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The Orange Box
It has been little over eight years since Team Fortress Classic was first released and there was always talk to whether or not its successor would be released. Well, eight years later and our wishes have been granted, Team Fortress 2 has come and it is even better than we expected. Team Fortress 2 is a class and team-based multiplayer shooter. There are nine classes to choose from, each with your own unique abilities.
Across the game modes, there are only six maps available. The popular Capture the Flag (CTF) map 2fort has been brought back, where you are to defend your intelligence from the enemy capturing it, and in turn steal their intelligence and return it to your base. The dominant game mode is Control Point, where each team has a turn at attacking and defending a set of control points. If however, the attacking team is unable to capture all the points in the allotted time, the match goes into sudden death overtime to decide the winner. Another game mode that is similar to Control Point is Territory Control. In a Territory Control game, the map is spit up into six sections where each team is attacking and defending on two control points per round. Both teams are to push to control the other side's points and hold their own at the same time. This makes for a very fast-paced battle, which usually ends up in a stalemate in a team's base.
All classes are incredibly well balanced in Team Fortress 2, which is vital for any online team-based game. Essentially, no class is better than another is; this is because each provides their abilities to the game in one way or another. Classes are broken down into three groups: offensive, defensive, and support. The offensive group consists of the incredibly fast Scout, whose main weapon is a shotgun and is able to double-jump but has very low health. There is the rocket launcher touting Soldier and the Pyro, who is extremely deadly at close range with his flamethrower.
In the defensive group, there are the heavy hitting classes -- Heavy, Demoman, and Engineer. The Heavy is the slow, 300-hitpoint, chain-gun wielding tank, who works wonders when teamed up with a medic. Grenades and sticky bombs are the Demoman's specialty, which comes in useful when clearing a room. Thirdly, the Engineer is on the brim of support and defensive. He can build turrets that can be upgraded two stages with bigger machineguns and rocket launcher add-ons, then support wise he can build dispensers of health and ammunition, as well as a teleporter for fellow team-mates to use. This leaves the final group -- Support -- with the Sniper, Medic, and Spy. The Sniper has a scoped rifle, which may gain extra shooting power if you remain scoped for a few seconds before firing. With a device that can channel healing to a targeted team-mate, the Medic is a strong asset in the game. The Heavy can be turned into a regenerating tank with a Medic at its side, and the Medic can turn himself and his friendly target invulnerable for a short amount of time once his Ubercharge reaches 100 percent. If you are one who enjoys sneaking behind enemy lines and backstabbing unsuspected enemies, then the Spy will be your pick. Being able to cloak himself for a period, disguise himself as a member of the opposing team, sap enemy turrets and dispensers, and taking down an opponent with a single backstab are all in the Spy's arsenal.
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