Team Fortress 2
Team Fortress 2 is a video game that consists of 7 releases
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The Rundown
Team Fortress 2 is a multiplayer, team-based first-person shooter developed by Valve, and was first released as part of The Orange Box on October 10, 2007 for the PC and Xbox 360, and for PlayStation 3 on December 17th, 2007. It was also later released as a stand-alone package for Windows on April 8,2008. Fans of the original Team Fortress (and its GoldSrc-based update, Team Fortress Classic) waited for years for the release of this sequel, which was assumed at one time to have become vaporware. The result is class-based shooter that takes after its predecessor in name and concept only, all of the details having been shifted, tweaked, and polished over 9 slow-burning years.
Valve seems to have a penchant for agonizingly lengthy development cycles; the gap between the first two Half-life games was 6 years. According to Valve staff in the game's commentary, TF2's delays were the product of ideas that failed after significant time had been invested in them. The clean-cut spy movie look of the released product was not even a notion in the early stages of this game's R&D. The first screenshots make TF2 look like an attempt at a realistic modern combat simulator. This was the initial intent, but this idea was scrapped in favour of a more light hearted style way late as far as most developers would be concerned.
The Valve team have also spent a huge amount of time looking into a shooter that incorporated a commander for each team who had some form of overlord viewing angle and the ability to give players on the ground information and orders. The idea was tested and redesigned countless times, but there was no way to guarantee that both the commander and the fighters would both have fun in any given game; the possibility of a poor commander or lousy squad members messing up the whole experience weighed too heavily on Valve and, after all the invested time, they abandoned the idea completely. There were many other detours on the way to making TF2 the game it is today, and Valve has a blog open that sort of regularly posts messages about such things as well as in-progress update news.
The classes themselves were built explicitly to be identifiable and discriminable immediately at any distance to prevent confusion; this has contributed considerably to the ubiquity of the game's characters in internet chat rooms as well as encouraged the Valve team to make a number of "Meet the Team" videos starring the individual characters. The individual classes now, as a result, have personalities and characteristics that are fleshed out to a degree never attained by a multiplayer shooter. Despite the cartoonish feel the game displays, this should not be interpreted to mean technical laxity; the "Meet the Team" videos are all done with the in-game engine and speak for themselves if you need convincing on this point.
When it first debuted with the Orange Box in 2007, no deathmatch mode existed in Team Fortress 2. Every map involved holding points, capturing briefcases or, (also new) pushing a Fat Man in a railroad cart into enemy territory. That is because these play styles lend themselves coordination and team progress rather than individual achievement. One man can certainly take all the points or steal the flag, but their job is made extremely difficult by the open layout of the maps and the variety of stalwart defence options the game has to offer against rushing. Instead, pushing the front line or forcing a major breach in the opposition's defences are the much preferred ways to go about winning a match. Even now that deathmatch has been incorporated (in the form of Arena mode) , most servers have kept their previous map rotations or only added one or two of the new deathmatch based maps and tournament play excludes Arena mode almost entirely.
The exploitation of class synergy is more than half the battle in TF2; the Heavy may have a boat load of health and a gun to match, but one backstab from the Spy or one headshot from a Sniper and its back to the spawn point. However, if the Heavy enlists the support of another class, such as a Pyro or Scout, to deal with such menaces the two allies together become far greater adversaries than they would be by their individual merits. Even classes like the Spy whom one would think a loner makes an awesome teammate for sabotaging defences on the way inside enemy territory. The Spy is the second least played class in TF2; the extra difficulty rookie Spies make for themselves by not working in tandem with their allies is at least partially responsible for that.
Minimally Explosive Atmosphere
Very few things in TF2 explode. The weapons in the game with splash damage are the Demoman's bombs, the Soldier's rockets, and the Pyro's flamethrower. Other than these, the only thing that blows up are characters that get hit for massive damage. Valve saw the common shooter grenade as a barrier to effective teamplay during the development of Team Fortress. A splash damaging bomb meant the potential for an everyman's weapon, useful against any opponent and effectively levelling the playing field between classes. A breakdown of the rigidly assigned capabilities of the classes was seen to be detrimental to the teamwork aspect.
The other major issue Valve saw in using grenades was one that crops up in many shooters (CounterStrike being a home - turf example for Valve) where grenades are spammed with reckless abandon during matches with the hope of landing a kill on that one unfortunate soul that doesn't know what is going on before the grenade's thrower gets mowed down (likely by a grenade from an enemy with the same mentality). Curbing exploitation of new, inexperienced players and enhancing team cohesion were both strikes against grenades, Valve took them out. They have been criticized by the community ever since for doing so; some avid modders have even developed grenades for use in TF2, though these mods have caught only minimal popularity amongst players.
Classes
The game has nine classes: Demoman, Engineer , Heavy, Medic, Pyro, Scout, Sniper, Soldier and Spy. Each class has its own personality and appearance, as well as a unique set of weapons and abilities. For instance, the heavy is a large Russian packing a mini-gun he calls Sasha, while the engineer is a Texan who can build turrets as well as health and ammo dispensers. Each class offers its own play style, and an effective mixture of all the classes is crucial to a team's success. So far, Valve has shown an admirable commitment to updating Team Fortress 2 with new maps, character abilities, upgrades, and achievements.
For more specific information about each class, visit their individual pages.
