Monday, August 2, 2010

Team Fortress 2 (X360/PS3/PC/MAC) Review


The publisher Valve has created a plethora of great games over the years. Some of these games include the Half Life Sagas, The Puzzle Shooter Portal, and zombie thriller Left 4 Dead. However, the game we bring to you today Team Fortress 2. Made in the image of Team Fortress and Team Fortress Classic, Team Fortress 2 takes the styles of both games and recreates a simply remarkable experience. Hit the jump to read the full review!

This game is hailed as the FPS that all can enjoy. From unique class based combat to comical death animations, you will find hours of entertainment waiting for you. Something that makes Team Fortress 2 unique is the different classes. Many other games only emphasize weapon upgrades from a standard character slate. Team Fortress 2 has those weapon upgrades, but instead of just one, you have 9 very different character slates from which you can choose and upgrade. Thus, giving each class their own unique spirit. From the quick and nimble scout to the slow, hard hitting heavy; anyone can find something that matches their own personal play style.

Out of the 9 different classes you can find in the game the first one we will talk about today is the Scout. The scout uses the advantages of agility, speed, and the unique double jump trait to kill its enemies while dodging damage. You will need every bit of advantage you have to dodge damage for the Scout only has 125 health, the lowest in the game. Scout’s weapons are most effective at close range. Armed with a scattergun, which is an upgraded shotgun, the Scout maneuvers close to an enemy, blasts him with a couple rounds, and then runs away. The secondary weapon for the Scout is a basic pistol. Good for running away while firing to try to damage the enemy. The melee weapon for the scout is a metal bat, crushing his enemies with fast swings of glory. With the Scout’s speed and agility a player is capable of doing a great deal of damage to the enemy.

The second of the nine classes is the Solider. Using a rocket launcher, the solider is able to deal a great amount of damage with one hit. However, the solider is the second slowest class in the game. He makes up for this by using the rocket jump ability. This is accomplished by shooting a rocket at his feet, which then propels him in the desired direction. You might ask, “Doesn’t shooting a rocket at your feet kill you?” Well it does deal damage, however the Solider has 200 health, enough to spare. The secondary weapon for the solider is a basic shotgun and he also carries a trench style shovel for melee combat. Overall, the solider makes for a strong, offensive, and aggressive class.

The third class in Team Fortress 2 is the Heavy. This big boned man carries a machine gun, spitting thousands of bullets at his enemies every second. Already being the slowest character in the game, the heavy becomes even slower when he is firing his machine gun. With this disadvantage one might expect the heavy to have a lot of health and one would be right. The heavy has the most health in the game sitting at 300. Because of the fast rate of fire the heavy often uses up all of the machine guns ammo. When this occurs he switches to his secondary weapon, the shotgun. On the rare occasion an enemy gets with in melee range, the heavy drops his gun and pulls out his trusty fists. Used correctly, the Heavy can be an effective defensive and offensive character.

The fourth class is the Demoman. This one eyed explosive expert uses a grenade launcher combined with a sticky bomb launcher to reduce his enemies to bit and pieces. At 175 health, the Demoman is tied for the third most health in the game. His speed does not suffer due to the extra health. However, he needs this health in order for him to be one of the faster travelers in the game. This is accomplished by sticky jumping. Similar to rocket jumping, the Demoman plants a sticky bomb on the ground in front of him, then he detonates it while walking over the bomb. This propels him in the direction he wants. Different from rocket jumping because the Demoman can go a lot further than a solider could. The Demoman carries his trusty bottle of alcohol to smash his enemy’s skulls should they get too close. This class is great at laying down traps, making him an impressive defensive player. However, due to his high damage output he can also make a strong offensive class.

