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Wednesday 5 March, 2008
GAMEPLAY:
In my second game session I decided to focus more on the different playable classes in TF2. The nine different classes are broken into three different categories that include offense, defense, and support. The offense classes include the fast but weak Scout, the good all-around Soldier, and the high damage dealer the Pyro. Defense includes the Demoman, Heavy, and Engineer. Finally, the support classes include the Medic, the Sniper, and the Spy.
Each class is very unique in many aspects such as health, damage, and abilities. For instance, the Heavy class has the most health, making it the best class to be healed by a medic. This is why players often see a heavy being fallowed around by a medic healing them. Each class plays very different from the next, which keeps the game play very interesting and fresh. It is also a nice feature that players can change their class whenever they feel, so it doesn’t feel like you get stuck with something you don’t like playing.
The medic class is arguably the most important class in the game, which is funny because I find it the most boring to play. Injured players can call for a “MEDIC!!!” in hopes that someone playing a medic is close enough (and nice enough) to come heal them. Most FPS’s out today do not have a healing class, which is one reason why TF2 is so much fun to play.
The Engineer class is another very unique class for a FPS. Engineers are very weak when it comes to weapon based combat, but they can build very powerful machines to help out themselves and their team. They can build teleporters, health vendors, and stationary turrets to help out their team. On top of being able to build cool gadgets, engineers can upgrade these gadgets through multiple ranks. This means that the longer an engineer can stay alive, the more powerful they become.
DESIGN:
Having played the original Team Fortress years ago, the first thing I noticed when I started playing TF2 was how drastically different it is from its predecessor. Team Fortress was a mod on the original Half-Life engine, and was a very different game than TF2. One of the first things I noticed upon playing TF2 was that there were no alien weapons, alien maps, or any aliens at all! In fact, TF2 decided to completely overhaul the TF series while leaving the core game play almost untouched.
The game play consists of squad based first person shooter mayhem, 9 distinct classes, and lots of action. Just like the original, the games consist of very large team battles with lots of carnage. Unlike the original, TF2 decided to go with a new look. The new graphics are very stylized and have a cel-shaded look. Players in the game look like exaggerated caricatures with very large arms and hands, and very small legs and feet. This new look works well with the unrealistic style of the game and makes the game stand out from other on the market.
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