Boston, USA
The Scout is the "twitch" class of Team Fortress 2. He attacks his enemies with his fast movement and double jump ability. His weapons are the scattergun (a close-range shotgun), pistol and a baseball bat. He is tied for lowest HP with the Engineer, Sniper, and Spy at 125 but he is also the only one of those classes that sees head-on conflict. As such, Scouts must use their speed to get in, do damage to vulnerable targets, then hop back out again. The scattergun is tailored to this style - a shotgun that is formidable within a few feet but becomes useless even at medium ranges. The scout is normally used for objective acquisition, like capturing a flag or control point, or moving the cart in Goldrush, and is useful in taking out priority targets such as medics. When standing on a control point the scout counts for two people.
USA
The easiest class to understand, the Soldier is just an all-round fighter. Despite his slow movement speed, his rocket launcher is very strong in good hands. Being both a good defensive and offensive class, the Soldier can cause great amounts of damage with his rockets (particularly critical rockets, which have a tendency to obliterate everything nearby) and has the second largest amount of health in the game. The Soldier also has the ability to " Rocket Jump", a skill allowing the Soldier to reach otherwise impossible heights by shooting at his feet and propelling himself into the air, with the cost of around a quarter of his health (about 52 damage). Along with the Heavy, the Soldier is the class which received the least number of changes from the original game. Since launch, the most prominent change made to the class is an increase of the Soldier's rocket ammo.
Unknown
The Pyro is the only class which can use fire to burn his enemies, doing huge amounts of up-front damage as well as additional damage over time. Upon release, he only had a shotgun and an axe to support his flamethrower which meant he was inclined to ambush his enemies. Later, the Flare Gun was added, giving skilled Pyro practitioners the ability to set opponents aflame from afar. He was also given a new ability, the Compression Blast, a burst of air that can be shot out of the Pyro's flamethrower to push nearby enemies back or deflect incoming projectiles (possibly right back at the enemy). Despite being a powerful offensive class, the Pyro can also be a useful for defense as his flamethrower is great for covering tight corridors and spychecking (compromising invisible or disguised enemy spies by lighting them on fire).
Scotland
If an enemy force is too great to handle head-on, the Demoman can break up the action. He has no direct hit weapons (apart from his melee weapon, the bottle) so he must rely on indirect combat, but he is also the only character who has such weapons. Using the physics of the game, his knowledge of the maps, and his anticipation of enemy movements, the Demoman must be smart and kill his enemies either by bouncing his pipebombs off walls toward unseen foes or lay traps for them with his Sticky Bomb Launcher. The grenade launcher is very strong, and can quite easily kill most of the classes with weaker health pools; engineers, scouts or spies. Sticky Bombs adhere to nearly any surface and remain until their layer detonates them, they are destroyed by bullets, or their layer dies. Sticky Bombs can be used like the Soldier's Rockets to propel the Demoman into the air.
USSR
Heavies are heavy. This means they are slow, the slowest class in the game. However, they have the highest health pool as well as the biggest and, arguably, the most powerful gun. The firepower of his mini-gun (his main weapon) is very high and is similar to the mounted turrets in other games. At close range the heavy puts out the most damage of any class, able to mow down nearly all the classes in mere moments, except for enemy heavies or overhealed soldiers. However, when shooting this weapon the heavy must spin it up first, which takes a few seconds, after which the heavy walks at a snail's pace, making him very vulnerable to fast classes (like the scout) or long-ranged classes (like the sniper). The gun also loses most of its power at long range. Though the Soldier is the preferred partner for competitive play, Medics normally flock to Heavies for their massive HP and imposing turret-like character.
The Engineer is responsible for creating your team's homebase away from homebase. The Engineer can build four different buildings: a sentry gun, a dispenser and the entry and exit for a teleporter. To build these things, the Engineer must use metal, obtained from any source that gives ammo, such as dropped weapons or friendly dispensers and resupply lockers. The sentry gun is a stationary autoturret that fires with pinpoint accuracy at enemies in range of its 360 swivel. It can be upgraded up to three levels, each time adding more health and bigger weapons. Dispensers deliver ammo, metal and health to anyone standing near it. Teleporters allow teammates to transverse across the map quickly. All of the Engineer's buildings have health and can be destroyed by the enemy. As such, Engineers tend to stay near their machines so they can fix them, especially if the enemy is near and also to deter any Spies, against whom undefended buildings are sitting ducks. The Engineer uses his Wrench to repair buildings as well as upgrade them and accelerate their construction. Engineers are equipped with a pistol and a shotgun, and so are not totally reliant on their buildings to deal damage and capable of defending themselves to a degree.
Support
Sttugart, Germany
The Medic is one of the weakest offensive classes in the game, primarily concerned with healing their teammates via their Medigun, which emits a beam that attaches to an ally (and disguised enemy spies) allowing the Medic to move around and stand a short distance from the person they are healing. As well as healing damage, Medics can boost another players' hit points to 150% of its normal value and can provide invulnerability to himself and one teammate for 10 seconds, (the Übercharge) when they have collected enough charge from healing. When resorting to combat, the medic carries a rapid firing needle gun and a Bonesaw.
Adelaide Street, Australia
The Sniper's rifle is the best long range weapon in the game. With little health and weak close combat weapons, the Sniper is best used for picking off inattentive enemies at long range. The longer the scope is in use, the more powerful the Sniper's shot becomes and a fully charged headshot will kill any class in the game, even classes who are being overhealed by a medic. Headshots do 3x damage and are almost always the better option for a skilled sniper compared to a body shot, though a charged body shot will kill the weaker classes in one hit. When forced to fight at close ranges, he has a small submachine gun and a Kukri, a machete type blade.
