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TFC. Taking you hostage!
From the moment you enter TFC, your heart races like a child ripping open presents on Christmas morning.
The look and feel of the original Team Fortress is still there, but on a much greater scale. You travel through corridors you've been down before, but it feels as if you're whole TF experience has been under a haze.
Now, someone has shed light on your game playing, and you can begin to see the true potential of what TF's creators envisioned. Walls and floors, which were plain and flat, are now extremely detailed, almost (Half)life-like.
When you meet your first teammate you pause for a moment as you ponder whether this is really a game, or have you just stepped into a military base during a raging battle.
Models that actually look human have replaced the blocky characters you are used to seeing. You make your way to the front lines without missing a beat, a corner, or even that ammo pack you need to reek havoc on your enemies.
On the right, you see what ammo you have acquired from the pack. Then you notice how detailed the HUD has become. The bottom right shows the ammo in your possession, plus the amount currently in your clip.
Messages flash by showing who killed who and what weapon they used. But enough of that, it's time to get down to business.
The time has come to fight. You enter the melee, pull out your trusty (enter favorite weapon here!) and open fire on the scumbag in front of you. Again you pause as the noise coming from your weapon sounds to real to be just a game.
Before you know it, you've just gunned down you first kill, and all is well. It's just like taking candy from a baby right? You feel that rush you know and love. More and more enemies fall until your base is secured.
You rush over to the opposing base thinking how wonderful it's going to feel filling more guys with lead (or fire for you Pyros). You've now made it into their base, but something is wrong. It's just too quiet.
In your efforts to blast a hole in your enemy, you've rushed to quickly into the enemy's base and forgot the name of the game, TEAM Fortress. From out of nowhere the enemy appears with visions of blowing you back from where you came.
You put up one HELL of a fight, but the numbers are just too much. You've just made someone's frag list, and it's all over. But the true TFer knows it's only just begun.
TFC is the experience we've been waiting days, months, and even years for. What we thought was the greatest team game of all time, was nothing but a beta version of the game you see before you.
A new engine, enhanced 3D graphics, and true to life sound brings new life to the most popular Internet game to date. But for some, it's not just a game, it's a way of life. A place where you're friend can become your enemies, and you're enemies may one day fight along side you.
-Blackbird
First of all, I think it would be heading down the wrong path to compare TFC with Quake TF. Although I do think that will be the temptation with many, it would be an inappropriate comparison.
I am looking at it as a new, never seen before mod to an fps, namely Half Life and comparing it to the game it is spawned from. Half Life is without a doubt the best fps game to come down the pike in a long time. However, once one has gotten through the incredibly well thought out single player portion we are back to the standard dm on-line multiplayer maps and model. Even when running a straight team server I found that the only way to keep the game enjoyable for those who want to play genuine team games it was necessary to have an admin there at all times and have an active boot policy for those who insist on dm. The only way to have a true team environment is basically to force it on the players. The other issue that can make a game like Half Life, as good as it is to get increasingly tiresome on-line is the single model available as well as no real goals other than killing more than you get killed yourself. Now for some that is enough but I find it gets boring pretty quickly and TFC solves all those problems admirably.
The first thing you notice is that there are many players that feel the same way, that teamwork and attaining specific challenging goals is what it takes to keep the game interesting. Oddly enough, the players on the servers I visited just naturally fall into a team mode as if that was what they were predestined for all along.
Next is the engine itself. I found it smoother than the original action and a definite improvement over the old Half Life multiplay. Funny to be calling Half Life "old" already eh?
Next came the maps. Not to look back on Quake but the old Hunted map although in itself was a decent idea, it had turned out to be a lamer magnet. Few people that I know play it after a couple bad experiences. Now it appears the new hunted map will be one of the most popular ones out there. It did not take long for everyone there to discover the potential for some downright intense firefights on this map, which is exactly what happened. I had played just about every Half Life map that was available that was appropriate for teamplay and none spawned the action that came out of this map in just a few minutes. It was some of the most hard fought battles I have ever seen with all the players being drawn into the intensity like moths to a flame.
The 2forts map proved to be equally as nice for newbies as those who have shown loyalty to it all along. I saw a renewed vigor from my fellow geriatrics crowd in attacking the map. Strangely enough, even those die hard defense types like myself suddenly found themselves going on the offense and getting in their licks. I thought wow, this isn't the same old stuff. New map, new game, new challenges.
The models really shine and bring even more life into the game. The scout really rips. I found myself looking at my rockets reloading as the scout dodged by on his way to the flag. This guy is no pushover and will be one of the most important classes in the game. The spy did a good job of fooling the opposing team into thinking he was just one of the guys until the sentry went boom. Can you say, "weapons check"? Man's best friend may be the dog but the HwGuy's best friend is the medic. And for the enemy, it is hard to thing bad things about a guy coming at you with no more than a first aid kit in his hands, offering it to you like a turkey sandwich, right? Uh, wrong. You don't want to munch on that rye bread. The pyro is a fearsome foe in this mod. The flamethrower will take health points from you before you can blink and I found the napalm grenade to be lacking only in marshmallows to roast over the bonfire it created. The Hwguy and his autocannon seemed to get real popular quickly in the game and hwguys catch everyone's attention real fast as they appear on the field.
Now here are two characters that are going to take some practice to master and that is the demo and the soldier. As a soldier, you always wish those rockets were just a tiny bit faster, but that ain't happening. You can't just empty the magazine and expect your enemy to cooperate and die quietly. You are going to have to learn how to aim and how to lead properly. Practice, practice. The same goes for the demo. If you want to master that class you are going to have to work with it and learn the bounces and damage range of the grenades. The most fearsome weapon I saw was what the players quickly dubbed the "death gren". If you see a mirv grenade land in your vicinity don't think.....run. When you see several land in the area, just say goodbye and get ready for the respawn room. Those puppies can surround a brigade in a flash.
Now of course we cannot forget the Quake version of Team Fortress and you can't help do some comparing. Well for me at least the gameplay was without problem and ran very smooth, easily as smooth as the original with the exception perhaps of the Well map. That one seemed to run a little funky for me. All in all, if you want to compare the two games, TFC is going to come out way ahead in actual play, the maps and graphics and most importantly to me at least is the fact that we soldiers cant just rip off a mag of rockets and hope to hit something any more. You really do have to learn to aim and to lead, but when you do the results are quite pretty.
As far as an improvement over Quake TF, I give TFC an 8. As far as an improvement over Half Life (hard to imagine) I give it a 9. It only misses a 10 to leave room for improvement, which I know the boys from Valve will give us as soon as the game has been thoroughly played and tweaked.
If you are one of those who was getting a little jaded in the Quake TF version do yourself a favor and try this one out. It will be just like your first date all over again.
That's my view.
-Turbine2
 Next at bat... 2fort and The Well!
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The announcement of the upcoming Team Fortress Classic took not only the TF community by storm, but the whole gaming community. Built as an add on for the blockbuster title Half Life, how can you be disappointed?
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