FPSLabs : Games We Play: Team Fortress 2

At long last it is here. One of the most talked about and long awaited
games ever, Team Fortress 2, is finally playable as a beta and we have
our first look at this new take on an old classic. How does it compare
to the original? What needs tweaks, and what works great. Jason and
Oscar give you the 411.

Developer: Valve Software
Title: Team Fortress 2 Beta
Genre: First Person Shooter
Minimum Requirements: Click Here
Gallery: Click Here
Price: $49.95

Introduction
Enter Team Fortress 2. Yes we know. Laugh it up. Its finally here… no
really, we aren’t kidding. The game often put in the same cabinet as
Duke Nuke Foreverm as infamous vaporware is finally playable. Remember
those old school videos?
Unless you have been living under a rock you will probably know that
the current version of the game looks nothing like that. Think Toy
Story meets the Incredibles. About two weeks ago Valve announced a
special surprise for Orange Box preorders; a playable beta of Team
Fortress 2 three weeks before the Orange Box goes retail and is
available on Steam. Team Fortress has gone through various incarnations
from a version for Quake, Quakeworld, Quake 2, and then as Team
Fortress Classic by Valve as a mod for the original Half-Life. And now
its back with a sequel based on the Source Engine.

Team Fortress 2
Jason: Its finally here Oscar. I know
you were weren’t a big FPS guy when the original was really popular but
I myself have been chomping at the bit for this game ever since the
early rumors of a sequel when Valve first bought out Team Fortress and
I played Team Fortress Classic. So with today’s discussion you readers
will get both sides of the coin, a Team Fortress devotee, and someone
new to the concept who wasn’t around for the original (Team Fortress
Classic). And while we are topic of the original TFC, the big appeal to
me when I first played was the classes. At the time it was a totally
new concept for an FPS. Sure other games allowed varied guns and skins;
but even to this day few games offer the diversity in play styles that
you can get with the 9 different classes. Each character can offer
almost a totally different experience from movement speeds, weapons, in
game advantages, etc. One thing that has really been improved class
wise is the balance of each character. In the originals some characters
were over powered, and some like the medic and pyro were pretty weak.
TF2 helps remedy that situation giving new and improved weapons to
various characters, and new skill sets like the medic’s uber heal. What
are your first impressions Oscar?

Oscar: Without a doubt I’m
impressed by Valve Software and what they’ve accomplished with Team
Fortress 2. From a technical standpoint, the Source Engine, despite the
critiques, scales very well and is taken full advantage of with the
stunning eye-candy and new visual effects.The attention to detail and
visual design cues make the game easy to pickup and perfect for
competitive play. From a pure game play point of view, I can now fully
appreciate why this game has been in the back of gamers’ minds for over
half a decade: it’s just too damn fun. Simply put, it’s highly
addictive. The technical game play rewards players for working as a
team by the sheer satisfaction of beating your opponent. Having such a
wide variety of classes keeps the easily bored entertained and provides
an avenue for new players such as myself to jump in and start playing
immediately. Have no idea how to work Engineer? Then start rolling
heads with the Solider!

Having recently dabbled with Insurgency: Modern Combat which also
emphasizes class based combat, I can completely recommend Team Fortress
2 over Insurgency any day. It’s all due to the fact that Valve emphasizes
the communal shit-talking aspect of the FPS genre by glorifying kills
and encouraging users to pit themselves against one another. By simply
pointing out that you have a ‘nemesis’ after another player on the
opposing team repeatedly kicks your ass on a map, or when you are blown
up by a rocket and the game points to chunks of your leftover carcass
with a cartoon bubble saying “This is your head!”, Valve has given Team
Fortress 2 the tools it needs to become a huge standalone game aside
from the nostalgic factor that gamers have been salivating over ever
since Valve announced the game. That being said, some design elements
may not sit well with those who enjoyed countless hours of Team
Fortress Classic. Jason does anything stand out that really bugs you?

