Team Fortress 2 is a multiplayer class-based shooter game created by Valve and released in 2007 with the Orange Box. The main attractions of the game are the near-perfect balance of nine interesting and enjoyable classes; Scout, soldier and pyro - Heavy, demoman and engineer - Medic, Sniper and Spy-; and the well crafted, memorable maps.
There are several different gametypes: King of the Hill, Capture Point, Capture the Flag, Payload and Arena. Most maps are only compatible with a few of these gametypes (for example; Egypt_final is exclusively for capture point) because of the way the maps are structured. King of the Hill maps tend to be rounded with a "hill" in the middle of the map. Capture the Flag maps tend to be the same on both sides with flags stored deep down in the enemy base (Examples include the legendary map 2_fort). The Capture Point and Payload game types vary more than the others in that sometimes one team attacks and the other defends (it's based on the map) and sometimes both teams attack and defend. In capture point you literally attempt to capture all the points and in Payload you move a cart towards the end of its track. Arena is a free-for-all, everbody against everybody gametype.
The game is (almost) exlusively multiplayer and thankfully has an easy interface for finding a server. You are shown the gametype, map, ping, number of players and "server info" before connecting to a game, though you can have the game choose a random "best fit" server for you.
Each class has a distinct, unmistable appearence and charming personality (their voices, quotes they use, their backstories). Without getting too technical or drooling over the details you will learn quickly simply through playing hte game I will attempt to provide a basic explantation of the different classes:
Scout is by far the fastest class in all forms of movement but has less health and no specialized weaponry.
Soldier is a slower but heavy duty character armed with a powerful rocket launcher.
Pyro is a mid-speed fire-proof character with a flame thrower.
Heavy is, as his named suggests, heavy and slow with the largest health bar in the game but armed with a powerful minigun.
Engineer is a an interesting character with the ability to place sentries and dispensers but he is poorly armed for combat.
Spy is a poor-health specialized class whose main ability is to pretend to be on the opposite team, get behind people and quickly kill them or disable their sentries.
Medic is a fast moving, average-health character with the ability to heal teammates.
Sniper is, as the name would suggest, a sniper whose main power lies in his ability to pick off far away enemy.
There are 55 official game maps covering five main (technically 10) different game types. The maps are wildy different ranging from snowy outposts to rocky-ravines to mountain labs to Egyptian ruins. Aside from arena (free for all) the game is divided into two teams, the classic red. vs. blue. Besides the base you get (red is defend in most cases) and the color of the uniform there is no difference between the teams (they both use the same classes, though you usually use more defensive classes while on defence).
Mountain Lab
The worlds are decorated with charming and lively cartoon-esque graphics. They are not and were not cutting edge technology that will blow your mind away, but they are certainly not ugly to look at. Considering that this is a multiplayer game as opposed to an RPG the graphics are probably just right in that they are easy enough to run on your computer without slowing you down at all but interesting enough that you won't become bored easily.
2 Fort
The developers, Valve Coorporation, are constantly adding updates to fix bugs, adding new content (such as in-game hats that do nothing but give your character more personality) and the occasional massive update that adds in new weapons and maps. These updates are usually highly controversial within the community but if you're a mature person who can handle slight changes (usually improvements, simply the addition of content) these are easy to deal with. Even if you hate the updates the game is good enough to make you want to come back and continue playing. Plus, there are always enough people that will agree with you (back when I used to play the game was such much better) that entire servers exist that cater to these audiances.
These drops are randomly given out on a regular basis until "a weekly time-cap is given". I don't fully understand the system but that doesn't matter. The weapons are all well balanced meaning that unskilled players with every single gun in the game won't have any advantage over a skilled someone with the basic outfit. And anyway weapons can be traded/bought so if you really want a weapon there is nothing stopping you from getting it.
Being a multiplayer game skill is very important and hard to come by. Many new players, especially those who recently migrated from consul gaming, feel exasperated when playing against veterans, often blaming the weapon system, claiming that "older players" have an unfair advantage of them. This situation will be familiar to any other PC multiplayer gamer. The same complaints are often made about the Call of Duty weapon system (at least on the fourth and sixth games; I haven't done enough mulitplayer on the others to know) but no one in their right mind would stand to these arguements. Ask any veteran TF2 player about this and they will explain to you how Valve has carefully balanced the weapons (Example: weapon is more powerful in one way but less so in another, possible needs more ammo).
The game is built on the Source Engine like most other Valve games (such as Half-Life 2, Portal) known for games such as Counter Strike. The Source Engine is known for its easy to navigate but useful menus and ease of connecting to servers.
Heavy Weapons Guy
Graphics: 7/10 - Despite their low quality the beauty of the worlds makes the game enjoyable to look at.
Gameplay: 9/10 - The most balanced class-based game and the most enjoyable multiplayer I've ever had the experience to play. I first played in 2009 and I'm playing more now than ever.