France
As the game's stealthy class, the spy packs the ability to cloak, thereby briefly turning invisible to enemy players unless damaged, and to disguise himself as other classes or as a member of the opposing team. He uses these abilities to sneak behind enemy lines where he can use his Sapper to sabotage enemy Engineer buildings, and his knife and pistol to assassinate enemy players. When used on an enemy's back, his knife can cause an instant kill; a Backstab. When he uses any of his weapons, except for the sapper, any disguises are removed, so the spy must be careful about when and where he attacks. He also cannot attack while cloaked. In the right situation, a Spy can be among the most powerful classes in the game, sometimes turning the tide of a round single-handedly. On the other hand, playing Spy successfully is extremely hard if the enemy team is coordinated and attentive. A disguised enemy spy can be identified by his lack of ability to fire his weapon, his ability to take damage from "teammates," and collisions with his "allies."
Official Maps
Team Fortress 2 currently features 24 official maps many of which can be played in more then one type of game mode. The first six maps listed are the ones the game initially shipped with and all maps after them are in the order in which they were introduced to the game. Some maps were originally just community maps (those made by modders and not by Valve themselves) but were promoted to official status by Valve because of their quality and reputation. So far ten community maps have received this distinction.
Offblast is a high-altitude map and most fights will take place over a perilous mountain top, with no protection on the sides.
Valve has released a series of large free updates for the PC version of Team Fortress, each focusing on a different class. Each update gives the specified class new unlocakable weapons and new Steam achievements. The updates will also be coming to the Xbox 360 version some time in 2009, costing $10 (or 800 Microsoft Points).
Note: The (AM# - #) next to an unlockable weapon refers to the corresponding Achievement Milestone needed to unlock that weapon and the amount achievements, for that class, needed to reach that milestone. For example, Achievement Milestone 1 (AM1) for the Medic requires 10 of his classes achievements to unlock the Blutsauger. This would be written as The Blutsauger (AM1 - 10). The amount achievements needed to reach each milestone varies between classes, generally it's easier to unlock weapons with later classes as the number achievements required to get to each milestone is less.
Gold Rush Update (Medic Update)
The Sniper Vs. Spy Update
Initially billed as simply the Sniper update, Valve started slipping in hints to the Spy (such as the Spy appearing cloaked behind the Sniper on the third day's background picture). On day 4, it was revealed that the update was going to include the Spy.
Classless Update
This is the first major update not to have specific features (weapons, achievements, etc) focused towards one or two classes. Hence the name.
Minor Hat Update
A small update in which all hats unlocked obtained through external idling application were removed from the players who used them.
In addition to that players who didn't cheat were rewarded with a new special hat - Cheater's Lament. It is is a shining halo which is attached to the player's head by two strings.
After acquiring a specific amount of achievements the player unlocks an achievement milestone, which in turn unlocks a new weapon. Each milestone corresponds to a weapon and the amount of achievements needed for each milestone varies depending on class. All classes have three unlockable items.
The chance of unlocking an item after playing the marker amount of time is based on a completely random formula and is in no way affected by the players skill or how well they are doing in a certain game. The item unlocked is also random and so it is possible to acquire duplicate items (Valve have said they intend to introduce a trading system so that players can swap items) which end up in the players 'backpack' and is accessible through the loadout screen.
Game data has shown that, on average, the player has a 1% chance to unlock an item every minute played and a 60% chance to unlock an item every hour played.
Hats are a very rare unlockable item which change the appearance of class and are purely an aesthetic feature. Their numbers are growing.
Ideal System Requirements
These are the ideal system requirements to run the game smoothly in 1280x1024 with High Quality graphics:
The long-awaited sequel to the popular Team Fortress Classic. Arriving nearly a decade after its predecessor, Team Fortress 2 conveys a bold new visual style while retaining the original classes pioneered in the first game.
The Rundown
Team Fortress 2 is a multiplayer, team-based first-person shooter developed by Valve, and was first released as part of The Orange Box on October 10, 2007 for the PC and Xbox 360, and for PlayStation 3 on December 17th, 2007. It was also later released as a stand-alone package for Windows on April 8,2008. Fans of the original Team Fortress (and its GoldSrc-based update, Team Fortress Classic) waited for years for the release of this sequel, which was assumed at one time to have become vaporware. The result is class-based shooter that takes after its predecessor in name and concept only, all of the details having been shifted, tweaked, and polished over 9 slow-burning years.Years in the Making
The original graphical style shows just how much changed during development.
The Valve team have also spent a huge amount of time looking into a shooter that incorporated a commander for each team who had some form of overlord viewing angle and the ability to give players on the ground information and orders. The idea was tested and redesigned countless times, but there was no way to guarantee that both the commander and the fighters would both have fun in any given game; the possibility of a poor commander or lousy squad members messing up the whole experience weighed too heavily on Valve and, after all the invested time, they abandoned the idea completely. There were many other detours on the way to making TF2 the game it is today, and Valve has a blog open that sort of regularly posts messages about such things as well as in-progress update news.
Early concept art for the Demoman.
