Game Review #2 - Team Fortress 2

Team Fortress 2, or TF2, was released in 2007 and has come a long way since its release, yet its community still thrives to this day despite the low volume of recent content updates. From its wide range of community fads, creations and even mods for the game, to its influence on the industry as a whole, TF2 has indeed made a splash, going on to influence many other titles. The game has been out in the wild for over a decade now, and its age barely shows due to the sheer amount of fresh content, official or not. In this video, I’ll be talking about TF2’s origins, influences, community and content and how all of this has contributed to a well-rounded, time-tested multiplayer shooter. TF2 has roots in the 1996 multiplayer shooter, Quake. The very first iteration of Team Fortress was a mod for Quake which featured nine different classes, each with their own strengths and weaknesses. The creators of the mod, Robin Walker and John Cook, were then hired by Valve as the project leaders of a new multiplayer game that was anticipated to be a standalone version of this mod. The mod was ported to the Source Engine and titled Team Fortress Classic while the team worked on a new game based on it. It was intended to be the multiplayer counterpart to Half-Life 2, which you wouldn’t guess as they are very different games. Development for TF2 took 9 years, and up until the last few years before release, Valve kept its development a secret. During these 9 years, TF2 was drastically changed. Initially it was meant to be a realistic military shooter, but this approach was dropped in favour of the more comical art style currently in the game, which was a more unique take on a shooting game at the time. TF2 was finally released in 2006 alongside the other games in The Orange Box, but since its release it has received many updates with new content.

TF2 has received so much new content, in fact, that much of the game’s official content is made up of community-made items and mods – there have even been two entire major updates created using only community-added content. That’s without even mentioning that many unofficial mods and game modes exist. There have been plenty of fan-made creations such as animations made in either Garry’s Mod or Source Filmmaker – in fact, the game has an official annual “Saxxy Awards” contest where the best Source Filmmaker animators compete for exclusive in-game trophies. On top of that, the Garry’s Mod animations are… just plain silly. One popular aspect of TF2 is its vast trading economy. While other games’ economies have since overtaken it in terms of popularity, such as Counter Strike: Global Offensive, TF2 was one of the first games to have a booming economy. Many players only play the game for trading items, and since items in TF2 have monetary value, the rarest items can be sold for thousands. But it wouldn’t be a good way of making a living, as this involves equal parts dedication and luck. The rarest items can sell for upwards of $5,000, which is a staggering amount considering they’re just virtual items, and because of the sheer number of new items being added every update, TF2’s economy can only grow.

TF2’s marketing is some of the best in the industry, arguably. The game has many trailers in the form of animated shorts, known as the “Meet the Team” series, which introduces each of the game’s characters and establishes their roles in both the lore and the battlefield. Not only that, but the game’s story has been built upon endlessly via a series of comics, all of which set the stage for a surprisingly coherent and entertaining story for a multiplayer-only game. TF2 has influenced the industry massively, being a central inspiration for other titles. Most prominently, Overwatch, Blizzard’s newest IP, draws much inspiration from TF2’s mechanics and classes. It even has its own comics and character-specific animated shorts. Now I can understand what people meant when they said Overwatch is a TF2 clone. Lastly, TF2 has a significant competitive scene with many leagues of play in different regions, such as ETF2L and OzFortress, with both cash prizes and in game medals for winners of each season. The game also has a charity event known as TF2 Mixup, where some of the most respectable community members raise money for One Step Camp, a charity that helps children with terminal disease, so it’s nice to know that the game has helped towards charitable causes. To conclude, TF2’s influence has been staggering over the years, and its community continues to prosper thanks to it being a timeless classic with amiable characters and stories, canon or not.

Content used:

TF2 Moments with Heavy - French Toast https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dNB-EREknic

Meet the Demoman https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=han3AfjH210

All game footage captured by me