Game: Team Fortress 2
Genre: First Person Shooter
Platform: Windows PC, Xbox 360, Playstation 3 (Reviewed for PC)

It has been eleven years since Team Fortress was released as a fan made modification for Quake. A sequel was planned for Valve’s Half-Life engine and was eventually released as Team Fortress Classic, a heavily upgraded version of the original version. Ever since that time, fans have eagerly awaited a sequel. Since then the game has gone through several phases including a near finished build that had Team Fortress 2 as an extremely realistic modern war game.

Delays, delays, and more delays caused the sequel, which was shown at E3 2000 with a planned release soon after, to be pushed back to 2007 with the style seen today. Usually when a game goes through such a gauntlet of delays it ends up coming out and becoming a huge failure. The graphics take a hit, the game play takes a hit, and the entire thing ends up as a disaster.

Team Fortress 2 chose a different fate for itself, it seems. Coming bundled in the Orange Box it appears there is a new king of multiplayer first-person shooters. Complete with nine playable classes, Team Fortress 2 is one of the best multiplayer games to date. In a year seemingly filled with FPS games it had a large hill to climb. Halo 3 comes out in less then a week and Call of Duty 4 only a month or two after that. TF2 takes both of them and blows them into little gibs to be splattered on the wall.

Everything about it drips polish andbeauty. The new art style, a mix of early 1900’s illustration, 1950’s style, and Pixar characters, lends itself to one of the most fun games to look at in ages. Every character is wonderfully modeled and filled with expression.

As seen in the characterization videos posted earlier in the month, Valve has decided to give each character their own distinct personality. This makes its way deeper into the game then just the promotion videos. Each character has unique taunts that are not only character specific, but item specific. The Pyro plays his fire axe like a guitar and the Heavy hugs his chain gun. Not only that, but each unique taunt has a number of different sayings attached to it. The characters mouths move realistically to whatever they say – and they have a lot to say.

Each of the classes also fills a pivotal part to the group gameplay. As stated earlier there are nine classes which can be separated into three groups: offense, defense, and support. Depending on the map, objective, and even current team makeup there is a situation for everyone. The game also goes out of its way to make sure working together is rewarded.

The best example is the Medic class: a German doctor with a healing gun. His weapon creates a constant ghost-busters-like stream to an ally that keeps him constantly healed while charging your “überheal. ” Unleashing this renders himself, as well as the person he is healing, invulnerable to damage for a period of time. Matches have been won based on teamwork between one Heavy and a Medic.

This is just one example of teamwork in TF2. Engineers can work together to create powerful turrets, Scouts can help chase out enemies from hiding for Snipers to take out, and Spies can destroy turrets that kept Pyros from advancing. Everyone is necessary and no one class seems underpowered. Team Fortress 2 has a good chance at snagging a few game-of-the-year nominations. Its perfect balance of all of the elements that make first person shooters so enjoyable while pushing team play and strategy will surely push it to make sure no one leaves without a smile on their face.