Team Fortress 2 is a fun, first person shooter, online multiplayer game for the PC & MAC that is like no other which has recently become “Free-To-Play” meaning you can download it and play absolutely free. The game offers a character for everyone, whatever mood you may be in and finely balanced game play and game types that will keep you entertained for hours on end and keep you coming back for more.
Team Fortress is unique in every way from your standard everyday common first person shooters. Its graphics are like that of a Pixar movie; they have a cartoon feel to them yet at the same time, still look stunning. The visuals are shown off by some of the stunning maps, characters and weapons. The wide variety of games types will suit any person’s kind of playing, each one always as fun as the last! The main idea of the game is the BLU team verses the RED team, below is a list of the game types currently available:
- Payload: BLU pushes the cart down the track. RED needs to stop them.
- King of The Hill: One team must control a single point until time runs out.
- Attack / Defence: BLU wins by capturing all points. RED wins by stopping them.
- Payload Race: Two teams. Two carts. Two tracks.
- Control Points: Capture all points to win.
- Capture the Flag: Two teams. Take the enemy’s intelligence briefcase back to yours to score!
Each one is fun in its own way and requires a different tactical approach to win; the idea (subtly hidden in the title) is to work as a team to achieve your objective.
The classes: Team Fortress 2 is made up of 9 different classes, each fun and important in its own way I’ll give you a brief overview of each one:
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Scout |
Like the character “Dash” from The Incredibles Pixar film, the scout is designed to run round the battle quickly, picking people off and capturing points twice as fast as other players. Main weapons include shotguns, pistols and baseball bats. The scout also benefits from being able to do a double jump. |
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Pyro
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Fire. Set multiple enemies on fire with your flamethrower and reflect nasty rockets with your air blaster. Luckily fire is a spies worst nightmare since they will be caught out by it! Fire axe equipped for close encounters too. The Pyro’s are themselves fire proof but at a cost of only being able to mumble sentences because of the mask! |
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Soldier |
Soldier is a meany who wants to win! Main weapon is a rocket launcher to blow multiple enemies and buildings to smithereens. The rockets can be used to launch yourself in the air when shot at your feet to gain access to higher ground for unique tactical advantage. |
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Demoman |
A demolitions expert! Equipping a grenade launcher to blow enemies apart, even bounce them off a wall so you don’t even have to make contact with them. Then make use of your sticky bombs which can be detonated at your command, careful though they can be destroyed by the enemy! The sticky bombs can also be used to launch you into the air. |
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Heavy |
He’s big, he’s mean and he loves his massive mini gun. Equipping a mean Russian accent and a mini gun that fires “10,000” rounds per minute, who has great care for his gun which he has named “Sasha” Watch out for this one, he’s the best ally for a medic especially since he has the most health in the game! His slow walking pace lets him down though. |
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Engineer |
Automated and upgradeable sentry guns to defend against the enemy. Dispensers to give health and ammunition to you and your team. Teleporters to get your troops straight to the front line and of course a mean wrench to make it all happen, and to beat off any pesky spies. |
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Medic |
Possibly the most important player in the game! Having a thick German accent which reminds you of a crazed doctor, the Medic can heal team mates to full and beyond full health, the more you heal, the more you fill up your Über charge which eventually leads to amazing things… |
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Sniper |
An Aussie with a sniper rifle. Charge the rifle up to full capacity by aiming and you’ll be able to take out any character with a one shot of the head. A powerful class but remains away from the full force of battle and is a spies dream kill. The latest edition to his load out is a jar of his own pee… so watch out!
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Spy
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Stealthy and deadly, they can take the form of ANY character on the map and go completely invisible. Did I mention they can take out any character with one stab in the back? Watch out. Oh, and they equip electronic sappers which freeze and destroy an engineer’s buildings! Players are vigilant of spies though so be careful! |
As you can see there are a wide variety of classes to play and you can try each one to see which ones you like best but there are some basic rules and things you need to know though on how Team Fortress works and how things get done…
Heavy’s and Medics usually work together because of the powers of the Heavy’s weapon and large health and ability to keep pouring out the damage without reloading!- Pyro’s need to be aware that there could be a spy right next to them at any point, so keep the flame thrower going in order to make sure!
