Team Fortress for you (Half-Life 2: The Orange Box (PC))

Member Name: RayWhitney

Product:	Half-Life 2: The Orange Box (PC)
Date:	16/04/09 (132 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Great maps, intelligent class system, witty gameplay

Disadvantages: Not much longevity, not very reliable online

I've got a confession to make. A few months ago, I sat here in front of my PC screen and tapped out a review of The Orange Box. I gleefully chatted about the five Valve first-person shooter games collected together in this compilation. I waxed lyrical about the mature storyline of Half-Life 2, the ingenuity of Half-Life 2 Episodes One and Two, the diabolical evil genius of Portal and... well, I think I might have mentioned Team Fortress 2. Truth was, I didn't want to play Team Fortress 2. It was a strictly online experience, and I was intimidated by the concept of having to work as a team with experienced players when I hadn't ever played the game before. They would call me a 'n00b' and then shoot me, no doubt. As I couldn't practice offline or with friends, I left TF2 to the very last and concentrated my reviewing efforts on the other games. Eventually, I couldn't put it off much longer. After watching as many videos and consuming as many text files as I could find, I bit the bullet and jumped into a game. I didn't really understand what was happening, and I kept on getting blown to pieces, bits and smithereens, and also bits of smithereens.

Reader, I would love to say that I persevered and learned the ropes and eventually turned into the Intercontinental Champion of Team Fortress, but this would be a lie and the internet is not the place for those. The damage had already been done by the preceding weeks of hesitance and fear. Because I wasn't instantly amazing at TF2, I simply accepted that I had been right in the first place about it not being fun, and that I would stink at it, and that I should leave the internet to people who can fire guns accurately. I turned it off, I wrote my review, and I forgot all about it.

Some weeks later. It was a Saturday afternoon and I was home alone for a few hours. Out of the blue, I decided that I wanted to play Team Fortress 2. It was an odd sensation, and one I completely didn't foresee. Still, I vowed to be patient and optimistic, and I turned the game on.

Its cartoony style, vivid colour scheme and dramatic, bombastic soundtrack were alluring - they promise simplistic, over the top action. With its exaggerated caricatures and near-supernatural weapons, the game is definitely OTT, but if you're expecting a simple blast-a-thon, you'll be surprised. Still, the presentation is basic enough and welcomes you into the game without any unnecessary waffle. I chose a 'Ranked' game, which meant that I would be matched up with players of my skill level online, and the results would be recorded on the leaderboards (Alternatively, I could have gone for a 'Player' match, which has less rigid rules and allows for joining a game halfway through - there seems to be more people playing these.)

I found a game on the 2Fort map - a "Capture The Flag" affair where two opposing teams (Red and Blue) store intelligence briefcases in the basements of two farmhouses on either side of a small stream. Each team must try to break into the enemy base using force, stealth or technical wizardry, take the briefcase and return it to their own. Simple enough. The teams in my game only had two players each, but I wasn't playing to win, I was playing to learn what the heck I was supposed to do. Bigger games can support up to eight players a side.

From the nine available 'classes', I selected the Pyro. The other classes are Scout, Soldier, Engineer, Demoman, Heavy, Medic, Spy and Sniper. We'll take a proper look at them later. I went for the Pyro straight away because he has a flamethrower. Hey, I never claimed to be an intelligent guy.

It wasn't long before my 'team mate' decided to bail, leaving me on my own against my two enemies. If I wanted any chance of staying alive, the logical thing to do would have been to guard my intelligence briefcase and burn any invaders. But I wasn't here to do a Custer impression, I wanted to throw myself into this game and get to know what's up.

I used the signposts dotted around the base to find my way to the 'no man's land' inbetween the two bases. There are a couple of routes across I could have taken. Had I been a Scout, I could have double-jumped onto the metal roof over the bridge and leaped straight onto the enemy's building. A spy or someone with a penchant for the sneaky could have dived into the water and taken the sewer tunnels. As there were no snipers watching out for me and it was a pretty unpopulated game, I was safe to simply take the bridge. I ducked through the corridors, ran up the stairs, went through a few more doors and then descended into the basement. While the rest of the map looks like a sadistic farmyard, the basements are very sci fi and evil genius. Although the maps are complicated and allow for a variety of routes, approaches and strategies, it is very hard to get lost in them. I found the intelligence, grabbed it and ran back the way I came. Of course, at this point I had no idea how to keep myself hidden in this map, so it was not long before I was tracked down by my opponents. I managed to torch one of them fairly badly, but they were too good for my amateur self. They slaughtered me and I respawned back at my base, to start all over again. And so it continued. I had no chance of winning and I believe they beat me 3-0 (meaning they captured my intelligence three times, and I got theirs no times) but I had a lot of fun running around, fending off attacks with bursts of flame and laughing triumphantly for the three second bursts that I had their intelligence.

Had I got this game wrong! My own misgivings had put me off a very tactical and endlessly enjoyable game. Not wanting to swamp myself with information, I decided to slowly work my way through each of the classes while sticking with the same 2Fort map. Here's my breakdown of each of the different 'characters' you can be, each with their own clearly-defined strengths, weaknesses and personalities.