Graphical Style
The art style in Team Fortress 2 was drastically changed from that of the original, which strove for the appearance of military realism. By contrast, TF2 has a comical, cartoon-like appearance, with characters having deliberately humorous taunts and exaggerated animations. Ever wondered what The Incredibles would look like as a class-based first- person shooter? TF2 is your answer. Valve constructed the models and architecture of TF2 using the Source Engine, their in-house development platform and graphics engine, but made several major modifications to the shader system along the way. The reflections in Fortress 2 all have a more rubbery look to them, even on the characters. This causes models to have more defined silhouettes even in darker locations, an effect intended to improve the readability of other players during combat.
The Demoman as he appears today.
Team Work by Design
The "Team" in Team Fortress 2 is there for a very good reason. From the start, Valve's objective with TF2 was to create a multiplayer shooter where cooperating with those around you would always lead to a team that is better than the sum of its parts. 
A prize too great for one man alone.Objective-Based Conflict
When it first debuted with the Orange Box in 2007, no deathmatch mode existed in Team Fortress 2. Every map involved holding points, capturing briefcases or, (also new) pushing a Fat Man in a railroad cart into enemy territory. That is because these play styles lend themselves coordination and team progress rather than individual achievement. One man can certainly take all the points or steal the flag, but their job is made extremely difficult by the open layout of the maps and the variety of stalwart defence options the game has to offer against rushing. Instead, pushing the front line or forcing a major breach in the opposition's defences are the much preferred ways to go about winning a match. Even now that deathmatch has been incorporated (in the form of Arena mode) , most servers have kept their previous map rotations or only added one or two of the new deathmatch based maps and tournament play excludes Arena mode almost entirely.
A prize too great for one man alone.
The Class System
There is no middle-ground in the roster of characters for TF2. The Soldier is the assumed all-in-one trooper but he is slower than most other classes and is armed with a rocket launcher; a far cry from the universally effective assault rifles of most shooters. There are 9 classes available to both sides during play, and though their secondary weapons may coincide, no two classes have significantly overlapping niches. As a result (usually in combination with circumstance) each class has particular foes they prefer to fight against and particular friends they prefer to work with.
Class select screen.
The exploitation of class synergy is more than half the battle in TF2; the Heavy may have a boat load of health and a gun to match, but one backstab from the Spy or one headshot from a Sniper and its back to the spawn point. However, if the Heavy enlists the support of another class, such as a Pyro or Scout, to deal with such menaces the two allies together become far greater adversaries than they would be by their individual merits. Even classes like the Spy whom one would think a loner makes an awesome teammate for sabotaging defences on the way inside enemy territory. The Spy is the second least played class in TF2; the extra difficulty rookie Spies make for themselves by not working in tandem with their allies is at least partially responsible for that.
Wave Respawning
Another way TF2 encourages teamwork is in the respawn system. When players die, they are assigned to a respawn wave rather than simply waiting for an individual timer to hit zero then immediately racing back out to the front. Aside from the multitude of exploitative tactics that this potentially fixes, the waves also make sure that players remain in contact with each other. This convenience of positioning and exposure increases the chance that players will try to work together when they get back in the field, concerning themselves with a more dedicated push than individual struggles for victory (once again, the class synergies make teamwork a better option nearly always). The effect is really more psychological than it is practical, but it is certainly a conscious effort by the developers to get players to work together.Minimally Explosive Atmosphere
Very few things in TF2 explode. The weapons in the game with splash damage are the Demoman's bombs, the Soldier's rockets, and the Pyro's flamethrower. Other than these, the only thing that blows up are characters that get hit for massive damage. Valve saw the common shooter grenade as a barrier to effective teamplay during the development of Team Fortress. A splash damaging bomb meant the potential for an everyman's weapon, useful against any opponent and effectively levelling the playing field between classes. A breakdown of the rigidly assigned capabilities of the classes was seen to be detrimental to the teamwork aspect. The other major issue Valve saw in using grenades was one that crops up in many shooters (CounterStrike being a home - turf example for Valve) where grenades are spammed with reckless abandon during matches with the hope of landing a kill on that one unfortunate soul that doesn't know what is going on before the grenade's thrower gets mowed down (likely by a grenade from an enemy with the same mentality). Curbing exploitation of new, inexperienced players and enhancing team cohesion were both strikes against grenades, Valve took them out. They have been criticized by the community ever since for doing so; some avid modders have even developed grenades for use in TF2, though these mods have caught only minimal popularity amongst players.
Classes
The game has nine classes: Demoman, Engineer , Heavy, Medic, Pyro, Scout, Sniper, Soldier and Spy. Each class has its own personality and appearance, as well as a unique set of weapons and abilities. For instance, the heavy is a large Russian packing a mini-gun he calls Sasha, while the engineer is a Texan who can build turrets as well as health and ammo dispensers. Each class offers its own play style, and an effective mixture of all the classes is crucial to a team's success. So far, Valve has shown an admirable commitment to updating Team Fortress 2 with new maps, character abilities, upgrades, and achievements. For more specific information about each class, visit their individual pages.
Attack
TF2 Scout Scout
Boston, USA 
TF2 Scout
The Scout is the "twitch" class of Team Fortress 2. He attacks his enemies with his fast movement and double jump ability. His weapons are the scattergun (a close-range shotgun), pistol and a baseball bat. He is tied for lowest HP with the Engineer, Sniper, and Spy at 125 but he is also the only one of those classes that sees head-on conflict. As such, Scouts must use their speed to get in, do damage to vulnerable targets, then hop back out again. The scattergun is tailored to this style - a shotgun that is formidable within a few feet but becomes useless even at medium ranges. The scout is normally used for objective acquisition, like capturing a flag or control point, or moving the cart in Goldrush, and is useful in taking out priority targets such as medics. When standing on a control point the scout counts for two people.
