[PC] Team Fortress 2 BETA

Well I went ahead and used Steam to pre-order it only because I knew I wanted to get it anyways, and one less box to keep track of was a good thing in my mind for a game that will be as popular and easy to find down the road.

In regards to TF2, I've only played 1.5 maps of it, and so far it reminds me of a cross between Wolfenstein:ET and TF. For the record, I did not play TFC. I have however played: WFUT, UnF, Q3F, WFA, and a little bit of the original QWTF so I at least have some background in how class based mods play. The first part of TF2 that reminds me of ET is the whole respawn timer. At first I thought that kinda sucked, but it's not so bad once I got in the frame of mind that this wasn't as run and gun as those other mods I played above.

The animation style is like something out of a pixar movie. Really interesting, and I'm actually glad they went with it because it:

1. Makes the game stand out and apart from other games in the genre atm.
2. Gives it the cartoony feel, so parents won't be all "ZOMG, GUNS AND PEOPLE SHOOTING PEOPLE!!! HOW HORRIBLE!"

Some of the character models look hilarious too! The medic reminds me of Egan from The Real Ghostbusters!

So far the gameplay has been interesting to say the least. Without grenades, support classes actually try to play their role a little more often from what I experienced. Especially medics backing up a HWG. I personally played Soldier just because it's always been a favorite of mine to play, as well as start out with when playing a new TF or similar mod. Even though the soldier is supposedly one of the semi durable combat classes, it didn't feel like I could take many hits before being killed. Maybe that's just cause I'm still a noob at TF2's gameplay though. The game does not register a message saying who I've personally killed. It's all still kept track of in the scrolling obit log at the top right of the screen, but still, I kinda liked having that "Yeah!" satisfaction of killing someone.

I only played two control point based maps where one team is on offense and the other defense. Once again, this very much reminded me of ET just with a different twist since to capture a point, players on your team have to be in (very) close proximity to it. The more players there, obviously the faster is caps. The overall pace of the gameplay felt slower than I remember TF being for some reason, but then again, other than some Fortress Forever (AWESOME HL2 mod btw, more on that below) that I played for the first time last night, this is the first time I've played TF literally in years. There is no bunny hopping that I saw, and with the way the game plays I can understand why. I won't miss it though since I always thought bhoping was a cheap way of overcoming the class limiting run speeds that each class has imposed upon itself (eg a soldier in Q3F bhopping his way back to his base carrying the flag).

Compared to Fortress Forever, TF2 is a radical change in the way TF plays. FF is more of a true sequel to TFC from what I've read. I played it last night for several maps, and while I didn't play TFC, I definitely got that "FUCK YEAH TF LIVES!" feeling. I'm actually glad that both FF and TF2 exist because they give different gameplay styles where FF is more of the run and gun I loved about certain TF mods (UnF being my last big fav). I'm hoping that both FF and TF2 will be able to co-exist together because having a best of both worlds set up where I can finally have some TF action again feels like a godsend.

To sum it up, if you're looking for a new type of TF that takes the winning formula and innovates on how it plays, definitely check out TF2. If you're looking for something closer to TFC, try Fortress Forever. Hope that helped a little

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