. Now to the classes: Scout: A scout's main purpose is to get to one area quickly and swiftly, uses speed and double jumps the get to an objective. He is able to capture points twice as fast as any other class. He use two different types of Shotguns; Scattergun, a shotgun that hold 8 rounds; and the Force-A-Nature, enables a triple jump, holds two rounds and shoots people back. The scout also uses two different bats, a regular one, and on that can stun people. He also uses a pistol, or an energy drink that makes him move super fast and invulnerable for a short period of time (he can't shoot or capture points in this mode). Demoman: The demo man's purpose is to flank out the opposing team with his grenade launcher and defend areas with his sticky laucher. The Sticky Launcher is a gun that shoots out explosives bombs that stick to anything and he can explode them by will. The demo man also has a whisky bottle as a melee weapon. Engineer: The Engineer's purpose is to help a team defend points and equip the team mates with supplies and transportation through teleporters. The engineer has a shotgun and pistol but he can build sentries, supplies bots, and teleporters, which all can be leveled up to be more powerful, give team mates more health/ammo and teleport more quickly (there's a recharge time). Heavy: Purpose is to move the team forward, with the help of his Minigun, his large amount of health, and his partner that heals him (the medic). The Heavy uses two types of Miniguns, a shotgun, and his fist. He can also eat a sandwich to heal himself at will, and his boxing gloves with can get critical hits. Medic: Pretty obvious, he heals. The medic can heal his team mates, he can then eventually uber them, making him and his team mate invulnerability for a short amount of time. He is usually coupled with the Heavy. He also uses a gun that shoots syringes and can heal himself, and he uses a bonesaw as a melee weapon. Pyro: Main purpose is also to move ahead and to defend, the Pyro's short ranged flamethrower can demolish anything in her way. She also uses a Shotgun, a flamegun and and two different types of axes. Spy: He can disguise as a team mate from the opposing team, he can take out sentries/teleporters/supply bots, he can go invisible or feign death, and he can one hit KO by his knife. If in disguise, using the knife puts away his disguise. Sniper: He snipes, to defend. He uses a sniper, or a hunting bow, he has an SMG or he can use a Jar of piss (throw it on someone and it double the damage), he can also use the machete or something that protect him from one hit KO's from Spies. Soldier: He attacks. He is equiped with a rocket launcher (not overpowered, he has to reload each rocket manually), a shotgun and a shovel. Some Classes have bonus weapons (like the Scout, Heavy, Medic, Pyro, Sniper and Spy), the rest are going to get them eventually as the months pass by. All these classes are necessary to the experience and once you play the game, you'll get to experiment with each class and find your forte. All the bonus weapons are unlocked by randomly collecting them off the ground, or through a certain number of achievements. Each class with bonus weapons have a new set of achievements. The bonus weapons add a whole new dimension to the class based formula and new replayability value to the game. It's never been seen a game get so much support after release. In addition to each class they all have a taunt (similar to Smash Bros), they all have different taunts corresponding to what weapon/power up they're holding. In addition to that, they all have a taunt that can kill players. My favorite is the Pyro taunt where he shoots out a ball of flame from his hands. HADOKEN You'll be able to trade these to other players. While some people may think that the game is unbalanced, well it's not at all. Team Fortress 2 is the most balanced game without being boring. While classes don't have weaknesses or strengths to be honest, it just matters about the skill of the player with a bit of luck. While classes may have other class rivals (Spy vs Sniper), there isn't much weakness. Critical hits are in this game to also had a bit of zest and luck to the game. You can tell if someone gets a critical hit if their bullet is a different color and usually kills you (soldier has a blue rocket that kills you instantly if it hits you). Luckily, this game is no twitch shooter, it involves strategy, tug of war type gameplay (going back and forth), and teamwork. No game has done it better than Team Fortress 2. Medic healing a soldier + Scout = Going to be Dead Pyro There are many things that go behind the scenes of the game that many players would not notice, like how you get more critical hits in function to the damage given to you, how the medic is able to heal better and get a quicker ubercharge if the player he's healing just got damaged, and how the Heavy is a bit more powerful if he's not paired with a medic. There's probably more, but I haven't noticed them. While some hardcore players might be iffy on critical hits and the focus on teamwork, it's good for everyone else. It's fun being