- Engineers, get those Teleporters up and make sure you upgrade them so they recharge faster! Getting your team to the front line is crucial. Dispensers and sentries also should be placed in inconspicuous areas where they will catch the enemy off guard.
- Demomen are good at destroying buildings and guarding defensive points with their sticky bombs since as soon as the enemy reaches the objective… BOOM!
- Critical Hits are another unique type of game play to Team Fortress 2, critical hits are when your gun or weapon does twice as much damage as normal, this can happen at random intervals or when you meet other requirements for the weapon, or are being charged by the Kritzkreig medi gun.
- Medics currently have two main weapons available to them: The Medi Gun and the Kritskreig. The Medi Gun is the slowest to charge from healing but once your charge is full you can make the current character you are healing invulnerable for about 10 seconds or so, this is perfect for offensive operations and attacking large groups of enemies or buildings without dying. The Kritzkreig charges quicker and gives your target a 100% chance of achieving critical hits for a short period, this really is very good for attacking large groups of enemies since you’ll be doing so much damage!
- Kill an enemy three times without them killing you and then they become dominated by you!
- Be killed by an enemy three times without killing them and they become your nemesis!
- The main thing to remember though is your objective and in order to win, that needs to be fulfilled so make sure it is always a priority! Assist your team however you can!
Other aspects of the game come with experience of playing and observing what other players do. For new players it’s probably best to stick to the crowd and work as a team in order to know what you should be doing.
What happens first?
When you first open Team Fortress 2 you’ll be presented with the home screen, from here press the “Start Playing” button and select the game type you want to play, the recommended type for new players is payload since its fairly easy to understand (The more people you have round the cart the faster it moves to its objective)
It’ll then search for a game server and start loading, when you then can choose your team (RED = Defending, BLU = Attacking) but teams alternate throughout rounds. After that you can choose your class… give each one a go and test them out to find one that you like using! Easy ones to start off with are the Soldier and the Pyro.
The way the game round starts is BLU is in their base and are unable to exit until the round starts, which lasts 50 seconds, while red has access to the whole map in order to build defences and get ready for the BLU invasion. RED’s usually gather around the BLU’s base to try and stop them as early as possible. An important note: During the setup phase of the game, a medic will be able to FULLY charge their Uber gun meaning when the round starts you can unleash fury and there is a massive clash of teams, resulting in much fun!
A setup part does not occur in some game types such as capture the flag and payload race since its not required.
Achievements, Weapons & Hats:
Team Fortress initially launched with each class and their basic weapons but over the years it has been expanded into a whole new world of items. Hats can be used to customise your players look, there are hundreds of hats available that can be used some hilarious and some a little bit scary! But it makes you different from other people in the game and adds an element to keep you playing in order to find more and more hats! Hats range from simply removing the standard head gear of your player to “Cadaver’s Craniums” and pirate hats! It shows the fun and casual side to the game where you can just have a laugh! The customisable appearance ranges from all types of head gear and eye wear.
You obtain hats randomly throughout the game or if you have been playing during certain Team Fortress events such as last Halloween where all players were awarded a Halloween themed hat. These cannot be gained through achievements. Just keep playing really and if you’re lucky, you’ll get one! Maybe even one of the rare or unusual ones.
Specific achievements are available for each class, with three Milestones for each class. Once you reach a milestone for a class you will be awarded with a new weapon for that class! You get to the milestones by completing a certain amount of achievements. Currently there are 379 unique achievements, but it’s not required (nor recommended) to attempt to get them all!
Weapons are obtained at random intervals while playing much like hats except they are much more common to come by! There are many different weapon combinations for all classes that in some cases completely change the way you play them, adding new ways to approach the battlefield etc. You can customise your player’s equipped items during and before a game in order to tweak to your liking! All weapons clearly identify what they do in relation to the original standard weapon for that class so they aren’t too confusing to get your head round.
