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» MEDIA (2) The Job of a Spy

Browsing around the internet, you can find several articles and forum posts tossing the statement back and forth: "Enemy Territory:Quake Wars or Team Fortress 2?". Both being sequels to extremely successful games in the first place, this can be a tough debate. In a brief summary, ET:Quake Wars is large scale while TF2 is smaller with an infantry base.

On the surface, TF2 flaunts its accessibility about and shows its graphics proudly. The menus (as would be suspected of Valve's successful Source engine) are crisp clean with a successful standard server browser and the array of options. Each of the 9 classes are successfully balanced to a tee with each representing a unique personality to boot. Valve's also shipped with the game 6 strong perfect maps (my least favorite being granary) with the entire community hard at work on a plethora of others as is expected with the general release of Valve games.


Now besides artstyle, the classes truely create this game as a whole.
Your offensive classes are comprised of the Scout (A quick fellow with a capture speed bonus), the Pyro (Close quarters anti-spy), and the Soldier (Rockets galore! what more could you ask for?!).

Defensive consists of the Demoman (Grenades buddy, grenades), the Heavy (Machine Gun toting russian from hell), and the engineer (Watch your turret play for you!).

Finally the support classes of the sniper (pretty self explanatory), the spy (costume wearing master of disguise and cloak), and the medic (healing is actually fun again!) aid your team in several ways, from cover fire to specific assistance.


Enough with long tedious lists as definitions don't do each class justice. Each class has its own variable of a learning curve with soldier being among the easiest up to spies who are quite tricky to master.

While the game is excellent for those 20 minute quickie sessions, there truely is a game for the hardcore in the end. Heavy team play will have your engineers franticly building turrets, spies backstabbing, heavy/medic combos mowing down an entire team, and scouts filling the obnoxious slick quick personality they have when played right, unlike the homogenized drabby class play of Quake Wars. TF2 is a prime model of what competitive gameplay and a solid game should look like. Strong objective based maps generally keep horseplay to a minimum with the goals ranging from simple capture to the flag to conquest-esque objectives. 7+ years in development truely can be seen.

Pros:
+ Easy accessibility by any gamer
+ Amazing art direction
+ Fun, deep, and interesting teamplay

Cons:
+ Subjective to lasting appeal

Final Score: 96/100