TF2 Soldier Soldier
USA 
TF2 Soldier
The easiest class to understand, the Soldier is just an all-round fighter. Despite his slow movement speed, his rocket launcher is very strong in good hands. Being both a good defensive and offensive class, the Soldier can cause great amounts of damage with his rockets (particularly critical rockets, which have a tendency to obliterate everything nearby) and has the second largest amount of health in the game. The Soldier also has the ability to " Rocket Jump", a skill allowing the Soldier to reach otherwise impossible heights by shooting at his feet and propelling himself into the air, with the cost of around a quarter of his health (about 52 damage). Along with the Heavy, the Soldier is the class which received the least number of changes from the original game. Since launch, the most prominent change made to the class is an increase of the Soldier's rocket ammo.
TF2 Pyro Pyro
Unknown 
TF2 Pyro
The Pyro is the only class which can use fire to burn his enemies, doing huge amounts of up-front damage as well as additional damage over time. Upon release, he only had a shotgun and an axe to support his flamethrower which meant he was inclined to ambush his enemies. Later, the Flare Gun was added, giving skilled Pyro practitioners the ability to set opponents aflame from afar. He was also given a new ability, the Compression Blast, a burst of air that can be shot out of the Pyro's flamethrower to push nearby enemies back or deflect incoming projectiles (possibly right back at the enemy). Despite being a powerful offensive class, the Pyro can also be a useful for defense as his flamethrower is great for covering tight corridors and spychecking (compromising invisible or disguised enemy spies by lighting them on fire).
Defense
TF2 Demoman Demoman
Scotland 
TF2 Demoman
If an enemy force is too great to handle head-on, the Demoman can break up the action. He has no direct hit weapons (apart from his melee weapon, the bottle) so he must rely on indirect combat, but he is also the only character who has such weapons. Using the physics of the game, his knowledge of the maps, and his anticipation of enemy movements, the Demoman must be smart and kill his enemies either by bouncing his pipebombs off walls toward unseen foes or lay traps for them with his Sticky Bomb Launcher. The grenade launcher is very strong, and can quite easily kill most of the classes with weaker health pools; engineers, scouts or spies. Sticky Bombs adhere to nearly any surface and remain until their layer detonates them, they are destroyed by bullets, or their layer dies. Sticky Bombs can be used like the Soldier's Rockets to propel the Demoman into the air.
TF2 Heavy Weapons Guy Heavy
USSR 
TF2 Heavy Weapons Guy
Heavies are heavy. This means they are slow, the slowest class in the game. However, they have the highest health pool as well as the biggest and, arguably, the most powerful gun. The firepower of his mini-gun (his main weapon) is very high and is similar to the mounted turrets in other games. At close range the heavy puts out the most damage of any class, able to mow down nearly all the classes in mere moments, except for enemy heavies or overhealed soldiers. However, when shooting this weapon the heavy must spin it up first, which takes a few seconds, after which the heavy walks at a snail's pace, making him very vulnerable to fast classes (like the scout) or long-ranged classes (like the sniper). The gun also loses most of its power at long range. Though the Soldier is the preferred partner for competitive play, Medics normally flock to Heavies for their massive HP and imposing turret-like character.
TF2 Engineer
Engineer
Bee Cave, Texas, USAThe Engineer is responsible for creating your team's homebase away from homebase. The Engineer can build four different buildings: a sentry gun, a dispenser and the entry and exit for a teleporter. To build these things, the Engineer must use metal, obtained from any source that gives ammo, such as dropped weapons or friendly dispensers and resupply lockers. The sentry gun is a stationary autoturret that fires with pinpoint accuracy at enemies in range of its 360 swivel. It can be upgraded up to three levels, each time adding more health and bigger weapons. Dispensers deliver ammo, metal and health to anyone standing near it. Teleporters allow teammates to transverse across the map quickly. All of the Engineer's buildings have health and can be destroyed by the enemy. As such, Engineers tend to stay near their machines so they can fix them, especially if the enemy is near and also to deter any Spies, against whom undefended buildings are sitting ducks. The Engineer uses his Wrench to repair buildings as well as upgrade them and accelerate their construction. Engineers are equipped with a pistol and a shotgun, and so are not totally reliant on their buildings to deal damage and capable of defending themselves to a degree.
Support
TF2 Medic Medic
Sttugart, Germany
TF2 Medic
The Medic is one of the weakest offensive classes in the game, primarily concerned with healing their teammates via their Medigun, which emits a beam that attaches to an ally (and disguised enemy spies) allowing the Medic to move around and stand a short distance from the person they are healing. As well as healing damage, Medics can boost another players' hit points to 150% of its normal value and can provide invulnerability to himself and one teammate for 10 seconds, (the Übercharge) when they have collected enough charge from healing. When resorting to combat, the medic carries a rapid firing needle gun and a Bonesaw.
TF2 Sniper Sniper
Adelaide Street, Australia
TF2 Sniper
The Sniper's rifle is the best long range weapon in the game. With little health and weak close combat weapons, the Sniper is best used for picking off inattentive enemies at long range. The longer the scope is in use, the more powerful the Sniper's shot becomes and a fully charged headshot will kill any class in the game, even classes who are being overhealed by a medic. Headshots do 3x damage and are almost always the better option for a skilled sniper compared to a body shot, though a charged body shot will kill the weaker classes in one hit. When forced to fight at close ranges, he has a small submachine gun and a Kukri, a machete type blade.
