Imperium

And now, the final part of my review of The Orange Box, Team Fortress 2:

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Team Fortress 2

More so than in any other genre of computer gaming, team multiplayer is only as good as the players make it. Take a look at case number one: Counter-Strike. I’ve been in CS matches that made me feel like a god. Even a steady 2:1 kill to death ratio is enough for a decent session; anything upwards of 3:1 can be euphoric. But, if you happen to be on bad form, or if you’re playing on a server infested with certified members of the l33t club, you can end up spending half of your evening in a state of clinical depression.

If you die early on in a round of CS, you’ve got to wait for all the other players to finish up. In reality, the wait is only ever minutes long; but when you’re spending those minutes thinking of the myriad ways that they could have been used up had you not perished – getting lovely precision headshots on terrorists with your M4 assault rifle for instance – it seems like hours have passed.

Case number two, Battlefield 2, doesn’t have this enforced period of anguish; rounds are much longer and you’re allowed to respawn. However, you’re sorely mistaken if you think that a mere respawn system is sufficient for eternal bliss. Oh no, “we have ways of making your game time suck” boasts an Electronic Arts representative, cowering over you, while a Digital Illusions designer prepares an interrogation droid in the background.

In any one round of BF2, you’ll be shot and instantly killed and have no idea who did the deed, be intensely frustrated by how easy it is for the enemy to down your attack helicopter, repeatedly have your plane blown to bits before you even manage to take off, or have some complete and total arse burger sneak out from behind a rock and plant a couple of sticks of C4 on the rear end of your tank. The list of things that can happen in BF2 that will make you miserable is really quite long.

Now, I’m not saying that Team Fortress 2 will never let you down, and that every moment you spend playing it will be equivalent to drinking from a goblet full of ambrosia; but the fact remains that, in the month or so that I’ve been playing it, I’ve very rarely felt like quitting because I was pissed off. Perhaps the overriding reason why this is the case is because TF2 doesn’t take itself at all seriously. In fact, it really is rather silly.

There are nine classes: Scout, Soldier, Pyro, Demoman, Heavy, Engineer, Medic, Sniper and Spy. They’re all caricatures of roles you might find in other games. The Spy is a perfect example: he has a .357 magnum, a flick-knife for backstabbing, an ‘electro sapper’ for disabling turrets, dispensers and teleporters, and a disguise kit that allows him to look like any class he wants on either team. He can also cloak for short periods.

That all sounds just about normal, but the way that it’s been implemented is delightfully absurd. If a friendly spy passes by, disguised as a member of the opposite team, he’ll appear to be wearing a piece of cardboard over his face sporting an image of the class he’s impersonating. What’s hilarious is that, to the enemy, he looks exactly like one of their own.

The classes are more than just a bunch of weapons thrown together though; they’re characters in themselves. Don’t get me wrong, this is still a fast paced multiplayer game; there’s no time for a heavy to abruptly halt his march half way up a hill and deliver a rousing, soul bearing Shakespearean monologue. What you get in the course of a game are hints of personalities – a few of which have been expanded upon in the ‘Meet the …’ series of trailers that Valve released prior to the game’s release.

No monologue from the Heavy; rather, he’ll exclaim “I love this doctor!” if a Medic starts to heal him, shout “Engineer is credit to team!” if he uses a portal (built by the Engineer) and let loose a manic, bestial roar if he gets a killing spree with his gatling gun. Every class has these wonderful outbursts, not to mention their own set of animated taunts – one for each weapon they carry. These are small things really, but taken together, they’re a valuable contribution to the game’s tangibly up-beat atmosphere.

TF2 has been engineered to foster relationships between players. Rivalries are made official by the Dominated/Revenge system. If you manage to accumulate several kills against a particular opponent, a triumphant horn arpeggio will sound, and he will be labelled as ‘Dominated’ on the score board. But there’s a chance for a comeback; if he manages to kill you in return, his mark of shame is removed and triumph is his. These rivalries are further reinforced by the death-cam, which zooms to your murderer the moment you fall.

The more important relationships though, are those between team members. Fortunately, team play is where the game shines most brightly. Each and every class has a vital role that it can play. The Medic and the Engineer, being support classes, have clearly defined tasks to carry out from the get-go. But in the course of an evening there are going to be plenty of opportunities for the other classes to show their team spirit too.

The Soldier, or the Demoman, depending on the situation in question, are often the only classes capable of breaking an entrenched fortification of fully upgraded turrets. The Soldier can saturate the area with rockets from afar; the Demoman can, if he has the skill, land a bundle of grenades next to the Engineer who’s keeping the turrets repaired. The Spy can be excellent at this as well, disguising himself as an Engineer so that he can get close and perform some sabotage, before or after plunging his knife into the backs of any Engineers present.

