Team Fortress 2 Critique

Game Title: Team Fortress 2

Publisher: Valve Corporation

Year: 2007

ESRB Rating: Mature                                                                          

Platform: PC     

Genre: Multiplayer, Competitive, FPS, Class-Based

·         Fun Factor

Team Fortress 2 is a team based, first person shooter, that appears to have a play style meant for everyone. With its 9 different classes, and 160 different weapons, there seem to be endless ways you could play the game. TF2’s large player base makes it easy to find communities of casual players, if you plan to run around with goofy cosmetics, or hardcore players, if you’re seeking a challenge. Another amazing characteristic about TF2 is how involved the community is. It is easy to find a server, a steam group to make new friends, or partake in community events. Lastly, TF2’s fast paced gameplay, with its arcade feel just makes the game hard to put down.

·         Learning Curve

The best way to describe TF2’s learning curve is that it’s easy to learn and hard to master. Even to this day, as a player have put over a thousand hours into this game and still struggle with the more advanced features, like rocket jumping. It takes time to learn each of the 9 classes. Usually players tend to stick to 3 to 5 of the class choices, that fit there play style. On top of that, there are many game modes, such as capture the flag, control point, payload, attack\ defense with over 100 different maps. There is always room to learn more, and that is excluding any of the community made content. 

·         Graphics

TF2 is a 3D, first person shooter, with cartoonish style graphics. It fits the style of the characters, weapons, and silly cosmetics. What I think is special about this graphical style is that it ages very slowly, it was not trying to look realistic as possible at the time. You can tell that Valve was putting most of there focus on how the gameplay felt, then how the game looked.  This graphical style can be seen in many newer games, such as Overwatch, Splatoon, and Dirty Bomb. You will never hear anyone complaining about TF2’s graphics, this alone should show how much TF2 stood the test of time.

·         Audio

I have spent a long time thinking about the audio in TF2, then I realized there is more than meets the eye. Each of the 9 mercenaries’ in the game has a unique voice and character that makes them all memorable. For example, the demoman is a drunk scotsman who always yelling drunk gibberish, or the soldier with his over patriotic attitude. Each weapon in the game has its own unique satisfying sounds, like the thumps of a grenade launcher or the sharp cracks of a sniper. Lastly, the music used in TF2 is mostly jazzy or orchestral music that plays during the main menu screen. 

·         Controls

The controls for TF2 are easy to learn but leave room for more complicated movement methods. For example, the use of your weapons in combination with your movement. This combines the use of your weapons or tools to propel or strafe through your environment, involving the use multiple controls. Other than that, TF2’s basic movement controls are (W,A,S,D) for directional movement, (space) to jump, mouse to aim and shoot, and the number keys or scroll wheel to switch weapons. For any avid PC FPS player these controls will be familiar and easy to learn.

·         Story

Prior to this review, there was very little I knew about the story. I will try  boiling down the basics, there are two unintelligent brothers, Redtarch and Blutarch Mann. Their inheritance was split by there father as a way to punish there foolishness, knowing that they would fight over the useless land they inherited for the rest of their lives. They individually start hiring mercenaries to fight over gravel pits of low economic value. While Mann Co company, (company started off the wealth Mr. Mann that he provided to his two assistants). His assistants sell the brothers with weapons and supplies to both sides to profit off the endless conflict. Although most of the story is revealed in short online comics, and meet the team video series, I still recommend reading about TF2’s story because this only scratches the surface.

·         Characters

The classes of TF2 are split up into 3 categories: offense (Scout, Soldier, Pyro), defense (Demoman, Heavy, Engineer), and support (Medic, Sniper, Spy). Each of the characters have their own backstory and origin, these are mostly seen in the meet the team video series. I will try shrinking the character list to only characters that take place in the game.

-          Scout, fast-talking baseball fan from the streets of Boston Massachusetts.

-          Soldier, jingoistic military man from the Midwest.

-          Pyro, individual with an unknown origin and gender who communicates with inaudible muffles through there gas mask.

-          Demoman, Scottish, one eyed alcoholic form Ullapool Scotland.

-          Heavy, is a large Russian from the Dzhugdzhur Mountains during the times of the USSR.

-          Engineer, is a relaxed Texan who has an exceptional skill in building things.

-          Medic, is a doctor from Stuttgart, Germany who follows very little medical ethics when practicing medicine.

-          Sniper, is a hitman from New Zealand who seems to have the most normal backstory of any character.

-          Spy, is a French double agent who is also unknown father of the scout.

·         Level Design

Each of the level in TF2 are built semi-linear, to accommodate each of the 9 classes in the game. The levels are made to have the player jump back into combat quickly after dying, limiting the down time between deaths. Over each of the levels there are signs to indicate where to go, so the player does not get confused. The game keeps the player on their toes, because you never know when you will run into the flanking enemy team, and the maps push the teammates into small areas making every game feel like a team effort.

·         Changes

Some changes that would be nice to see made is an up to date tutorial. The training mode was added back in 2010 and has not received any significant updates since. Currently the training mode only gives training for four out of the nine classes in the game: soldier, demoman, engineer, and spy. It would be beneficial to see the other 5 classes added, and additional training for other weapon options for each of the classes. Another change which I would like to see is a rework to how their competitive mode works. The current official competitive mode is 6v6, with the option to choose any of the 9 classes for each player. I would prefer to see Valve change their system to be 9v9, where each player on the both teams plays one of the 9 class choices. The last change which would be good to see is better methods to report hackers. For example, if their kick system gave longer cool downs to those kicked for cheating multiple times in a certain period. This gives more control to the community and give the anti-cheat system time to detect the cheater.

·         Recommend?

Who would be a good player for TF2? It would be a good game for anyone who is new to PC gaming. Since the game is free to play, it does not cost anyone money to try it out. Its large community makes it easy to make new friends. Its arcade feel makes for a great game to casually play without the stress of other competitive games. To sum it up, this game would be a good introduction to first person shooters on PC, since the community has a large player base its easy to face new and veteran players.