Free to Grow

It’s difficult to think of a AAA release that has had as much post-release, official developer support as Team Fortress 2. While the practice of free, regular updates is fairly common with iOS games and indie titles – where developers try hard to retain and expand smaller audiences – when it comes to the big-hitters, usually all you can expect is the requisite paid DLC and maybe a patch or two. Not so with Team Fortress 2, or at least, its PC version. There’s no better example of how much the core experience has changed than to boot up The Orange Box on the 360 or PS3 and try to get a match of TF2 going. Sadly, due to restrictive console DLC policies (word is that Microsoft wouldn’t let Valve send anything to 360 owners without Microsoft Points being involved), these have all but been abandoned. That said, there’s more reason than ever to check out the PC and Mac versions.

For those of you unfamiliar with TF2, it’s a class-based FPS where you work in teams of up to 16 to capture and defend various objectives. Originally released in late 2007 as part of The Orange Box (“The best deal in gaming”), it was critically-praised for its delicate balance, beautiful art-style (a hybrid between the bright pastels of The Wind Waker and the model work of Pixar) and a wonderful sense of humour. Crucially – and this is still core to my own enjoyment of it in recent weeks – it doesn’t particularly punish players for bad play. Sure, working as a team is essential to dominating your opponents, but the light-hearted nature of the whole experience means that it’s not difficult to just hop onto a server for some quick play. The diverse nature of each class – they all feel very unique – means that there’s dozens of hours of play on offer even if you’re more interested in a kill/death ratio than team-work.

Dozens of community and official maps have hit the game over the years, but the brunt of game updates have come in the form of class items. Although this is far from unheard of in multiplayer shooters – just look at the guns on offer in Black Ops or Bad Company 2 – what sets TF2 apart is how the items balance out and affect classes. From sandwiches which restore health, to a crit-inducing solution known as “Jarate”, to a fish that you can use as a weapon; there’s a lot on offer that changes play immensely.

Even the items which seem to make no sense when you first acquire them soon come into their own after some experimentation. Although Valve have been stalwart in their efforts to refine each of their base class roles, players can further spec their favourite through item combinations. Take the (Scottish) Demoman class, for example. While he normally utilises skillful ranged shots with his grenade launcher, give him a Chargin’ Charge (a uniquely buffed shield) and any sword and he suddenly becomes a speedy melee class. Even when items don’t outright push a class into a new role, they do allow the player to favour a particular “stat” of their class – such as defense, speed or fire-power.

While no doubt part of Valve’s master plan is to make piles upon piles of cash, TF2 recently made a successful transition to the Free to Play model, invigorating its player base at the same time with new arrivals. Naturally, this revolves around its item system, allowing players to purchase a souped-up gun for £1.49 or lay down upwards of £5 for some exceedingly silly hats. However, don’t be fooled into thinking that you can’t have any fun without sending some green Valve’s way; the default items are all perfectly functional, and, unlike some MMOs which have embraced the fremium model, all of these items (sans some promotional-but-purely-cosmetic hats) can be acquired through skill-based achievements, crafting or as free, regular item-drops. Although partly-random, players are given loot just frequently enough to keep them interested. This FPS has a bit of an MMO flavour and it’s really quite ingenious.

Just as I write this, Valve has also launched its new Steam Trading service, which will allow users to trade in-game items for items in other enabled games and even for Steam gifts. The ramifications of being able to trade a rare hat for a copy of Deus Ex: Human Revolution are still sort of mind-boggling, and I look forward to seeing how the service evolves. That said, if you’ve never given TF2 a real go, now is the time. As mentioned before, it’s available on PC and Mac via way of a free Steam install, and system requirements are fairly low. It’ll even run on a majority of laptops if you boot the game in its DirectX 8 mode, which still looks pretty great. Don’t forget we’re always up for a game on the Character Select Forums or on our Steam group!