TF2 Spy Spy
France
TF2 Spy
As the game's stealthy class, the spy packs the ability to cloak, thereby briefly turning invisible to enemy players unless damaged, and to disguise himself as other classes or as a member of the opposing team. He uses these abilities to sneak behind enemy lines where he can use his Sapper to sabotage enemy Engineer buildings, and his knife and pistol to assassinate enemy players. When used on an enemy's back, his knife can cause an instant kill; a Backstab. When he uses any of his weapons, except for the sapper, any disguises are removed, so the spy must be careful about when and where he attacks. He also cannot attack while cloaked. In the right situation, a Spy can be among the most powerful classes in the game, sometimes turning the tide of a round single-handedly. On the other hand, playing Spy successfully is extremely hard if the enemy team is coordinated and attentive. A disguised enemy spy can be identified by his lack of ability to fire his weapon, his ability to take damage from "teammates," and collisions with his "allies."
Game Modes
Team Fortress 2 has many game modes, ranging from team death match to a new mode to shooters called payload. As of latest game update there are a total of 7 unique modes.- Capture the Flag ( CTF) - Basic Capture The Flag idea except you capture the other teams intelligence briefcase instead of a physical flag.
- Payload ( PL) - This mode has one team pushing a cart holding a bomb with the intention of pushing it to the last level and blowing it up. The cart is pushed on a predetermined path of rails and heals the team that is supposed to push it as well as give them ammo. Unlike capture points the cart does not go faster with the more people that are pushing it. If the team that is supposed to push the cart does not touch the cart in 10 seconds the cart will slowly go backwards by itself.
- Payload Race ( PLR) - As in Payload, players must push a cart to their opponents base. Unlike Payload, both teams have a cart to push, and teams must simultaneously push their cart to the opponents base and prevent the opponents from pushing their cart to the players base. The first team to push their kart to the end of their track is the victor.
- Capture Point ( CP) - Capture Point maps have certain areas that teams must control. The object is to control all the points. Teams must have control of a co joined point before they can move on the the next. For example you can not take point c if you do not have control of point b first. The more people you have from your team on the point the faster you team takes control. Scouts count as two people.
- Attack/Defend ( CP) - A subset of the Capture Point mode in which one team starts out in possession of all the capture points and has to try to defend them for a set amount of time while the other team tries to capture all the points from the defenders. The defending team cannot re-capture a point after the attackers take it over. All official Valve maps have Blu attacking and Red defending.
- Territorial Control (TC) - Similar to Capture Point mode as the aim of TC is capture all of the other team's territories. To do this you must win a CP round on a section of the larger map and by doing so you will take over a territory. There is currently only one Territorial Control map, Hydro.
- Arena ( Arena) - The Arena mode has teams go against each other in a full out deathmatch, but unlike the other modes you do not respawn and must wait for the round to end before respawning. The arena maps also have their health boxes taken out from them and the only source of health is from medics and dispensers, although there is a very small health jar on lumberyard.
- King of the Hill ( KotH) - King of the Hill mode has two teams going after a single capture point, which is initially locked. After the point opens and is captured by a team they must then defend that point for three minutes.
If the enemy team manages to capture the point back, their clock will start counting down while the other team's clock freezes at the time the was recaptured.
Official Maps
Team Fortress 2 currently features 24 official maps many of which can be played in more then one type of game mode. The first six maps listed are the ones the game initially shipped with and all maps after them are in the order in which they were introduced to the game. Some maps were originally just community maps (those made by modders and not by Valve themselves) but were promoted to official status by Valve because of their quality and reputation. So far ten community maps have received this distinction.- 2 Fort (CTF)
- Well (CTF/CP/Arena)
- Hydro (TC)
- Granary (CP/Arena)
- Gravel Pit (CP)
- Dustbowl (CP)
- Badlands (CP/Arena)
- Gold Rush (PL)
- Turbine (CTF)
- Fastlane (CP)
- Badwater Basin (PL)
- Lumberyard (Arena)
- Ravine (Arena)
- Steel (CP)
- Junction (CP)
- Watchtower (Arena)
- Egypt (CP)
- Sawmill (Arena/KOTH/CTF)
- Nucleus (Arena/KOTH)
- Pipeline (PLR)
- Hoodoo (PL)
- Offblast (Arena)
Offblast is a high-altitude map and most fights will take place over a perilous mountain top, with no protection on the sides.
- Viaduct (KOTH)
- Yukon (CP)
- Harvest (KOTH)
Updates
Valve has released a series of large free updates for the PC version of Team Fortress, each focusing on a different class. Each update gives the specified class new unlocakable weapons and new Steam achievements. The updates will also be coming to the Xbox 360 version some time in 2009, costing $10 (or 800 Microsoft Points). Note: The (AM# - #) next to an unlockable weapon refers to the corresponding Achievement Milestone needed to unlock that weapon and the amount achievements, for that class, needed to reach that milestone. For example, Achievement Milestone 1 (AM1) for the Medic requires 10 of his classes achievements to unlock the Blutsauger. This would be written as The Blutsauger (AM1 - 10). The amount achievements needed to reach each milestone varies between classes, generally it's easier to unlock weapons with later classes as the number achievements required to get to each milestone is less.
