Dear Gamer: Team Fortress 2

Genre/Platform

PC/Xbox 360/ PlayStation 3

Team Fortress 2 is a First Person Shooter, but multiplayer only.

Story

Team Fortress 2 does not have any story in the actual game, but there is lore for the game if you look on the Team Fortress 2 wiki. Note: this lore is not mentioned at all in the game.

I will go over the lore quickly. The Mann family had three sons, Blutarch Mann, Redmond Mann, and Gray Mann. Gray Mann was considered abomination because he had learned to talk in the womb. He was to be killed, but was saved by an eagle and was raised by her. He reappears, years later, into the TF2 (Team Fortress 2) universe.

The other two brothers had a deep rivalry for the longest time. After the death of their father, Zepheniah Mann, they were told that they had to fight each other for half of their father’s land. The other half of Zepheniah’s land was entrusted to a mysterious woman named Elizabeth.

The brothers assembled a team of mercenaries to fight for the land left by their father, Red team and Blue team. After several years of unwinnable fighting, the brothers were dying. Blutarch Mann sent for a great inventor to build him a life machine, one that could make him outlast his brother.

This inventor was then contacted by a woman by the name of Elizabeth. She paid him to make an identical machine for Redmond, ensuring the war would last forever.

So the events of Team Fortress 2 begin. Skip ahead many, MANY years and Gray Mann reappears to destroy Mann Co. Mann Co. is a weapons company that was completely ignored by the two brothers, even though it was the only thing worth anything.

Gray Mann, furious that he was to be killed, decides to destroy everything his father had made, and his brothers had squandered. Killing his brothers, the only thing left to stop Gray Mann and his army of machines are the Blue and Red Mercenaries.

Gameplay/Mechanics

There are many different game modes in TF2.

• Attack and Defend is where the player fight for control of areas.
• Capture the Flag is the same as always.
• Control Point is where the players have to capture points; the catch is that the players can recapture stolen points. The first team to capture all the points wins.
• Payload is where one team pushes the cart to a point across the map, while the other team tries to prevent that.

Recently, two more game modes were added:

• Special Delivery: in this game mode one team has to take a suitcase to the top of a rocket while the other team tries to prevent it.
• Mann vs. Machine: in this game mode the teams team up and fight off hordes of robots from dropping a bomb into the headquarters.

In each game mode you have to option to play as one of nine classes. The classes are the Scout, Soldier, Pyro, Demoman, Heavy, Engineer, Medic, Sniper, and the Spy. Each class has its own abilities and weapons. The names for all the classes pretty much sum up what they do. To clarify a few vague classes:

• The Heavy is a big man that carries a minigun.
• The Engineer can build one turret and supply station.
• The Spy sneaks around to backstab opponents for insta-kills.

The mechanics of the game are pretty simple: the players spawn in a spawn room at the beginning of the match and then after a brief wait period, the teams are let out of the spawn room to complete their missions.

Music/Graphics

The graphics are cartoony but not at all in a bad way. They are good, bright, and fun. There is no music when you are playing the game but some of the intro screens when joining the games have really cool music.

Morals/Appropriateness

This game may be cartoony but it is also bloody. Whenever a player is killed by an explosion he/she will “gib,” meaning explode into body parts. This can be turned off on Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 through your options, but on the computer you have to enter a console command. (I forgot how to do this but there are tutorials you can watch.)

You can’t get around it; the players are killing each other in-game.

This game does promote teamwork and strategy, if you can cooperate with your team.

There is a thing called a spray in-game. It is an image each player can put onto a wall in the map. Sometimes the imagines are far from family safe. Staying on official servers can limit exposure to these images. We recommend no earlier than the age of 15 to start playing this game. Remember, though, you know your child the best.

Community/Multiplayer

The community exists very much in the multiplayer. On the Xbox 360 and the Playstation 3, the community is very small since the game cannot be updated (Microsoft won’t allow it). On the PC, there is a very large,  helpful, community.

There are some times where the people you play with are rude, immoral, and cuss but those groups are rare. For the most part, the community is the best of all the First Person Shooters I have played.

Addiction Danger

This game is a Level 3 on the Dear Gamer Addiction Chart. It is fun but after a while of dying, it can be rather grating on the nerves.

Problems/Ending Comments

This is a fun game with a strong community and has the potential to teach teamwork. However, it does have unnecessary gore added to it, and you are still killing other players. It is really fun game, though, and I have enjoyed my time playing it.

ESRB Rating: Mature
ESRB Link

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Copyright 2012 Michael/a.k.a. Lasersniper