Team Fortress 2

The nine classes available to play as in Team Fortress 2.

    For a game that was first released in October of 2007, Team Fortress 2 still has quite a large group of regular players. According to this page on the Steam website, at the moment that I write this, 42,000 people are currently online, playing Team Fortress 2. Of all the games in Steam's online catalogue, Team Fortress is the 6th most played, even 4 years after its release.

A Heavy, fists ready to take on his opponents.

    Team Fortress 2 is a first person perspective multiplayer shooter. Players choose to play as one of nine unique characters, and then, working with up to a dozen other players from around the world, fight the opposing team's players. There is no story or reason for the fighting, just an objective for each team and a large group of men carrying some very inventive weaponry. The goal of the levels differ widely. In Payload levels, one team tries to push a cart along a track to the end, pushing through defenses and mowing down opponents, while the other team does everything they can to stop them. In King of the Hill levels, both teams struggle to control the same building or other point of interest. Capture the Flag levels are played just like the schoolyard game, only with a lot more guns.
    One of the best aspects of this game is the characters from which the player can choose. Each is played differently from the rest, and has his own personality. The Heavy, for example, is a large, machine gun carrying Russian man, a humorous stereotyping of the Soviet Union in the 1960's. The Medic is a German doctor (more accurately, a mad scientist), who mostly stays to the back of the fighting, healing his teammates, but can also attack the enemy with his bonesaw or with a gun he carries that shoots a spray of syringes. The Engineer rarely attacks on his own, preferring instead to build a series of machines capable of attacking foes, healing teammates, and teleporting characters across the map. The characters are so different that switching control from one to another turns the game into a very different experience, breaking up any boredom.

The 'Nucleus' King of the Hill map. To the left is the heart of the
action, the point both teams are trying to gain possession of.

    In addition to the great character design (an odd thing to have in a game with no plot), there are several other elements of this game that I love. The art style is colorful and comical, and interesting choice for a war game. Humor is often evident throughout the game: in the lines that the characters occasionally say, in the art style, and in what little backstory is given. Perhaps the best benefit, though, is that the game is entirely free. The game's publisher, Valve, has recently done away with any cost to play the game, hoping to earn money off the game by selling special in-game weapons, items, and hats for a couple dollars each. Valve has been remarkably successful with this, and the game is earning a considerable amount of money for its developer, even though it is now free.

    Occasionally, while playing Team Fortress 2, something great happens. It can be a real thrill when a player, disguised as a member of the other team, sneaks up behind a massive enemy Heavy who has been terrorizing your team and quietly take him out with your butterfly knife. As a Demoman, an expert in demolitions and grenades, if you're skillful and careful enough, you can take out an opponent by "juggling" him in the air, setting off a new explosion underneath his feet right before he lands - quite an impressive feat if done correctly. Or, as a Heavy, you could become invincible at just the right time to destroy a nest of sentries and clear out the defenders of a point, leaving it open to be captured by your team. These moments come up occasionally while playing, and are very exciting when they do.
    Team Fortress 2 is a fast paced multiplayer game designed to be incredibly fun and addictive. This game has nearly unlimited replayability, and for the price, it cannot be beat. I cannot recommend this wonderful game enough.


 Download it for free on Steam.