Class Name: Scout
Appearance: An over-enthusiastic baseball fan.
Weapons: Scattergun, pistol, baseball bat.
Special Abilities: Scouts can run exceptionally fast and can double-jump. They are the best at claiming 'Control Points', which is essential for winning some of the maps.

Class Name: Soldier
Appearance: Well, he's a soldier.
Weapons: Rocket launcher, shotgun, shovel.
Special Abilities: The soldier can use his rocket launcher to give himself a jump boost, although this does damage him slightly.

Class Name: Pyro
Appearance: Looks a little like a gasmasked freak.
Weapons: Flamethrower, shotgun, axe.
Special Abilities: The flamethrower can set enemies alight, which causes extra damage. Make sure they don't jump into any nearby water though!

Class Name: Engineer
Appearance: A rough-round-the-edges Texan.
Weapons: Shotgun, pistol, wrench.
Special Abilities: Engineers can build sentry guns (the most powerful weapon in the game), teleporters and supply points, meaning they are essential for a tactical team.

Class Name: Demoman
Appearance: Unshaven and covered with grenades.
Weapons: Grenade launcher, sticky bombs, bottle.
Special Abilities: Demomen can place sticky bombs and detonate them at will, meaning they are the ultimate trap-setters.

Class Name: Heavy
Appearance: Muscular and about seven foot tall.
Weapons: Minigun, shotgun, fists.
Special Abilities: The heavy has the most health out of all the classes, but don't expect him to move quickly.

Class Name: Spy
Appearance: Wears a suit and a mask.
Weapons: Revolver, knife.
Special Abilities: The spy can turn himself invisible for a short period of time, and can use his Sapper to destroy enemy machines such as turrets. He can also disguise himself as a member of the opposite team. When he is in disguise, he can stab people in the back for a one-hit kill.

Class Name: Medic
Appearance: A doctor from Hell.
Weapons: Medigun, 'syringe gun', saw.
Special Abilities: The medigun heals his team's injuries, and if the medic heals enough, he can use an 'Ubercharge' to make himself and a mate invulnerable briefly.

Class Name: Sniper
Appearance: A stereotypical Australian, for some reason.
Weapons: Sniper rifle, submachine gun, kukri.
Special Abilities: The sniper, if he charges his gun up enough and gets a clear shot at someone's head, can kill an opponent with one shot.

Each individual class is exciting for its own reasons, even relatively dull-sounding ones like the Medic or Spy.

There are six maps to play on, including 2Fort, Well, Hydro, Dust Bowl, Granary and Gravel Pit. 2Fort is the only Capture The Flag map, while the others involve the team battling over various 'control points'. Some of the maps have one team defending and the other attacking ('King of the Hill' style), while the others give the teams bases and ask them to attempt to takeover the other. All of the maps are expertly designed, producing twisted versions of everyday environments with multiple routes, hiding places and secrets galore.

I generally play Team Fortress 2 on my Xbox 360 due to ease and because my PC can't handle anything bigger than a Beatles MP3. However, I have to say the PC version is superior. Not only does it have the usual hacks and custom skins available, there are more official maps to download (including a more than welcome Team Deathmatch mode and the new 'Payload' mode) plus unlockable weapons. This makes the Xbox 360 version seem a little smelly, to be honest. It also affects its longevity quite negatively.

Playing online is a mixed affair on the 360 - there are not a lot of people discussing tactics, so despite the team-based nature of the game, it tends to be a free-for-all. There seem to be a few hacks around, meaning you could find yourself in a game with annoyingly low gravity or some such irritating glitch. Also, reliability of servers is an issue - I've been disconnected, or booted, or "lost my connection" on 1 out of every 3 or 4 matches. Whether this is just bad luck or not, I don't know, but it does put me off playing.

With so few maps on the 360 version, this game has enough material to keep you hooked like a grubby little fanboy for a week or so, before it will no doubt get a little old. However, the PC version has enough variety and room for development that it ranks as one of the better light-hearted online games out there. It's a pumped-up 'Paper, Rock, Scissors' game played out in gloriously gratuitous sophisticated cartoon, peppered with more wit than many movies. The terrifying 'head mistress gone bad' voiceover work of Ellen McLain gets annoying due to its repetition and sheer volume, but it's essential for orchestrating in-game events. The personalities of the characters are thankfully more entertaining, and the way you will be mocked for losing is fantastically frustrating (you will be shown parts of your exploded body, shown close-ups of your killer and given a 'nemesis' who you have to seek revenge upon).

While the Xbox 360 version is smaller than the PC, it is part of the Orange Box, which is itself an essential purchase for any first-person shooter fan full stop. It can be bought seperately at a budget price for the PC, or downloaded via the Steam service. The best way of obtaining TF2 though is definitely the Orange Box - the cheapest, greatest video game compilation of all time.

Summary: Fun and strategy rolled into one, with a few weaknesses holding it down