Jason: The first uproar from the peanut
gallery and the old school fans will most assuredly be the lack of
grenades. Yes there are no grenades at this point in the game. And from
the rumors I have heard this may not change even when it goes final.
And with the hours and hours I have put into this game I have come
realize that I prefer it this way. Why? For one there is no more
massive grenade spam. Anyone who has played TFC can testify to the
incredible amount of nade spam that is usually seen. It can be fun to
employ yourself, but after some time it gets really old, really fast.
Secondly, the lack of ‘nades forces better team play. No longer does a
demoman just rush to opposing side, take out all the sentry guns with
his mirv and regular nades, and crush the defense by himself. It takes
multiple classes to get the job done with an average to better defense
being employed. A scout can’t rush across the map, grenade away the
sentry guns, cap the point. Scouts pretty much get owned by sentry guns
now and they need back up when in place, either from a spy, or someone
with some heavy fire power. All in all I think it balances out game
play, and helps take out the randomness that grenades often created.
When I first played TF2, that was my first thought; “wtf, no nades,
terrible idea”. But after hours of playing I really enjoy it.

The other big topic floating around on the internet: is this game
capable of being played competitively? I believe with a few minor
tweaks that the answer is a resounding “yes”. I am not too familiar
with all the server side settings yet but I think a few things from the
default config would need to be changed or taken in to consideration
for league play. One being the respawn timer. I myself feel it is a bit
long at times and should never be higher than 20 seconds. Another being
the sudden death rules. Would leagues want to use this format, I don’t
know. I get a kick out of it as there is no “next time”, so people play
smarter and actually value their lives, yet at the same time it can
promote too much camping. What potential do you see from Team Fortress
2 Oscar, could we see it at a competitive level some day?

{mospagebreak title= Page 2}

Oscar: eSports is about playing at
the highest competitive level and winning. Hardware corporations want
to sponsor syndicates and teams only if the professional gamers
involved are playing a game that demands computer upgrades. Team
Fortress 2 is visually stunning, though not physically demanding of the
highest costing hardware on the market today. Thank the Source Engine
for that. It’s the best of both worlds for companies interested in
selling video cards and for the average gamers bank account. The rich
gameplay boasts spectator-friendly visual cues that come with the
inherent design of the game. From the team colors to the arrows
pointing out directions, Team Fortress 2 is the same capture the flag
game any layman can understand. What can potentially catapult the game
into the stratosphere is the sheer technical offensive and defensive
mechanics. Clever teams will find ways to use the class system in ways
previously unseen and develop a level of competitive gameplay with
enough adrenaline to create an entertaining product.

It’s all there in front of us waiting to grow from being a grassroots
game to a headliner at the next big-name tournament. This doesn’t even
touch the entire stats system that Valve has now integrated into Team
Fortress 2, effectively creating another layer of competitive juice
that friends and strangers will come to love just as much as their
console counterparts do on Microsoft’s Xbox Live. There are pitfalls
along the way, and the very same concepts that can help bolster this
game can bring it down as well. I found myself wondering as to why
users weren’t communicating as often as random people did when I first
started playing Insurgency, what’s your take on this Jason?

Jason: That is a very good question. In
fact from my time pubbing TFC since back in the day I’ve noticed a
decidedly different atmosphere in comparison to games like
Counter-Strike. In comparison to Insurgency, a game with a smaller
niche market that is seeking that tactical communication shooter, TF2
appeals more to your lets-go-out-and-frag attitude. Even though TF2 is
more team based it has always seemed to me that for the most part
people don’t communicate as much as they should. Of course the first
game one could go off on their own with conc jumping, pipe jumping and
the like, and cap flags themselves; now that kind of solo effort is
much more rare and communication is nearly essential. Hopefully it will
be something people will pick up on, as a whole new era of Team
Fortress players are developing as we speak.

