a fun first person shooter
Now the bad points are mainly done away with, i can begin the actual review. Firstly, there is no campaign or single player missions. You are offered the chance to do a tutorial, and have practice matches against A.I. I highly recommend you atleast play the tutorial, as without it you are going to get slaughtered online.
Lets go into graphics. It's a free game, so you shouldn't be expecting too much from the graphics, but to be honest, the way it's done is actually pretty good. It has a cartoony vibe to it which is perfect for what the game is, a bit of fun. There are still some effects, such as blood splatters from kills, which makes the game all that more fun when you can scope in and see the blood on the wall behind the poor guy you just sniped. I'm also going to bundle character 'customization' into graphics... because there is none. Again, free game, don't expect much. Each class ( there are 10 of them ) has their own model. Also, there are only males in the game, no female models.
Next, let's go into gameplay. This game is pure fun, you can run around with a flame thrower, a bow and arrow, or a good 'ol fashioned heavy machine gun. Each class has their own niche. For example the Sniper, is ofcourse a sniper...hiding back, using high powered sniper rifles to take down enemies from afar. Then you have the Heavy, who's model is a huge Russian man carrying a turret, with high health and extremely high damage at close range. Then you have the Spy, who sneaks around, can go invisible for a short amount of time, and even disguise himself as a member of the opposing team. Other classes include, the Demoman, who's main weapon is a grenade launcher. The soldier, who uses a Rocket launcher. The Engineer, who can build helpful units and turrets. The Medic, an obvious one here, can heal team members.
Game modes are fairly generic as with most first person shooters. 'Intelligence' is another word for capture the flag, 'Control point' invlolves both teams fighting for control over 3 points on the map ( think Call of Duty's 'Domination' ). King of the Hill, similiar to the Halo 3 game mode of the same name, involves both teams fighting over 1 single point on the map. Finally, there is 'Arena' TF2's version of Team Deathmatch, however the game ends once a team is eliminated. There are no spawns in this game mode.
The games cool, little features as i call them are what makes this game fun. For instance, when you get killed, you will see a freezeframe of the player that killed you, it is often customary for the player to perform an emote, which varies from class to class. Another feature is the online store, the game is free to play which means Valve need to make their money somehow, and this is how they do it. Players can purchase vanity items such as hats or clothing, or weapons such as guns or melee weapons, for moderate fees from the store. Other items can be unlocked after gaining acheivments fro each class.
I don't like ending reviews on a bad note so i will get this said before my conclusion. It takes a LONG time to find games, as in, probably about 5-10 minutes of searching and connecting before your actually in a game.
Now for my final word. This game is fun, do not buy this game and expect a serious first person shooter. The combination of ridicolous class models, fun maps and game modes, and cartoony graphics mean this game is a fun experience, and i find myself playing it if i have had a particularly stressful day. I gave the game an 8 instead of a 10, purely because of the matchmaking times.
I will sign off with this:
The game is free. There is absolutely no reason not to get it, and i highly recommend you download this free, fun shooter, as soon as you can.