Team Fortress 2 Part 2

And I'm back with the remaining 5 classes for Team Fortress 2, without further ado, let's jump straight in with...

The Pyro

The close-ranged gimp-masked pyromaniac is very dangerous up close, but lacks reliable long ranged weaponry. Has decent 175HP, and average movement speed.

The Pyro's primary weapons are stronger the closer you are to the target, the only problem is getting within range of the victims and not dying in the progress. The flamethrowers are also capable of setting fire to multiple targets (although other Pyros cannot be set on fire), so its possible to deal significant amount of damage to them and let the afterburn burn them to death.

While the Pyros are mostly an offensive class, they're very useful as defensive classes as well, especially when working together with the Engineers. Their primary weapon's alternate attack is a compression blast. This airblast enables them to deflect any incoming projectiles back at their owners: grenades, sticky bombs, rockets, flaregun projectiles, huntsman arrows and even the rockets from Sentry Guns! The airblast can also be used to extinguish multiple burning teammates and push enemies away, disorienting them and make it easier to be taken down by your teammates. The airblast can also be used to perform impromptu rocket jumps: by airblasting the rockets down towards their feet, they can jump and then use the force of the explosion to propel forward. Just like a Soldier.

By far the most important task for Pyros is Spy Checking. With a small puff of flame, disguised or invisible spies will be set on fire, and be revealed to the whole team, keeping an Engineer's buildings safe from their sappers. Defeating Erectile Dispenser Dysfunction before it happens.

My custom loadout:

Mpphhh mphh mphhhh mphhh mhh!

• The Degreaser - Weapon switch speed is increased by 65%, its almost instantaneous. But the afterburn damage is 4 damage per second instead of 6, which makes a rather big difference in getting kills if you were relying on afterburn.
• Detonator - Fires a flare which ignites enemies. If the enemy was already on fire, the detonator will inflict mini-crits (a step down from the Critical hit of the basic Flare Gun), but has an alternate fire which, well, detonates the flare in mid flight, creates a small explosion which ignites nearby enemies.
• Axtinguisher - I feel like Jack Torrance everytime I whip this out. It inflicts Critical Hits on burning enemies, so when coupled with the quick weapon switch, it's a guranteed 2-hit kill on most classes. However, it deals 50% less damage on non-burning targets.
• Party Hat - It's party time!

The Medic

Ze German Doctor with a penchant for assisting in homicide. He's a mad doctor who likes to experiment on human beings, with the healing as the side effect.

The Medic is a primary asset of any team, and experience has taught me that a team without 1 or 2 capable medics are doomed to lose very badly to another team which has a good medic or two. Has 150HP, just slightly above the minimal threshold, and has slightly above average movement speed.

His primary role is, duh, healing his teammates. He can also overheal his targets (unless equipped with the Quick-Fix), leaving them at 150% HP, increasing their hardiness in battle. His special ability is his ÜberCharge, whose activation effect depends on the type of medigun equipped:

• Medi Gun - this weapon's ÜberCharge release grants the Medic and his target 100% invulnerability for 8 seconds, but still susceptible to knockback from explosions and Pyro airblasts. Extremely useful for clearing Sentry Gun nests.
• Kritzkrieg - ÜberCharge release grants the Medic and his target guranteed Critical Hits for 8 seconds. Very useful when paired with a good Soldier, Demoman, Heavy and in certain cases, Pyros. Also charges ÜberCharge 25% faster.
• Quick-Fix - ÜberCharge release grants the Medic and his target a 300% heal rate, and renders them immune to stuns and knockback. The heal rate and ÜberCharge rate is increased by 40% and 25% respectively, but it is unable to overheal. It also enables the Medic to run at the same speed as the target (only if the target is running faster than the Medic's own movespeed).

My custom loadout:

Eins, zwei, drei... Ugh, I do not think we brought enough body bags.

• Syringe Gun - with Strange properties that record the amount of kills, it's the only Medic primary weapon I have which I haven't smelted down into parts yet >_>
• The Kritzkrieg - ÜberCharge release grants the Medic and his target guranteed Critical Hits for 8 seconds. Very useful when paired with a good Soldier, Demoman, Heavy and in certain cases, Pyros. Also charges ÜberCharge 25% faster.
• The Vita-Saw - Lowers health by 10HP, however, I can retain up to 20% of my previous ÜberChargeon death, so the time taken to gain ÜberCharge is significantly reduced in between lives.
• Gentleman's Gatsby - Giving the Medic a sense of elegance while he saws through your bones or assisting in cremating you alive.

The Demoman

The black Scottish cyclops is a master of all thing explode-y, he's another versatile class like the Soldier, with even more extreme firepower, but lacks pinpoint accuracy. His melee attacks are also ridiculously strong, perhaps due to his Highlander ancestry? He has decent health at 175HP, but has below average movement speed.

