09.19.07
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.
Jeff said,
September 20, 2007 at 8:13 am
WHAT!?!!? Those changes SUCK! Especially the automatic scope charging (too much delay to click the button twice instead of click-release), no tranquilizers or feign death. It’s like this is a completely new game. I don’t think I’ll like it.
Causalien said,
September 20, 2007 at 1:12 pm
It definitely takes away a lot of the satisfaction of just fragging. I think, this is why it’s still in Beta. Some weapons are super overpowered (i.e scot shotgun) While the HWguy’s machine gun and pyro flamethrower which should be overpowering does jack.
One thing I don’t like about snipers is that you don’t know if your shot hit or not. Unlike TFC, they don’t fly away when they get shot, so there’s a bit of a doubt on whether or not you hit the guy. Fully charged head shot also doesn’t make them explode into pieces and you need either a head shot or fully charged body shot to kill another sniper now.
I was waiting for this game to snipe, but I think I’ll move on to sniping in COD4.
Bulletin News said,
December 17, 2007 at 11:36 am
Intriguing blog post pertaining to Team Fortress 2 beta impressions part 1. Always love your interesting posts.