Team Fortress 2 beta impressions part 1

My history with Valve

Having played the original Half Life and TFC for several years, the word TF2 brings back the memories of a good time. Back then, Valve Corporation released Half Life with TFC and Counter Strike mods. Players were getting the sweet deals of 3 games in one. It was a selfless act on the part of the company and have forever captured my loyalty since the day I heard of the feat.

The deal

TF2 news came and went over the past 7 or 8 years with no release date in view. I’ve heard so many of the possible releases that I brushed away the recent announcement of TF2 as just another fluke… They proved me wrong with The Orange Box. Another selfless act on Valve’s part, packaging 3 different games in one for the price of $49. Half life, episode 1, episode 2, Portal and Team Fortress 2.

I ordered my Orange Box over Steam, which gave me a discount of $5 for the whole box. Steam, is an online sales platform where you can order games digitally and download it when you want to play. It suits a CD-less lifestyle perfectly while keeping the hard drive squeaky clean. I can wipe the game from my system, knowing that Steam has a record of my purchase and I can re-download it whenever I feel like.

The Game

First impression of the game is a mixed feeling. I came back half looking for the game that I enjoyed several years ago, yet half wishing for innovation for more diversity. Well, I got what I was looking for: half half. It was the same style, same feel same classes. They event kept the rocket jumping for the soldiers, however, they also made minor changes that’ll mean a complete overhaul of play style for those of us who specialized to a certain class in TFC. I can understand them though, these changes are made, to facilitate team work. Forcing each class to be limited to doing what they are designed to do. Without further ado, I’ll get on with the classes.

The Sniper:

-You can only charge up and see the dot in scoped view. So no more charged shot without zooming. The scope also limits your periphal vision so you are more vulnerable to sneak attacks when scoped. These effectively render the sniper rifle useless in close to mid range battles.

-You can no longer jump while scoped, forcing sniper wars a pure matter of lag and aim. You also lose your charged dot if you try jumping to avoid a shot.

-Charging is done automatically when scoped and the shot is fired when you press the attack button instead of the moment you release the button. This adds some delay for those of you using keyboards to attack or jitter for those of you who assigned attack to the mouse button.

Spy:

-Secondary attack is assigned permanently to stealth, a very useful functionality to get past security, but also too powerful based on my opinion. The cool down helps nerfing this skill a bit, but not that much.

-Disguise is much improved, as it automatically matches the walking speed of the class you are trying to imitate (except for scouts) as well as allowing your ally know that you are in disguise. Making it an easier to use skill for the normal population.

-Feign death and tranquilizers are gone. Yes, no more playing a convincing death only to back stab people after they walk past your corpse.

I will discuss the rest of the classes in part 2 and maybe online impressions in part 3. Possibly adding grenades later. I don’t know what they plan on doing, but it seems that grenades are completely missing from the game.

Continue on to part 2 and part 3.