I have to say my favorite parts of Team Fortress 2 are the small
things; Valve went above and beyond by adding so much stuff that you
really don’t think much about it as you first play. For instance the
personality that each class has with their own accent, or the audio
notifiers like when a engineer yells out “spy’s sapping my sentry” as
spy tries to disable his machine, or a heavy shouts “you are a good
medic” as he gets healed up. Or the whole dominating, revenge, nemesis
concept that entails you vs. opposing players. Continually get owned by
an opposing player and they become your nemesis on the scoreboard and
it really makes you want to head over and own their ass to get revenge.
How many FPS games actually make you chuckle and laugh during gameplay
all the while giving you a competitive and balanced game; not many in
my book and TF2 excels at this. There is a lot of crazy and funny
things that can happen. And to you Oscar, what is your favorite aspect
of the game?

Oscar:
Team Fortress 2 has been in development for so long, it would have been
a massive disappointment had Valve delivered anything less than what
we’ve seen in the beta so far. As you alluded to some things have
changed, but from my perspective it’s all for the better since what
we’ve played with reeks of success on the part of Valve. So far,
according to the stats I’ve played the Medic class more than any other,
and with good reason. I’ve always agreed that the best offense is a
good defense, so being in the front lines and frantically healing one
teammate after another while dodging enemy fire is one hell of thrill,
especially if you’re running out of time and need to capture a point.
Being able to pick from such a wide variety of styles has actually
extended my play period several times. I’ve found myself getting
frustrated at getting continually owned by enemy turrets as a Scout and
instead of just exiting out of the game I simply pick something else
like Demoman that’ll enthrall me for another couple of hours. This is
my favorite part of the game, the sheer addictiveness that keeps you
sucked in. Just a couple of days ago my Xbox 360 RROD’d on me but I’m
not too concerned since I’ve got Team Fortress 2 instead of Halo 3 to
get my frag on. I’ve got my medic gun ready for uber-charge Jason,
what’s your favorite weapon?

Jason: Weapons, weapons, weapons, TF2
has a ton of them. I don’t know if I have one that stands out as my
utmost favorite. I feel the sniper rifle is the easiest for me to get
kills with as my CS sniping skills transition well to Team Fortress.
Overall I would probably choose the demoman and his grenade launcher.
Its versatile, can take out sentry guns, heavyweapon guys, and the
sticky bomb launcher can get some serious range. Plus he allows you to
sticky bomb/pipe jump to out of the way places much like the soldier
can do with rocket jumping. The heavyweapon guy’s machine gun is always
a blast to use with its high rate of fire, and the scout’s new shotgun
has some serious power and really moves them into the assault class.
The melee weapons are an absolute blast to use. The first time you get
a kill with the heavy’s fists you will laugh your ass off. It’s a total
riot. Running around bashing people in the head with the scout’s ball
bat, or the sniper’s Kukri (think machete-like thing) is not only
rewarding but they are actually useable and an asset at close range.

Map wise there is a lot of diversity and play styles. From the
multi-site push map gravel pit, to the control push map like hydro
there is a lot of fun to be had. You can play hydro 10 times and not
have the same gameplay experience the way the map control positions
work. It’s quite interesting. 2fort of course is back as a capture the
flag map (or capture the intelligence briefcase as it’s called now),
and it’s as fun as ever. I guess really my only complaint so far would
be the lack of more CTF maps. Well is now a control map, and not CTF
which is a slight bummer, but the new well is quite fun to play.
Hopefully between now and release we see a couple more capture the flag
maps. Here’s to Team Fortress 2 one of the many games we play.

Conclusion
As you can tell we are loving Team Fortress 2. Valve really has a
winner on their hands here. I don’t know of many games with such a long
and delayed history that have really payed off like TF2 has. This game
is the type that appeals to n00bs, and should even bring back memories
for those old school Team Fortress Classic players. It may not be
perfect for everyone, and a few minor adjustments are needed, but this
is damn near close to a ready for retail game. If you enjoy FPS games,
Team Fortress games, or just enjoyable games in general, you owe it to
yourself to check this out.

Thanks for browsing by our latest issue of Games We Play. Hope you
enjoyed it. Keep checking back for continued issues especially in the
coming months with so many great PC games on the horizon.

Extra Reading:
Wikipedia Encyclopedia Entry
A must read pointer for TF2

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