Games Keep Me Sane - Team Fortress 2, FTW
Tuesday, September 25, 2007
Steam - Steam is awesome, I had no idea. The tech is great, I had all the games installed and ready to play in a very short time, all ready to be played with just a simple double-click. The whole friends concept I understand to be fairly new? But it works well. So far my favorite feature is the ability to queue up for a server and wait to hop in when the next slot opens up. And again, since the functionality is inside of the games, you can queue up to join a game, and if it’s slow-going you can enter ANOTHER game and play while you’re waiting. It makes playing with your friends incredibly easy, you just have to wait. This is a HUGE perk in my eyes, as just ‘playing games with friends’ is a huge, huge priority for me.
The profiles are awesome as well, check me out, yo.
And in case you missed my spam, my tag is Sharkzug, (evilzug was taken, probably by me, but I can’t find my password and it won’t send it to me.)
Team Fortress - OMG.
Just plain OMG. Where do I start.
Playing each class is such a different experience. Playing a Spy is entirely different then playing a Soldier. Each class has it’s Strengths and weaknesses. Here’s a quick rundown:
They divided them conceptually into 3 categories:
Offense:
–Scout: Fast as all hell, caps points super fast. Can double-jump higher and farther then other classes. Few Hitpoints, meant to be more agile then a powerhouse. I.e. dancing around a heavy weapon guy and beating him down with a bat instead of trying to outgun him.
–Soldier: Rocket does awesome splash damage and knockback. Sort of slow, only has 4 shots until a fairly slow reload, but good all-around. Very good pick-up-and-play class. Somewhat weaker up close because rockets are harder to aim.
–Pyro: Good ambushing class. Fire does damage-over-time, and great for spamming in big skirmishes. Very deadly up close but you’re not chasing anyone down. Pretty tough, same HP as a Soldier. Great for exposing spies because the fire keeps burning. Underplayed/misunderstood for sure.
Defense:
–Demoman: Grenade launcher and mine-planter. Spammable attacks, like grenades can be banked off surfaces. Leaving mines in places is a psychological deterrent too.
–Heavy Weapons Guy: Slowest class, biggest target, but most hitpoints. Super spammy spray of bullets but you slow to a crawl when using it.
–Engineer: Super defensive, can build and support turrets, resupply dispensers and teleports. Weak personal weapons.
Support:
–Medic: Healing gun heals and then buffs allies to 150% health capacity. Relatively weak weapon.
–Sniper: Capable of picking off people. Laser sight exposes if/where you’re aiming at. Have to hold aim for about 5 seconds before it goes to full power (one shot kill?), while you’re aiming your field of view is very restricted.
–Spy: So much to say about one class, haha. Able to impersonate any class, friend of foe. You appear to the enemy as one of them, basically. However, on any attack (shoot or knife,) your costume drops. Capable of going into stealth for about 10 seconds, that recharges in about 30. If you get behind someone and stab them with a knife it’s an instant one-shot, no matter the class. Relatively weak amount of HP, pistol is powerful but single shots and harder to aim. Can also use a ‘electronic sapper’ item that doesn’t break stealth when used but disables any of the engineers items (Turrent/dispenser/teleporter). The engineer can wrench the sappers off but while they are slowly doing damage, they are disabled and leave the engineer with the choice of fixing turrets or shooting at the spy.
Let me be clear: All of the classes are fun. So far I’ve got the most epic thrills from playing Soldier and Spy.
My soldier skills come out when I’m playing defense on 2 fort. I lumber around the base and shoot at anything that moves. If it’s a spy, it gibs, if not I trade a few rockets and then if I take so much as a scratch I head back and get health back. I had a run of 19 points and 16 kills in one life. The momentum really builds, it gets so thrilling when you just nail two and then three people in a row, or you pick a little dinky scout of the air with a totally lucky shot. Splash-damaging people is awesome too, especially scouts trying to double jump off the roof of the bridge. It’s simple pleasures, belting 4 rockets at the enemy’s rampart, running away to reload, and seeing the scoreboard report that a sniper just got gib’d. I love it!
I’ve also had some amazing runs as a spy. At first I didn’t think it would be something that I’d enjoy, I never really was any good at the class. I gave it a shot and in a matter of a few kills, the long-repressed murdering bloodthirsty Rogue in me bubbled to the surface. Just the ‘psychological’ game alone can be fun for hours, even just antagonizing one individual just to get under their skin and remove them from the effective game. My most rockstar game was I think on Gravel, on offense, pushing into the last point for Red. There’s the cap platform in the back, but next to it is a rock with a healing case on the other side, a natural and clear shot for a sniper. I run in as a spy, dressed as a sniper and just camp that area. Because people are pushing so hard, they tend not to notice. If I catch any stray bullets, that healing pack brings me back to full life. If anyone wanders around the corner, like a soldier or a sniper or HW to take advantage of the long range enjoys a knife to the back. If I’m feeling daring I’ll dip out to sap some of the turrets that are usually placed, and then vanish and run on the far side of the spawn point for them. They run away from you so you can shift into an offensive class and nobody questions you cuz you’re coming from the spawn point. A good exercise in spy-ing is to just see how long you can live in their base, ‘defending’ and not even trying to kill anyone. Just looking like you’re fitting in. 6 backstabs in one life, not too shabby. The opposite is fun as well, waiting until you hear a big firefight in your base, shifting to a support/helper class like pyro or medic, and then running into the fray to ‘back up’ your friends. They get confident they have people behind them helping them out, so they tend to not turn around as much. Wait for that heavy weapon to spin up or that demoman to aim and bank his shots and SHANKsplat.
The average of 24 people to a server feels perfect, too. With 9 classes to choose from, you have to take that into consideration, and it sets a tone for your success or failure. Seeing 4 engineers for example, can be good to see if you’re on a defensive posture, but really bad if you’re trying to push and take points.
Team and class synergy really shines for a few classes.
Heavy Weapon + Engineer - Impenetrable spray of cover fire. A well placed turret, dispenser, engineer, and HW spray so many damn bullets you can’t even deal. And even if you can sneak a spy around to sap the turrets you have to shank two people quickly or get owned.
Medic + Any ‘Offensive’ Class - Scary to see if you’re on the business end of this pairing. Medic + HW is obvious: 450 hitpoints and a a spray of bullety showery doom is death. Medic + Soldier is a little more agile, but being able to take a few extra shots with my rocket while eating a shot or two in the face is awesome. Healer + Pyro - The pyros weakness is that it has to get into close range to coat people, but a Medic fills that weakness rather nicely.
Close Offense + Ranged Offense - Pyro + Soldier/HW is nuts. This is a little more advanced but if you get a good rhythm in, anyone nearby doesn’t know who to aim at.
I realized a bit into it that none of the classes have grenades of any kind. This used to be one of the cooler points of the game, with each class having it’s own types of grenades. You may even remember, in the character-introduction-teaser that they put up, the demoman takes out a sentry turret by throwing his double-explosion bomb thingy on it, and then the second set of explosives blow up the engineer. I missed them at first, but I’ve come to realize the game is much more balanced without them. Now, the defensive or camping classes like snipers and engineers are stronger, because not every class has some way to LOS them. Anyone can get good with a well-placed grenade but now you need teamwork and class balance to punch through.
This made me lololol, for reasons stated above. As a side note, many of the skills I’ve picked up playing a healer in WoW carry over into this game, especially using terrain for your advantage. I.e. letting the DPS and tanks guard the front and hiding out of line of site of enemies.
Check out my ownij at TF2 on my steam profile.
SO MUCH FUN. PLAY THE DAMN GAME.