Review: Team Fortress 2

Hey guys, Little Miss Squish here! Sorry for my lack of posting for.... god knows how long. The internet where I'm living right now has been ridiculously horrible and incredibly unstable so my actual MMO playing has been.... well, non-existent. That and my life has been taken up by a lot of other things lately. BUT, I was thinking about what to review next. I knew I hadn't posted in a while and I felt really badly for not doing so but I was like "I haven't been able to really -play- anything, let alone enough to review a new game on the blog!"

And then it hit me. There was one game that I'd played a lot, loved the healing class for it (enough to start to put together a costume of it!) and went back to it over and over again. It always plastered a huge grin to my face whenever I played it or even thought about it. And when my boyfriend suggested I reviewed it, I knew I had to.

logo borrowed from www.clanorb.com

That's right. Team Fortress 2. I play a first-person shooter, player-versus-player game and I shamelessly have a love affair with it.

Now, now, don't flip over your desks and cry out about the oncoming apocalypse. I know I've said I never play FPS games and that I generally don't play PvP in games for the most part. And I really don't. But TF2 is the exception to that rule for me. I actually got into it because my roommate in college was playing it and she was like, "youhavetogetthisgameandplaywithmerightnowandIwon'thearotherwise." So, I agreed, and got instantly hooked after a few minutes of watching her and playing it myself. That being said, I love this game and I think you'll be able to see why soon enough.

Aaaaaaaanyway, on with the review!

Game Basics:
Title: Team Fortress 2

Publisher: Valve (through Steam)

Genre: Action MMO, PvP focus
Website: http://www.teamfortress.com/

Cost: Free to Play, pay for items in shop and extra features (bigger inventory and more crafting options, to my knowledge)

Ratings:
Graphics: 3/5
Character Customization: 2/5
Class Skills, Character Development, etc.: 4/5
Beginning/Tutorial: 1/3
Story, Quests, Content: n/a

Graphics & Character Customization, etc.

The graphics in TF2 are definitely not TERA great or anything like that, but they're certainly not god-awful and my eyes don't bleed upon looking at them. They're pretty good, really. The style isn't really what I'm used to, in that the characters you play as are very cartoonish and stylized but at the same time, it works for this game. I think it's meant to be more of a fun, rather silly game that isn't meant to scare you half to death or make you feel like it's incredibly realistic in the way that most FPS games are designed nowadays. I mean, look at their Christmas artwork!

taken from the "Artwork" section of the game's site

 It's really hard to take a Russian Santa Claus with Christmas lights wrapped around his gun seriously, really. Even in-game, when you are blown up, Valve makes that entertaining!

taken from www.overclock.net (I've also seen "your appendix!" and other amusing things)

When you compare how TF2 feels to something like, say, Halo, you get incredibly different feelings between the games. Halo to me seems more realistic, more dangerous, perhaps more intense in a way. But that doesn't mean that TF2 isn't that way, either. TF2 certainly has moments where it makes me scream at my monitor at other players, jump a bit with surprise as someone head-shots me or blows me up out of nowhere. I get incredibly drawn into the game. But with the overall look of the game--the cartoonish style, the less realistic artstyle-- it feels more like a game than other games. I know that sounds weird, but it's the best way I can describe it.

In terms of character customization... There isn't any. Well, not in the way you'd think. Since you're playing preset characters, their designs don't change on the individual level (aside from red/blue color schemes depending on what side you're on). Instead, you get item "customization," which is really just what shit you put on your character. And 9/10 times, other people playing the same class have the same stuff as you. You only really tend to notice differences when you see someone who has something on them that you either haven't seen before or you have to pay to obtain, from my experience. The actual items you can choose from boil down to your class weapons, hats/facial things, and then a few "misc" categories which can range from badges to shirts to little robots that hover and follow your character. They range from really cool looking to really silly things (you can beat people upside the head with a frying pan, for example). 

The one thing I love about this game--and perhaps my favorite thing, really-- is the humor in this game. Everything from weapon names and descriptions to lines characters say is full of wit and hilarity. Each of the characters have a specific theme with their equipment that relates to their class or character's personality/history/etc. The Demoman, for example, is from Scotland, so a good chunk of his stuff relates to being Scottish, such as "The Eyelander"-- a sword that is in the character's melee weapon slot, its name spoofing off of "The Highlander" movie. They're incredibly silly, sometimes stupidly so, but more often than not, I like looking at stuff just to see what sort of crazy things Valve has written for various things. For more of what Valve's humor is like, please see the "Meet the" video series.