When it comes to defense there are none better than out fifth class, the Engineer. A unique trait to the engineer is he can build items to benefit his team. One of these items is a sentry gun. The sentry gun has three different stages. On the first stage the sentry gun is relatively weak, only shooting out bullets that deal a small amount of damage. Upon improvement it to level 2; the sentry gun is upgraded with two machine guns. The two machine guns shoot more rapidly and deal more damage than the level 1. At level 3 the sentry gun is upgraded with a rocket launcher. Another item an engineer can build is a dispenser. The dispenser supplies health and ammo to nearby allies. The higher the building level the more ammo and health it will give out. The third and final building is a teleporter. Each time an ally takes the teleporter there is a small cool down time before it can be used again. As the teleporter is upgraded to higher levels the cool down time is decreased. With average health, and only a basic shotgun and pistol as the engineer’s weapons, he has to rely on his buildings to defend him in battle. The engineer uses a wrench to build and upgrade his buildings and also to give enemies a good whack on the head, should they get too close. Without a doubt, defense is what the engineer was built for.

Another support class is the Sniper, our sixth character. Using the traditional ways of a marksman, the sniper uses a rifle to deal great amounts of damage from far away. With the sniper rifle the when it is zoomed in it starts a charge. The longer it is zoomed the great the charge gets and the more damage that shot will do. A fully charged headshot will kill any class in the game, even a fully over-healed heavy. The sniper also carries a SMG. The SMG’s bullets do not deal a great amount of damage, so be prepared to shoot a lot of bullets. The sniper’s melee weapon is a Kukri, basically a fancy machete. It is a great weapon when enemies get a little close for comfort. The sniper is used in both offensive and defensive situations and is great support class.

Our next class is probably the most important in the game. It can be a game winner if you have one and not having one can cause your team’s downfall. Yes, the Medic is a very important class. Being the primary healer, the medic is often very busy. The Medic’s secondary weapon, the Medigun, is the most important weapon for him. This gun shoots streams of health at his allies, slowly healing them over time. As the Medic heals his allies he slowly builds his Ubercharge. Once it reaches 100% the medic can unleash the charge, which causes the Medic and his ally to become invincible for 8 seconds. Another special ability for the medic is his regenerative health. While outside of combat the medic naturally heals every second. The longer he is out of combat the more health he gets per second. Sometimes, the Medic can find himself alone and has to kill the enemies on his own. For this the Medic is equipped with a Syringe Gun and for close combat, a bone saw to tear his enemies in half. If a team wants to be successful, the Medic is a MUST.

Our second to last class, and one of the hardest classes to play, is the Spy. Only having 125 health makes it very hard to maneuver around the enemy team. He makes up for his low health by doing two things. Being able to disguise as an enemy and being able to turn invisible. Using these two abilities the spy sneaks up on enemies and stabs them in the back with his butterfly knife. If he misses the back and hits the front of the enemy the knife will deal very little damage. However, if the spy hits the back it is an instant kill. Caution, upon attacking, the spy will lose his disguise. The spy is also equipped with an Electro-Sapper, which when places on building renders them useless and slowly drains the health from them. Using one of these devices does not reveal your disguise. An Electro-Sapper can be removed by an engineer with his wrench, so you want to make sure to kill the engineer before he can do that. The spy can be a very fun class to play, but is a very difficult class to master.

The last class to talk about is the Pyro. First glances tell the player the Pyro is a very easy class to play. However, as you delve deeper into him, it becomes more apparent the Pyro is a very complicated class. The Pyro’s main weapon is a flamethrower. Spitting flames at close range targets and setting them alight. Once caught on fire, the enemy burns for 5-6 seconds. A very important role for the Pyro is to spy check. This is performed by burning just about everything. If a Pyro is burning an ally and they light on fire that most likely means they are a disguised enemy spy. Sometimes an enemy is too far for the flamethrower to reach, which is when the Pyro takes out his shotgun to finish off the enemies. Having tied for the 3rd most health at 175, allows the Pyro to be a very offensive character. However, this is where the Pyro is often overlooked. Because of his compression blast, a secondary attack on the flamethrower that allows the Pyro to air blast an enemy or enemy projectile backwards, and the ability to spy check, the Pyro can be an vital part of a team’s defense. Another defensive ability for the Pyro is to put out burning allies. If a Pyro see’s a burning ally he simply needs to compression blast the ally to put him out. The list seems to go on and on for the Pyro’s abilities which does make the Pyro a very fun and complicated class.

As a multiplayer, Team Fortress 2 is one of the best of its kind. With Valve adding new content including; new weapons, new maps, and new hats, the player is promised an exciting game every time they play.

95/100

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