This isn’t the Team Fortress you remember.
If you played the previous version, which would be just when Valve was opening up the almost brand new Half-Life game to the mod community, then you’ll know what I’m talking about.
This game is campy, cartoony, fast, and most of all, fun. Valve has done a wonderful job with the art direction. Each character model is easily distinguishable from all others. I’ve only had the opportunity to play a few of the maps, but from what I see, some of the old ones have returned, while the new ones have a nice, tight flow to them.
I can’t really judge if Valve has done their job in balancing the classes. There isn’t a real difference in the amount of skill of those online at the moment, so most of the matches degenerated into a huge free-for-all. In fact, one of my gaming associates (and regular here on peter-hodges.com) feels that game is too much of a run’n'gun thing. Since this game style caters to my strength, I shan’t complain, but the older iteration of Team Fortress was certainly more strategic.
I had a ball tonight using the “emote” button for each class (default mapped to the “G” key). Each class has a slightly different emote for each weapon that they hold. I would highly recommend that you try it.
Since I’m primarily interested in the continuation of the Half-Life 2 story (with episode 2), I was going to get TF2 whether I play it or not. I’m glad to see that I’m enjoying the game (at least so far), and that Valve has done it again with a unique multiplayer experience. I don’t think this game will de-throne Counter-Strike as the reigning champ, but it should develop a healthy community.
I’ll write a little more about it later, after I’ve had a chance to play a bit more.
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I finally played this a bit last night. I really enjoy the game, and the art direction was an awesome choice. I too recommend the liberal use of the G key during gameplay. There’s nothing like setting up a turret behind a blind corner, having friends help upgrade it, and then jumping out in line of sight of the enemy and doing a “country shuffle dance number” to lure people forward to their doom.
As for class balance I think it’s pretty decent so far. About the time I would think that the demo class was overpowered (when i learned to detonate the sticky bombs with mouse button 2), a spy would come along a stick a knife in me. I think the scout class is underplayed right now, but I also feel that as more good fps players get a feel for the double jump they’ll play the class more. Hands down for me, I like being a healer. Now if only I could teach people to push forward when I get my “uberhealing” beam ready.