Class-Related Things

As far as healers go--because that's why you're still reading this, I imagine--there is only one healer class in the game: the Medic. This guy.

taken from the "Artwork" section of the game's site

 Yes, he may be surrounded by doves (in the "Meet the Medic" video which this came from, a choir sang in an angelic fashion as this happened), but don't let that fool you. This guy is a German sadist who loves nothing more than performing "science" on people-- and yes, I do use that term very loosely. And I don't think it was coincidental that he's a German... doctor, either; there have been Nazi references all over this guy. Even on the game's official Wiki page, there's the following description of our crazy sadist doctor: "Raised in Stuttgart, Germany during an era when the Hippocratic oath had been downgraded to an optional Hippocratic suggestion, the Medic considers healing a generally unintended side effect of satisfying his own morbid curiosity." (I always get a kick out of the "downgraded to an optional Hippocratic suggestion" part.)

He has the ability to heal people with his Medi Gun--the red blender-like thing attached to a leaf blower in the pic above-- but he also has the Syringe gun, which shoots people with actual syringe needles, and a bonesaw as his default melee weapon. I kid you not. This guy definitely does not make me want to go to a doctor even in a life or death situation. Also, he has a pet dove Archimedes who tried to create a nest in an open patient and it lives in his base of operations in the "Meet the Medic" video. I want to have a plushie of that thing one day.

The Medi Gun is rather unusual, as far as weapons go. For one thing, it actually has no offensive abilities; you can't beat people senselessly with it, for example. Instead, it allows you to heal a person with a particle beam of your team's color (red/blue). As you do this, you build an "ubercharge" over time, which gives different effects depending on which type of Medi Gun you use. 

[default] Medi Gun ubercharge: Grants the Medic and its target invulnerability for 8 seconds. (The weapon also "overheals" the target, giving them temporary HP above their full-health amount which is really useful)
Kritzkrieg ubercharge: Grants patient 8 seconds of guaranteed critical damage. (The weapon also increases ubercharge.... charge rate by 25%)
Quick-Fix ubercharge: Grants Medic and target immunity to stun and pushback effects and heals them 3x as fast as the regular healing rate. (The gun also increases healing rate by 40% in general, the ubercharge rate by 25%, the Medic matches the speed AND blast jump of the target they're healing. Only downside is that you can't overheal the target.)

Of course, the other weapons have features and types of their own. There are a lot to list, though, so I'd rather not list all of them (you can find that here if you scroll down a little bit), but some of the notable ones include the Vita-Saw, a melee weapon which allows the Medic to retain up to 20% of their ubercharge rate on death (as it resets to 0 upon death normally), the Ubersaw, another melee weapon which gives you 25% charge to your ubercharge meter upon successful hit of your target and gives 100% ubercharge charge upon successful hit on a target during its weapon-specific taunt, and the Crusader's Crossbow, a long-range primary slot weapon which can heal teammates and damage enemies, depending on who you hit and how far away they are. 

As a Medic, you're going to be the other team's first target quite often as you can keep your teammates alive while they obliterate anyone they encounter. Heavy/Medic combinations can be particularly deadly as Heavies can take a lot of damage and dish it out rapid fire. You're also rather squishy even though you have a good amount of HP. The good news is that you do passively regenerate HP, which other classes don't do; the more time you spend out of the line of fire, the faster you regenerate. Your offensive output is... lacking in comparison to other classes, as you give up damage for the ability to heal. But I have also been able to kill quite a few people as a Medic; your best bet is going to be your melee weapon, actually, as that slot tends to do more damage to people than your primary slot and most people are going to get within melee range of you anyway. Your primary slot weapons (Syringe gun, Crusader's Crossbow, etc.) have projectiles which arc over their distance span, which can be harmful and helpful. You have to learn how to aim it correctly for it to be effective.  
 

