[Review] Team Fortress 2 (PC / XBOX 360)

*NOTE: This is a guest post, a review written by a new contributor to Mind Freaks, Rokar333, and still edited by Peter Savkovich. Enjoy!*

    Team Fortress 2 is the product of nearly ten years labor at Valve after the success of Team Fortress Classic in 1999. Over its long development period, the game has gone through many technical and graphical modifications. Starting as a realistic military based First Person Shooter (FPS), the game has evolved into a bloody, over-exaggerated, cell-shaded gore fest.             
 

~Heavy class with a Bear skin from FPSBanana

    TF2 really doesn’t have much in the way of story, with no significant mentions of it anywhere on the box or manual. This is what is revealed to the player from the get-go: there are two giant corporations that are fighting for control the world, Reliable Excavation and Demolition; and Builders League United. Players fight for one of the two corporations. That’s it. Gamers looking for a product with deep narrative underpinnings should avoid this thing like the plague. However, the game easily makes up for its lack of story with excellent gameplay.

    The game gives players the option of playing as one of nine classes, divided into three categories: Offense, Defense, and Support.
    In the Offense category are the Scout, Soldier, and Pyro; the Defense characters are the Demoman, the Heavy, and the Engineer; and last, but certainly not least are the Support classes: Medics, Snipers, and Spies. Each class has their own unique weapons (such as the Spy’s butterfly knife or the Heavy’s minigun) and abilities (like the Scout’s ability to double jump) that make playing each class a different experience, but players need to work with their teammates to make the most out of all the classes’ abilities. A good example is the Heavy/Medic combo, in which a Medic travels with a Heavy, keeping his health topped off while the Heavy mows down the other team with the minigun. However, such combinations always have weaknesses, and the Heavy/Medic can be countered by a good Spy, or a team of Soldiers and Demomen working together.

    This focus on strategy and teamwork is something I find to be quite lacking in most online FPS’s, where there is all too commonly one weapon or loadout which overwhelms everything else. In Team Fortress 2 there is always a way to counter something the opposing team does, assuming that the players actually work with their teams. While a well-placed sentry gun by an Engineer may stop an onslaught of Scouts and Pyros (who have good close range attack power but poor defense), it can easily be destroyed by Demomen, Soldiers, or a Heavy/Medic combo. These classes are all vulnerable to the Spy, who in turn is vulnerable to Pyros and Scouts, who are vulnerable to Engineers (beginning to see a pattern?).             

    With servers that allow up to 36 players and only 9 classes, it is important to keep a balanced team. If a team has too many rushing classes, an opposing defensive team will halt all progress, but if a team is too defensive, it won’t progress at all, either.             

    This balance ultimately makes TF2 one of the most fulfilling online multiplayer experiences on the PC. While there is an XBOX 360 version, it does not receive any of the content updates or patches that the PC version does. This, along with third party options such as custom skins and sprays, makes the PC version the best choice.

TL;DR: I strongly recommend this game for anyone looking for an online team-based shooter for the PC.