"What? An FPS with No Space Marines and Not Set in WWII? NO WAI!"
by Stuart Newsom

Team Fortress 2 has been my most recent gaming addiction. Since finally getting a laptop that was powerful enough to play games, TF2 was the first game I installed. Well, technically it was given to me by my brother (thanks!), but you get the idea. It was the inspiration as to why I downloaded Steam on my laptop (which was a mighty fine idea), why I created the Save Point Steam Community Group (which would be here), and the main thing that’s been sucking away my excess time. Though it’s not a game for everybody, TF2 is the best FPS I’ve played since Goldeneye and, in a sea of FPS games recently, stands as a unique title through its class diversity and balance, well designed characters, and, shockingly in an FPS, sense of humor.

Though at face value, TF2 just seems like a “choose a map, choose a class, fire at opponent, repeat” FPS, there’s a story behind it. Supposedly, it’s about two feuding holding companies, Reliable Excavation & Demolition (or RED) and Builders League United (or BLU) (SEE WHAT THEY DID THERE?!), that secretly control every government on the planet. Each side has a certain objective to achieve in each location, which could be as simple as control the map or capture the intelligence and bring it to your base or as complex as push a bomb all the way to your opponents base while they are defending with everything they can. Now, this story is never once mentioned in the game proper, but really it’s not needed. All you need to know is your objective for the map and then go out and do it.

One major thing about TF2 is that it’s a class based FPS. Before running out like a madman on the map, slaughtering many red or blue clad opponents, you have to choose one of nine different classes; the Scout, the Soldier, the Pyro, the Demoman, the Heavy, the Engineer, the Medic, the Sniper or the Spy. Each class has their own unique skills, tools, weapons, attributes, weaknesses and personalities. For example, the Scout is a loud mouthed, baseball loving Bostonite (think the guy from the ShamWOW/Slap Chop infomercials) armed with a scattergun style shotgun, fast legs, and the ability to double jump, but very low in terms of health. On the flip side, the Heavy is a very large Russian strongman, with a heavy accent, an even heavier minigun (which he’s named Sasha), and can take whole ton of damage, but is very slow to move about.  If you want to go all sneaky, the Spy is a French chain smoker in a ski mask who, while still armed with a revolver, also has many covert tools like a cloaking device hidden in his watch, a disguise generator in his cigarette holder (which allows him to appear to be anybody on the opposing team), a zapper for the Engineer’s building, and a butterfly knife for his melee weapon, which can instantly kill a target if stabbed directly in the back (which is ‘EFFING ANNOYING BY THE WAY). There’s really a class for each style of play and each class is really well balanced with other classes. There isn’t really one overpowered class, though many argue that the Pyro is “easy mode” seeing the Flamethrower is easy to use and very powerful in close quarters. But the different classes’ personalities are what really make the game shine.

I know what you’re thinking. “Personalities? Really? YOU LIE!” I do not! These personalities really shine during the chatter your characters can have spontaneously in game. This chatter isn’t the built in voice chat (which can be amusing in its own right. Ever hear an entire server sing the theme song to Captain Planet and/or “Still Alive” from Portal while playing? I have. Many times. THANKS TF2!), but different marvelously written and performed quips done by the classes as they go along. The pinnacle of this is the trash talking done when you “dominate” another player (which is when you kill the same player a number of times in a row). Many of these are so funny and out of the blue that I usually get killed simply because I’m laughing at what my character said. Even more, with the updates done on the PC version, the quotes are context sensitive. Personal favorites include the Scout dominating a Heavy with “I am OWNING you, you fat bald fatty…fat fat!”, and Spy dominating a Scout with “Here lies Scout. He ran fast and died a virgin.”

Though this is a multi-platform title via The Orange Box, in all honesty, the PC version is the dominate one. Don’t even bother with the console versions unless your computer can’t handle it. The major win of the PC versions are the updates Valve have done over time, introducing not only balance fixes and other boring things, but whole new unlockable weapons, each with their own benefits and drawbacks, and hats for the characters. These include the Pyro’s Backburner, a flamethrower with 100% critical damage from behind but no compressed air blast, or the Sniper’s Jarate, a grenade type…um… weapon (ok, so it’s a jar of pee) which shorts out the Spy’s cloaking systems and increases damage to all shamed by it’s golden glory. I mean, how many games to you get to throw pee at people?!? Please don’t answer that. Anywho, it’s a fantastic FPS for all who want to get out of the Space Marine/WWII realm. I’ll probably still be around. Come find me. I’ll be dominating you soon enough.

Overall Rating: 9 out of 10