a Medic, helping people. It's great if you suck because sometimes the medic will heal and help you. Or a sniper in the distance saves your life by throwing a jar of piss on the person you're shooting. It's enjoyable and adds a whole new dynamic. This game is a lot of fun, with the creative game types, the classes and the bonus weapons that are out now and later add so much value to the game that it's almost a crime that this game is 20$. The art style of the game is wonderful, well to me anyways. While the Source engine is kind of dated, they have to rely on it's art style rather than it's level of technicality. You can see all the bullet trails, you hear them all too, you see clouds of smoke from the spy disguising or going invisible, you hear a sound effect when you get a critical hit. It's all there and it's there to contribute to it's art style of being cartooney, it all fits well. The Scout is skinny and has long legs, of course he moves fast, same with the Heavy. Big and sort of like a tank, well of course he moves slow and has a large amount of health. It makes a lot of sense why Valve took this art direction. Pew pew Another bonus to this game's graphics is that it can run on nearly any modern day PC. This game's required spec's are quite low, and even on low it's nice to admire the graphics. Even with so much action on the screen, the game does not slow down or anything. The sort of action that takes place is sort of breath taking in a way. As well as the graphics this game has great voice acting and every class has a personality. Yeah, great voice acting is not usually part of a multiplayer only game but Valve makes these 'Meet the Class' videos and they are hilarious, animated great and have great voice acting. Along with the hillarity, the pyro and his big rubber suit all you hear from her is muffled sounds. The sound in this game is fantastic, with bullets, bullet trail noises, loud explosions, sentry bot noises (beep beep), teleporters and they're all nice to hear. Along with every character's voices it's not annoying at all. Click the picture to see Meet The Spy The game's art style makes a lot of sense, easy on the eyes, beautiful graphics, easy on the hardware, and sounds good. Bottom line: Team Fortress 2 is a pleasure to play every time, and I experience a new way to play everytime. It's a joy to play, look at and hear. Valve made a multiplayer classic that is accessible to the casual and the hardcore. Great game. + Great Art Style. + Comedic. + Accessible, easy to play, hard to master. + Lots of fun. + Very dynamic. + Valve supports the game after release and still does. + Different ways to play. + Very balanced. + Teamwork oriented that actually works. + Strategic + Runs on any modern day PC. + Lots of maps and custom maps. + Replayability value is very high + 20$ - Hardcore players might get turned off by critical hits - Some people may not like the art style - The PS3 and 360 versions are butchered and get no updates or patches or new maps - Patches take a while to make, couple months at a time. - When bonus weapons come out for a certain class, almost everyone uses that class. - Some people hate Steam. - Some people may not like that it's online only. ? Is the Pyro a girl or a guy? ? It's rumored that's there's going to be a 10th class. x/50 This game is my most favorite FPS ever. Tops Killzone 2 by a lot.
I figure I'd better mention that I said that she could use a pros & cons section instead of the scoring that's normally done for the reviews so you don't shoot it down for that.
Nice review, Natewlie. I was thinking of getting TF a while back. Is it worth it without online mode?
Good review. I've heard this game was pretty sweet and that people would waste away hours on this. I love the idea of classes, very RPG-esque, instead of anybody being able to do anything that they want. I also like that classes are not just pre made weapon sets, but different statistics and abilities, and the chance for critical hits makes this an FPS with an RPG tone. I'll have to give this a go. I'm downloading it right now.
The thing I neglected to mention is that the more you've been damaged, the better chance you get a critical hit. There's actually so much that goes behind the scenes for this game, like if you're a medic, he'll heal faster if the person he's healing just got damaged or is getting damaged. Something that makes the Heavy class a bit more powerful when he's not paired with a Medic. There's a lot that goes on. I'll probably put this in my review. Maybe not because I'm too damn lazy. Also after every class update there's a weekend where they let people play the game for free for that period of time if they haven't bought it. I wasted so many hours with this game. I played some classes for more than 24 hours, like holy crap. The soldier is hiding at the bottom but I suck so bad with him it's embarrassing. I'll probably edit the review every once in a while, when people ask questions I tend to answer with something I missed, my bad.
Ohhhhh if i could take a screenshot of the hours my roomates girl puts in... would put you to absolute shame
