QUICK JUMP
Team Fortress 101
Everything about Team Fortress wrapped up in a neat little package.
Team Fortress 2 is a multiplayer game based on a mod created for Quake. It has seen many incarnations over the last 11 or so years; and now the long awaited Team Fortress 2 is now available as part of Valve's "The Orange Box;" a game pack containing Half Life 2, Half Life 2: Episode One, Half Life 2: Episode Two and Portal.
You can purchase Team Fortress 2 directly from Valve here: The Orange Box
There are only 2 modes of gameplay in Team Fortress; Capture the Flag and a control point mode, where sides battle for control of the map. Control points are areas on the map where your team has to capture the point and defend it; the more members of your team standing on the control point, the faster your team will capture it. If an enemy walks onto the control point, the capture will stall until they are killed.
Capture the Flag is about capturing the "flag" which is the intelligence briefcase. Whoever has the intelligence briefcase leaves a trail of paper so you know which way they went, and once they are killed it will remain on the ground for 60 seconds before returning to the intelligence room. Because of this, it's good to keep touching the intelligence, even if its a suicide mission. Once you get it out of the room, you need to keep it out of there.
The game pits players evenly on 2 teams; Red Vs Blue. Your Heads up Display (HUD) is painted the color of what team you are on, and each base is painted the color of the team as well; so it is very easy to know what is going on at all times in Team Fortress.
The meat of the game comes in its elaborate class system. Every character (there are nine) is designed for a specific purpose; and every character is designed to counter one other class (with perhaps the exception of the medic).
Because of this, if a team decides to be dominantly one class, the other team can go dominantly its anti-class and destroy them. Every class has an answer in Team Fortress; even though some aren't as clear as some others.
Also every class excels in at least one area at the expense of one major weakness. The best examples are the Scout and the Heavy Weapons Guy. They are polar opposites; the HWGuy is large, he has a big gun, lots of health, however he is inaccurate and slow. The scout is the fastest character in the game; but his weapons are only effective at close range and he has a very low amount of health. However in the game of Team Fortress, I have seen good Scouts kill 5 HWGuys in a row without dieing.
When you join a server, there is a screen that tells you how many of each class are on your team already. You shouldn't be a sniper if there are already 3 snipers on your team. There is more information about this on the Team Fortress overview page.
Once you join a server, you will spawn inside a resupply room. These are rooms where everyone spawns, and they are inaccessible to the opposing team. Inside of these rooms is a cabinet which will instantly refill all of your health and metal. Also; if you are in a resupply room, you can change classes without killing yourself unless the game is in Sudden Death.
Sudden Death occurs when the game is tied and the time limit expires. Let's say a server has a 30 minute time limit, and it's 2-2. There will be a Sudden Death mode for about 3 minutes, where if you die; you will not respawn. This is very fun because you can completely kill the opposing team and waltz out with the flag if you do it right.
Gameplay Mechanics
Team Fortress 2 has added some new gameplay mechanics; so even if you played Team Fortress in the past, you might want to check this part out.
Critical Hits are probably the biggest addition to Team Fortress. They are charged shots which deliver more damage to the enemy. You know you have just scored a Critical Hit because your projectile will be colored in the glow of your team, you will here an electric sound, and the words CRITICAL HIT! will appear above the enemies head. There's no way to garuntee a critical hit unless you are a sniper; if you are a sniper, a full charged headshot will always be a critical hit. You can learn more about critical hits on the Team Fortress Weapons page.
Another new mechanic is the domination and revenge system. If you kill a play four times in a row, you will be marked as "dominating" them, and they will see you as a nemesis. When you have a nemesis, boxing gloves appear over your head; this way, you stand out in a crowd of players so a player can get revenge. Once the player kills his nemesis, he has earned his revenge, and the "domination" tag is removed.
Classes
Now that you have a basic understanding of how Team Fortress works, let's look at the character classes.