The Demoman can secure capture points by covering them in sticky bombs (which he can detonate remotely), a tactic that can also be used to deny the enemy access through entrances and passages. The Pyro can do this (if he manages to obtain the element of surprise) with his flamethrower, bathing a room in fire and driving the enemy out. He can also expose disguised spies by immolating everyone he sees – as long as friendly fire isn’t on, of course.

Almost every action will impart some benefit, however big or small, to the success of the team. Some of these actions are purely selfless; some will also benefit the player. Being a good Medic is all about finding someone suitable (i.e. big, nasty and capable of taking some damage) on your team and pairing up with him, keeping him healed and unleashing your uber-charge on him (making him invulnerable for a short time) at just the right moment. The Medic/buddy partnership is important to the team because it can turn the buddy – previously an ordinary footsoldier – into a juggernaut, forcing the enemy to disperse in fear of his unending stamina.

As a reward for his loyalty, the Medic shares the points from his buddy’s kills. But other team members will look to the Medic for healing as well. If he turns to heal them, he’ll effectively be doubling their staying power; but he runs the risk of sacrificing points, since he doesn’t get any from healing for its own sake. Will he devote himself to his buddy, forsaking all others? Or will he be prepared to leave his buddy and dabble in triage when necessary? It’s a matter for the Medic to decide what kind of a team player he’s going to be.

TF2 is very much an objective oriented game. Except for the sudden death period that follows on from a stalemate, there’s no deathmatch. Instead, there’s a descendent of the classic capture the flag – in which flags are replaced with intelligence briefcases (alleviating that nagging thought in the back of my mind that flags really aren’t of massive strategic importance) – and a control point mode that comes in two or more (I’ve been racking my brain to think of how many, and I failed) variants.

Along with this there are six maps. 2Fort – a remake (so I’m told) of a map of the same name from the original Team Fortress – is the only CTF map. The remaining five maps are structured around control points. On some, control points can be taken by one team and then later retaken by the other, back and forth; on others, the team designated as the attackers must secure a number of territories (preventing the defenders from recapturing them) before unlocking the final one.

The supreme quality of the maps means that it’s barely a criticism to point out how few there are. Compare TF2 with Quake 4 in this respect: Q4 had something close to twenty maps, of which only about three or four passed muster. Which would you rather have? A shed-load of badly conceived arenas, and a select few quality ones that you actually play? Or six well refined beauties that you can really sink your teeth into? And don’t let me forget that many of TF2’s maps can be rotated, so that one set of control points is closed off (essentially a map in itself), and another is opened up. Then we’re really talking about ten maps or more, not six.

There is one major problem with the game that I can think of: the Scout. The basic concept of the Scout is that he’s fast as hell, stings like a bee with his double-barrelled shotgun, can double-jump and capture points faster than any other class. The way things have turned out, he’s still fast as hell, but his sting is more like a bashing from a battering ram, and he can capture points faster than you can say “Oh, bugger! He’s capturing the point bloody quickly!”.

The speed of their captures varies from map to map, but it can be stupefying. One time, I was playing on ‘Well’ (a ‘back and forth’ control point map). I had just respawned and I was exiting the resupply room (the central port of call for health and ammo replenishment) when two Scouts leapt up the steps to the final control point. Their capture speed bonuses stack, so, after they had both reached the point, they won the game in no more than two seconds. I was a Pyro, and even at close range there wasn’t enough time for me to defend against them.

This could be more of an issue with Well than with the class itself, but its an issue nonetheless, and the fact remains that the double-barrelled shotgun does far too much damage. Imbalances can always be repaired with patches though, as can minor glitches on maps such as ‘Dustbowl’ that allow fire to be exchanged before the match has even started.

I posted a while back with my impressions of my first time playing TF2. It was in beta then, and I was stunned by how consistently enjoyable it was. My opinion of it has hardly changed since. If you’re in the mood for a multiplayer experience that stinks of realism and breaks you (rather than eases you) in, check out CS, BF2 or even Call of Duty 4, which has been released in the time that I’ve been writing this review. If you’re just ‘up for a laugh’, then you’re much better off buying The Orange Box and diving into a TF2 match straight away.

✓ Jolly silly
✓ Real teamwork
✓ Well conceived classes
✓ Great maps and game modes
✗ Imbalanced Scout class

90%

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- Chris