I bought the Orange Box in early November 2007. About a month after its release. I had never played a game by Valve, I never even heard of Steam. But that all changed when I installed it. I had high expectations for Half Life and Portal, but then there was this game I had never heard of. Team Fortress 2. My favorite of the five games that were included with the Orange Box was, and still is, Team Fortress 2.
Story: Surprisingly enough Team Fortress 2 has a story. When it was first released there practically wasn't a story. Just two teams of people fighting each other to the death. But after Valve released several comics, and created the "Meet The" series, it really allows you to look into a brutal, and delightful story. To sum the story up, the two teams, Blu, and Red are continuing a brutal rivlary between siblings that started back in the 1800's, Blutarch Mann, and Redmond Mann. Both are on these weird life preserver machines that keep them alive in the game's current time: 1950's-1960's. Both brothers command a team of mercenaries who, for some reason, look exactly the same on both teams. Just go to the TF2 website, and read some comics if you wish to learn more about the history.
Gameplay: Nine classes, all with different characteristics. The Scout, Soldier, Pyro, Demoman, Heavy, Engineer, Medic, Sniper, and spy. There are three categories with three classes in each. Offense, Defense, and Support. Offensive characters tend to do more damage, and rely on the phrase, "The best defense is a good offense". Classes in the Defensive category gain an advantage when guarding a checkpoint, or setting up defenses around your team's intel(used in capture the flag mode). Support characters are there for just that, support. Each of these characters do things that can aid other characters significantly, even if they aren't able to withstand the frontlines of battle.
Graphics: Team Fortress 2 has some of the best graphics I've ever seen. No their not entirely realistic, but they have a cartoony tone to them. And this is what I like. Its humorous, vibrant, and stands out among other F2P titles. Another notable thing in TF2, are the animations. They are unnervingly realistic at times.
Difficulty: No one should have difficulty playing this game. There are nine classes, each with completely different personalities, traits, etc. There's a character for everyone on TF2. You like fast paced gameplay? Go with the scout. You like espionage? Spy. You like healing other teammates? Medic. Building turrets that destroy enemies? Engineer. Its all here folks.
Fun Factor: Your going to have a lot of fun with TF2. Finding items in the game is very rewarding, and its fun to show off to friends. There are a lot of scammers out there, so beware when using the trade feature. Make sure to look up the actual cost of an item, before going through with a proposed transaction. There is an option to buy in game items with actual money, however I found it all incredibly expensive. There were items here that were 10 bucks. A single item for 10 dollars? I could buy a full game with that kind of money on PSN, XBLA, or Steam! I wouldn't bother with the in game store, unless you wanted to buy the starter packs, or something very small.
Verdict: When I first played TF2, it took me a long time to actually get back and play the other titles featured in the Orange Box, I was that addicted.
After Valve released the Team Fortress 2 source code, developers and modders are reviving TF2 VR, making it bigger and better than ever.
Seems dumb, multiplayer fast paced VR... Sounds like a recipe for disaster.
Source 2 versions of the games they had, remakes or sequels to their games should've come out like a decade ago, now they'd need a heavily upgraded Source 2 or just Source 3 to be up to par with current engines tbh..
Valve: "Mod makers, rejoice! We've just released a massive update to the Source SDK, adding all the Team Fortress 2 client and server game code. This update will allow content creators to build completely new games based on TF2. We're also doing a big update to all our multiplayer back-catalogue Source engine titles (TF2, DoD:S, HL2:DM, CS:S, and HLDM:S), adding 64-bit binary support, a scalable HUD/UI, prediction fixes, and a lot of other improvements!"
Behind the aimbots that have plagued Team Fortress 2, a far more sinister story of harassment has unfolded - and it's only getting worse.
Nice write up. Literally amazing article. Thanks..
this just seals the deal.im going to download it right now.thanks for the review!
I was very active playing TFC back in the days, played it for 5 or so years, good ol bunny hopping days, TF2 is fun but just isn't the same... I miss TFC so bad :\
TF2 doesnt have great graphics but it does have a cool art style like you summed it up. My little brother has put in 60 hours into it since it became free to play.
I havent given it much of a chance yet because i have too long a backlog and was going to play the games i paid for first.
Maybe i should look into playing this sooner.
It's free now so price is not a problem. With Steam as the medium, this will be a classic for the history books. People will be talking about this game long after we're gone. It takes a lot of courage to make a good game free. Bravo to Valve for making this bold move. It is an investment in propensity and prosperity.