Gold Rush Update (Medic Update)
- New game mode: Payload (PL)
- New Payload map: Gold Rush
- Unique weapon system: Players can now unlock weapons by earning achievements (this is now one of two ways to unlock weapons)
- New Medic weapons:
The Blutsauger (AM1 - 10) - New syringe gun that drains health from the enemy.
The Kritzkrieg (AM2 - 16) - New medigun that's Ubercharge gives its recipient 100% chance to score critical hits, instead of the invulnerability given by the original medigun. It charges 25% faster then the normal Medigun, due to its risky nature.
The Ubersaw (AM3 - 22) - Melee weapon that converts damage dealt into Ubercharge. Slower then the ordinary Bonesaw.
The Pyro Update
- New Pyro weapons:
The Flare Gun (AM1 - 10) - Long distance gun that sets enemies on fire.
The Backburner (AM2 - 15) - New flamethrower that guarantees a critical hit when used from behind.
The Axtinguisher (AM3 - 22) - Melee weapon that guarantees a critical hit when the enemy is on fire. Flamethrower given Airblast ability - can push stickies and grenades, deflect rockets and push people a short distance.
A Heavy Update
- New community map: Steel (CP)
- New Payload map: Badwater Basin
- New game mode: Arena (Arena)
- New Arena maps: Lumberyard and Ravine (Well, Granary and Badlands have also been reworked to allow Arena to be played on them)
- New Heavy weapons:
The Sandvich (AM1 - 10) - Healing item that restores 120 health within 4 seconds, rendering the heavy immobile during a comedic animation.
Natascha (AM2 - 15) - New minigun that slows the target upon damaging them. Does 25% less damage then Sasha (original minigun).
The K.G.B. (Killer Gloves of Boxing) (AM3 - 20) - Melee weapon that grants 5 seconds of critical hits to every weapon after killing an enemy. Slower than standard Fists.
Minor Engineer Update
Though not a large update like the class specific ones, this patch gave engineers the ability to upgrade their teleporters and dispensers to level 3. Rank 3 dispensers give ally players health and ammo at a greater rate and also included new upgrading animations. Rank 3 teleporters recharge faster than normal.Minor Spy Update
Released along side the small engineer update. Spies will be able to recharge their cloaking ability by picking up ammo off of the ground.Crit Update
A small update affecting critical hits and the balancing of weapons. Critical chances are now lowered. The Heavy's unlockable gun, Natascha, is given increased slowdown and strength. Soldier's rocket ammo has risen from 16 to 20.The Scout Update
- New community maps: Watchtower (Arena), Junction (CP) and Egypt (CP)
- New Scout Weapons:
The Sandman (AM2 - 16) - Baseball bat and ball which, when the ball hits an enemy, causes them to be stunned temporarily in proportion to the distance the ball traveled. Also works on invulnerable player. The Scout cannot use his double jump ability while this is equipped. Players take 50% less damage while stunned.
The Force-a-Nature (AM1 - 10) - Slightly less powerful and containing less ammunition than the Scattergun; this weapon gives the Scout a "knockback" effect, allowing him to push enemies back or push himself higher into the air while jumping.
Also part of the Scout Update were some changes to the Spy class. These included:Bonk! Atomic Punch (AM3 - 22) - A radioactive drink which gives the Scout a short burst of energy enabling him to travel faster and also dodge bullets. A side effect of the drink is that the Scout suffers a period of slowdown after his temporary high which means he is more susceptible to attack.
- Faster backstab animation for the Spy.
- The ability to see the Player ID for enemies when disguised as part of their team.
- The ability to alter the weapon shown when disguised as enemy character by using the "last disguise" hotkey.
- When backstabbing from a disguise, the kill speech is now appropriate to the class you were disguised as.
Loadout Screen Update
This update changed the character loadout screen to include a slot for headgear. Valve later revealed that the headgear is purely a cosmetic change and has no effect on how the classes play. The Sniper Vs. Spy Update
Initially billed as simply the Sniper update, Valve started slipping in hints to the Spy (such as the Spy appearing cloaked behind the Sniper on the third day's background picture). On day 4, it was revealed that the update was going to include the Spy.- New Arena maps: Sawmill and Nucleus
- New game mode: Payload Race (PLR)
- New Payload Race map: Pipeline
- New community map: Hoodoo (PL)
- New unlock system: players could now unlock weapons through random weapon drops that would occur by just playing the game.
- New Sniper weapons:
The Razorback (AM3 - 17) - A tribal shield with an electric voltage running through it. When the Sniper has this equipped he is immune to being backstabbed as when the Spy hit him in the back he will will experience a short period of being temporarily stunned and will have to wait before his knife cools down before he can us it again. The Razorback breaks apart after a single stab.
The Huntsman (AM1 - 5) - A bow and arrow which works in the same way as the original Sniper Gun but has the added ability to impale it's victims to walls. Even if the target isn't killed they still have the arrow sticking out of their body. The Huntsman can hold 18 arrows (which is less then the Sniper Gun's 25) and takes 1 second to fully charge itself
Jarate (AM2 - 11) - A jar filled with the Sniper's urine. When it is thrown at an opponent, the disgust is so intense that it causes them to take 35% more damage for a short period of time or until they wash Jarate off by jumping in water. Jarate will disrupt enemy spy cloaking devices and can also be used to douse teammates who are on fire.