Features: 6/10 - The game has an ingame screenshot, spray, easy or complex server finding, achievement system, "okay" community (though compared to other multiplayer games the community is one of the best) and the game even has a training mode.
Overall:
9/10
There are several different gametypes: King of the Hill, Capture Point, Capture the Flag, Payload and Arena. Most maps are only compatible with a few of these gametypes (for example; Egypt_final is exclusively for capture point) because of the way the maps are structured. King of the Hill maps tend to be rounded with a "hill" in the middle of the map. Capture the Flag maps tend to be the same on both sides with flags stored deep down in the enemy base (Examples include the legendary map 2_fort). The Capture Point and Payload game types vary more than the others in that sometimes one team attacks and the other defends (it's based on the map) and sometimes both teams attack and defend. In capture point you literally attempt to capture all the points and in Payload you move a cart towards the end of its track. Arena is a free-for-all, everbody against everybody gametype.
The game is (almost) exlusively multiplayer and thankfully has an easy interface for finding a server. You are shown the gametype, map, ping, number of players and "server info" before connecting to a game, though you can have the game choose a random "best fit" server for you.
Each class has a distinct, unmistable appearence and charming personality (their voices, quotes they use, their backstories). Without getting too technical or drooling over the details you will learn quickly simply through playing hte game I will attempt to provide a basic explantation of the different classes:
Scout is by far the fastest class in all forms of movement but has less health and no specialized weaponry.
Pyro is a mid-speed fire-proof character with a flame thrower.
Heavy is, as his named suggests, heavy and slow with the largest health bar in the game but armed with a powerful minigun.
Engineer is a an interesting character with the ability to place sentries and dispensers but he is poorly armed for combat.
Spy is a poor-health specialized class whose main ability is to pretend to be on the opposite team, get behind people and quickly kill them or disable their sentries.
Medic is a fast moving, average-health character with the ability to heal teammates.
Sniper is, as the name would suggest, a sniper whose main power lies in his ability to pick off far away enemy.
There are 55 official game maps covering five main (technically 10) different game types. The maps are wildy different ranging from snowy outposts to rocky-ravines to mountain labs to Egyptian ruins. Aside from arena (free for all) the game is divided into two teams, the classic red. vs. blue. Besides the base you get (red is defend in most cases) and the color of the uniform there is no difference between the teams (they both use the same classes, though you usually use more defensive classes while on defence).
Mountain Lab
The worlds are decorated with charming and lively cartoon-esque graphics. They are not and were not cutting edge technology that will blow your mind away, but they are certainly not ugly to look at. Considering that this is a multiplayer game as opposed to an RPG the graphics are probably just right in that they are easy enough to run on your computer without slowing you down at all but interesting enough that you won't become bored easily.
The developers, Valve Coorporation, are constantly adding updates to fix bugs, adding new content (such as in-game hats that do nothing but give your character more personality) and the occasional massive update that adds in new weapons and maps. These updates are usually highly controversial within the community but if you're a mature person who can handle slight changes (usually improvements, simply the addition of content) these are easy to deal with. Even if you hate the updates the game is good enough to make you want to come back and continue playing. Plus, there are always enough people that will agree with you (back when I used to play the game was such much better) that entire servers exist that cater to these audiances.
These drops are randomly given out on a regular basis until "a weekly time-cap is given". I don't fully understand the system but that doesn't matter. The weapons are all well balanced meaning that unskilled players with every single gun in the game won't have any advantage over a skilled someone with the basic outfit. And anyway weapons can be traded/bought so if you really want a weapon there is nothing stopping you from getting it.
Being a multiplayer game skill is very important and hard to come by. Many new players, especially those who recently migrated from consul gaming, feel exasperated when playing against veterans, often blaming the weapon system, claiming that "older players" have an unfair advantage of them. This situation will be familiar to any other PC multiplayer gamer. The same complaints are often made about the Call of Duty weapon system (at least on the fourth and sixth games; I haven't done enough mulitplayer on the others to know) but no one in their right mind would stand to these arguements. Ask any veteran TF2 player about this and they will explain to you how Valve has carefully balanced the weapons (Example: weapon is more powerful in one way but less so in another, possible needs more ammo).
The game is built on the Source Engine like most other Valve games (such as Half-Life 2, Portal) known for games such as Counter Strike. The Source Engine is known for its easy to navigate but useful menus and ease of connecting to servers.
Graphics: 7/10 - Despite their low quality the beauty of the worlds makes the game enjoyable to look at.
Gameplay: 9/10 - The most balanced class-based game and the most enjoyable multiplayer I've ever had the experience to play. I first played in 2009 and I'm playing more now than ever.
Features: 6/10 - The game has an ingame screenshot, spray, easy or complex server finding, achievement system, "okay" community (though compared to other multiplayer games the community is one of the best) and the game even has a training mode.
Overall:
9/10