Beginner's Tutorial

I was always surprised by Valve's beginning tutorial they put in the game. Basically, you start with the Soldier (I guess he's easiest to learn on?) and learn movement and basic fighting with him. Once you complete the "training course" you unlock the next class to learn and repeat the course with them, and so on. The only weird thing is that there are only 4 classes for this tutorial: Soldier, Spy, Demoman, and Engineer. I know that those four classes have unique functions that are kinda necessary to learn before playing them if you want to play them well; a Spy that doesn't know how to cloak or disguise is going to die quickly. I just figured that they'd also include the other classes.

TF2 also has the "Offline" practice mode which is basically you playing with a bunch of bots (who sometimes have very silly and funny names) in a round of whatever game mode you pick. I personally don't like it as the bots behave a lot differently than players do. I don't know if they're necessarily more or less intelligent than human players; it varies of course. You can change the number of bots and their difficulty level in the settings option, which is handy. If you want to brush up on class skills, techniques, find out what gear combinations work for you, etc., this is a good place to go. 

Miscellaneous   

This game is very entertaining, really. You basically pick what kind of game you're looking to play--whether you want to do a "capture the flag" style, "attack/defend bases" style, "cart pushing" style, etc.--figure out what team you're on once you find a server/map, pick your class, and go! Each game has a few rounds per total game (I want to say it's out of 3-5 depending on the game type, but some servers just keep going) and they're all timed (the time also depends on the server, as some have literally days in a time limit while others might be only 15 minutes per round). You score points for killing people, assisting others in doing so, completing objectives (ie., catpuring a flag, successfully attacking/defending a control point, etc.), and other things. I think you get a point for dousing people when they're on fire, if I remember correctly. The points help you calculate your score and put you (and the rest of the people) on a giant scoreboard, which is constantly accessible to both teams. You also have achievements, both general and class-specific, and they range from "if you fall on your face while running you get an achievement!" easy to "unless you're specifically trying to do this achievement objective, odds are, you won't get this achievement" hard, which is cool. There are also "milestone" achievements for each class, where if you get X number of achievements for that class, you unlock some special equipment and such, which is a nice motivator for someone like me (aka, a little achievement whore). 

The learning curve depends, in my opinion, on your class, the map/game itself, and the other players around you. It helps to be an adaptable player, regardless of what class you're playing. As a Medic, while my primary responsibility is to heal my team, I also have no problem going up to someone and beating them to a pulp with my Bust of Hippocrates weapon (I'm not kidding. It's my favorite weapon in my inventory, just based on the item itself.). I've learned that sticking with a Heavy or a Soldier is really good for offensive and defensive strategies, but also that you shouldn't ignore other teammates. Heal a Sniper or Scout if he's low on health; everyone gets hurt and killed. Plus they're another person to help you take down your team. 

The biggest thing I see in this game is teamwork/cooperation, sometimes a lack thereof. Having voice chat can be really useful as it's hard (and slow) to type things out in the game chat box. While the game does offer "voice commands" on keyboard shortcuts, they're a bit limited and there isn't a command for every situation. At the same time, voice chat can be incredibly distracting, depending on who is also using it. Try to communicate with your team regardless; it makes a world of difference. I also find that you can quickly distinguish between the smart players and the dumb fuckers. As a Medic, find a smart player if you can and stick with them. Trust me. Or, find a person who works well with your play style (my boyfriend and I own when we play together, honestly, even when we're not in the same room together). Not gonna lie, sometimes it's incredibly frustrating to play with people as one team can sometimes dominate the other (and the game has an auto-balancing feature which will randomly shuffle people about and you can on one moment be on Red and the next moment be on Blu without warning). But most of the time, I really enjoy the challenge and the fun of healing others and not dying myself while also beating people to a bloody mess on the floor. 

That and I also like to snipe people and have sniping wars with opposing Snipers. But that's another story.

Overall, I highly, highly, HIGHLY suggest you try this game. At least once. You're bound to get a laugh out of it at the very least. Perhaps my favorite lines from the Medic: "Whoops! Zat was not medicine!" and "Zat was doctor-assisted homicide!" 

Have a game you want me to review? Have any questions, comments, etc. and so forth? Feel free to send in a comment, or message me on FB or Twitter (links on the side!). I'm off to go shoot more people to death with my needles and bash their heads in with a bust of Hippocrates.