- New Spy weapons:
Dead Ringer (AM3 - 17) - A pocket watch which gives the ability to feign death for 8 seconds (similar to Team Fortress Classic.) When the Spy gets hit by a non-lethal attack, a copy of his corpse will take his place and react accordingly while the Spy is granted 8 seconds of stealth. The Spy cannot cloak normally with this item equipped and upon reappearing a distinctive ring can be heard.
Cloak and Dagger (AM2 - 11) - This wrist watch allows the spy to remain invisible for longer periods of time, as the cloaking ability is only drained whilst moving. Cloaking cannot be replenished by picking up ammo as normal, the spy must remain stationary.
The Ambassador (AM1 - 5) - An even bigger revolver for the Spy that features an engraving of the Scout's mother. The Ambassador features pinpoint accuracy and head shots will register as critical hits, but it's damage is lower and it is subject to recoil and must recover after each shot.
Classless Update
This is the first major update not to have specific features (weapons, achievements, etc) focused towards one or two classes. Hence the name.- Adds an additional 18 unlockable hats (2 for each class). As of this update every class now has 3 unique hats. The Scout, Sniper and Engineer also have an additional hatless model.
- New community maps: Offblast (Arena) and Yukon (CP)
- New game mode: King of the Hill (KOTH)
- New KOTH map: Viaduct (Nucleus and Sawmill now also KOTH maps)
- Sawmill now also playable as a CTF map
- Added new effects for players that have a critical effect such as Kritzkrieg, capturing a flag, and winning the round.
- Added custom animations for the losing team.
Minor Hat Update
A small update in which all hats unlocked obtained through external idling application were removed from the players who used them. 
Cheater's Lament
Halowe'en Special
A special update which lasts between October 29th until November 2nd 2009. The achievements (and the hats which come with them) are only are only available between those 5 days.- Five new 'scarechievements' which unlock Halloween based hats.
- New KOTH map: Harvest
Unlock System
There are two ways to obtain unlockable weapons in TF2:Achievements
Each updated class has a list of achievements specifically related towards them. Players must accomplish certain tasks to get an achievement and some might require the player to accumulate a certain objective (eg. Get 1000 kills) or to pull off a single feat (eg. Backstab a disguised Spy).After acquiring a specific amount of achievements the player unlocks an achievement milestone, which in turn unlocks a new weapon. Each milestone corresponds to a weapon and the amount of achievements needed for each milestone varies depending on class. All classes have three unlockable items.
Random Drops
Included with Sniper vs. Spy update, random drops allowed people to unlock items by simply playing the game. Valve created a marker time based the average amount of time played by normal TF2 players. Every time the player reaches this amount of time played they have a chance of unlocking an item. This means that the more a person plays the game the higher the probability that they will receive an item.
Backpack Screen
The chance of unlocking an item after playing the marker amount of time is based on a completely random formula and is in no way affected by the players skill or how well they are doing in a certain game. The item unlocked is also random and so it is possible to acquire duplicate items (Valve have said they intend to introduce a trading system so that players can swap items) which end up in the players 'backpack' and is accessible through the loadout screen.
Game data has shown that, on average, the player has a 1% chance to unlock an item every minute played and a 60% chance to unlock an item every hour played.
Hats are a very rare unlockable item which change the appearance of class and are purely an aesthetic feature. Their numbers are growing.
System Requirements
Minimum System Requirements
- CPU: 1.2 GHz Processor
- RAM: 256 MB
- Graphics Card: DirectX 7 capable graphics card
- Windows 2000/XP/Vista
Recommended System Requirements
- CPU: 2.4 GHz
- Processor RAM: 512 MB
- Graphics Card: DirectX 9 capable graphics card 256 MB
- Windows 2000/XP/Vista
Ideal System Requirements
These are the ideal system requirements to run the game smoothly in 1280x1024 with High Quality graphics:- CPU: 3.4 GHz Processor
- RAM: 1024 MB
- Graphics Card: Radeon X800 or Geforce 6800
- Windows XP/Vista
Reception
Team Fortress 2 has received a lot of critical acclaim, and to-date has a 92% Metacritic score from 16 critic reviews. From Gamespy, TF2 took the Best Multiplayer Game of the Year award and best Unique Art Style. 1UP gave similar awards, Best Multiplayer Experience and Best Artistic Direction. IGN also gave TF2 best Artistic Design. As well as receiving countless awards with its inclusion in the Orange Box, PC Gamer UK put TF2 as the Best Game Of All Time in in it's yearly Top 100 list for 2008.Meet The Team Videos
Team Fortress 2 Roster Team Fortress 2 is somewhat famous for its clever and original introduction videos for each individual class in the game. As of now, not every class has a video,below are links to each one. In addition, in an update on August 19, 2008, Meet the Sandvich was released, being the first (and, to date, only) 'Meet The' video not introducing an actual class.- Meet The Heavy
Scene from 'Meet the Demo'.
| Game Name | Team Fortress 2 |
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| Original US Release |
Oct. 10, 2007
need a fuzzy date? |
| Original US Release |
know the real date? |
| Aliases | TF2 |
| Team Fortress 2 Sniper Guide |
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Team Fortress 2 Engineer Guide
A guide for the engineer class in Team Fortress 2.
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Team Fortress 2 Achievement Guide
A guide to unlocking the weapons in Team Fortress 2.
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| Team Fortress 2 - Spy Strategy Guide |
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