Trading & Shopping
Trading has also been added to the game recently so you can trade with any player items that you may want to swap. If you don’t like a certain item or find it useless then trade it with another player for something better! Trading can be started from the Items menu on the home screen.
The main recent upgrade to Team Fortress 2 is the buying element in the game. This was added when the game became Free-To-Play. The idea behind it is for the developers to make money from micro-transactions in the form of buying items that you want rather than paying for the actual game its self. Buying items is completely optional, but if you really want a specific weapon or hat, it may just lure you in… Most weapons and hats in the game can be purchased from the store. New items are to say the least, extremely expensive but the majority of items are below £1.
Theoretically you could obtain all the items you want as they are found randomly throughout the game, but there are so many it is unlikely you’ll get them all any time soon and you will find many duplicate items. Perhaps new players of the game may want to buy a few items to get introduced into the team fortress world but it is up to you whether you see if beneficial!
Crafting:
When you start to earn lots of items you’re bound to eventually find some of the items you already have again, which are useless to you unless you can find someone who wants to trade for them! This is where the crafting element is introduced. It is a fairly advanced concept to the game and took me a while to figure it out since there was not much explanation of how to use it, I don’t recommend the whole crafting scene for new players as it will just seem overwhelming.
You can craft two unwanted weapons from a class into a piece of scrap metal.
You can craft three pieces of scrap metal into reclaimed metal.
You can craft three pieces of reclaimed metal into a piece of refined metal.
Certain metal can then be used with existing items to form new items, from the crafting screen blueprints are available of what you can smelt. There are many websites too which list all which you can make. But it really is a tricky concept so unless you’re an advanced user I’d steer clear of this area!
All this item buying and crafting malarkey is optional though and you don’t need it to have an awesome and fun time in Team Fortress 2. It’s about the game play at the end of the day which is always superb no matter what items or weapons you use since the standard ones are more than capable!
So how do I get Team Fortress 2?
Team Fortress 2 can be obtained by the digital distribution software Steam. Steam is a free piece of software that is the future of PC gaming, it allows you to buy thousands of games over the internet and have them downloaded directly to your PC. Of course certain games like Team Fortress 2 are free so you won’t have to pay a penny! If you visit their website here: http://store.steampowered.com/ you can download the steam software for your PC or MAC, once installed you simple create an account to keep track of all your possible purchases, friends and games etc! Steam also allows you to never lose a game due to a scratched disc since everything is saved online.
In order to play Team Fortress 2 on PC you must meet these minimum system specifications: “1.7 GHz Processor, 512MB RAM, DirectX® 8.1 level Graphics Card (Requires support for SSE), Windows® 7 (32/64-bit)/Vista/XP, Mouse, Keyboard, Internet Connection”
The recomended system specifications are: “Pentium 4 processor (3.0GHz, or better), 1GB RAM, DirectX® 9 level Graphics Card, Windows® 7 (32/64-bit)/Vista/XP, Mouse, Keyboard, Internet Connection”
These are all fairly low and any modern computer will likely trump the recomended requirements. Below are the minimum system requirements for the MAC also: “OS X version Leopard 10.5.8, Snow Leopard 10.6.3, 1GB RAM, NVIDIA GeForce 8 or higher, ATI X1600 or higher, or Intel HD 3000 or higher Mouse, Keyboard, Internet Connection”
Once steam is installed and you have created an account, simply search for Team Fortress 2 and being downloading! It’ll take a good few hours to complete but once done, you’re all set! A complete game, with a massive community and hours of fun, absoloutley free! What could be better?
Overall the whole feel of the game is fun and excitement! For new players, aspects may seem daunting at first since there is a fair bit to learn but experience will come with time. You choose how you want to play the game, thats why its suitable for everyone with a PC or MAC, the maps and game types are all different and the classes differ in many ways. All I can say, seeing as it’s free is: give it a go! If it doesnt work out for some reason then you’ve lost nothing but chances are you wont be foregetting this game anytime soon.