Unlike the other classes, the Demoman has two equally powerful weapons, the Grenade Launchers and the Stickybomb Launchers. His grenades can be launched over obstacles and bounced around walls to hit their targets; whereas his stickybombs can be placed around in hidden areas, or launched towards enemies to form a cluster of them, and detonated together to create a massive explosion. His stickybombs can also be used to perform Sticky Jumping. It's similar to Rocket Jumping, but can go further and higher at the expense of more HP, giving him mobility similar to the Soldier.

Though classified as a Defensive class, the Demoman is perfectly capable of offensive attacks, but takes more skill as his grenades do not launch fast enough to be pinpoint accurate, but its explosion radius is large enough to deal damage over a wide area. His stickybombs on the other hand are perfect for setting up ambushes and traps, when the enemies walk within KABLOOEY range, they explode in a shower of gibs. The stickybombs are also vital for keeping enemies from capture points and Payloads, either killing them outright or make them waste their time trying to destroy the stickies with bullets (only bullets can destroy stickes, such as miniguns, shotguns and pistols)

My custom loadout:

"Oh, they're goin' ta have to glue you back together...IN HELL!"

• Grenade Launcher - with Strange properties that record the amount of kills, my favorite tactic is to lob grenades at chokeholds, bottlenecks and at sentry encampments. Nothing brings more fear than a rain of 'nades.
• The Scottish Resistance - Compared to the default Stickybomb Launcher, this unlockable weapon can place more stickies, carries more ammo, and the alt-fire detonation only detonates the stickies that you are aiming at, as compared to detonating all of them at once with the default one. However it takes 0.8 seconds longer to arm, making it less effective in direct combat.
• The Ullapool Caber - Its basically a grenade, on a stiiiiiiiiiicccck. The first contact will detonate, dishing out a lot of damage, then leaving its remains, dealing low damage. I only use this as a last resort at close range. Seriously...sane and sober men would THROW it at his enemies...
• Saxton Hale Mask - Because I can. 

The Sniper

The rugged Aussie outdoors man cum assassin. Don't ever mistake him for a serial killer. Just like the snipers from other FPS games, the Sniper excels in hanging back from the rest of the team and picking off other players with Headshots (the only class with this ability). 

At extreme long ranges, a good Sniper will make short work of any class with a fully charged headshot. In fact, a fully charged headshot will kill any enemy that is not invulnerable. But he is very vulnerable when caught in close or medium combat, as his secondary weapons and melee weapons are horribly inefficient for dealing with enemies. He is a favorite target of the Spy as a Sniper will rarely notice a Spy sneaking up on him, and deliver a backstab or being shot to death by his revolvers.

He has 125HP (150HP if equipped with Darwin's Danger Shield), has average movement speed. The movement speed isn't too much of an issue since he is the type of class that usually stands further away from the battlefield anyways.

My custom loadout:

• Machina - A relatively new weapon made when Deus Ex: Human Revolution was released. On a full charge, it does 15% extra damage and can penetrate the first target. So its possible to kill two people with a full charge. However, every shot is a tracer shot, revealing your location to other Snipers and Spies, and you can't shoot when not zoomed in.
• Jarate - with Strange properties that record the amount of people I doused with this. It's a jar of piss. No, really. You can cover multiple enemies with it, and all damage they receive will be mini-crits. It can also put out burning teammates.
• Bushwacka - Crits whenever it normally mini-crits. Good combo with Jarate if you're caught in melee combat. Douse the enemy in Jarate, and whack away. However, it increases fire vulnerability by 20%, which is kinda moot: if you're caught in close range by a Pyro, you're pretty much screwed anyways.
• Larrikin Robin - with unusual property, this one has a sunshine effect on it. 

Why is he Blue and not Red? Obviously its the Red Spy
disguised as the Blue Spy...Or is it the Blue Spy who is
disguised as the Red Spy who is disguised as the Blue Spy...?
Ah crud.

The Spy

The chain-smoking backstabbing bastard from France wears a nice suit is very polite while he backstabs you or shooting you in the face.

Out of all the nine classes, the Spy's playstyle is generally the most difficult and hardest to master. While disguised as the enemy team, he can backstab anyone for an instant kill (bar those who are invulnerable of course), but he loses his disguise in the process; he can also go invisible and hide so for a better killing opportunity.

A good spy is the bane of any team, but particularly so for a few classes: the Heavy is very slow, and while using his minigun, he becomes even slower and is generally focused on the fight in front of him, leaving him open for a backstab; the Medic, also generally focused on his healing target, leaving him open for a backstab as well; the Sniper, while scoped and focused on killing targets far ahead of him, rarely realizes when a Spy is right behind him, stabbing him in the back; and, last but not least, the Engineer, as he can place sappers on his buildings to disable and slowly destroy them, leaving the Engineer vulnerable for a short time. In the worst case scenario, the Spy can take the Teleporter while disguised and telefrag whichever poor sap that was standing on the other end.

But as I have mentioned, the Spy is very difficult to play, as the Spy has baseline health at 125HP. most servers do not have friendly fire on, so everyone will shooting at their own teammates, to see if they're the spy. Furthermore, enemies can't walk through each other, so if the enemy bumps into you, and realise they can't walk through, they will know that you're a Spy. And an invisible Spy will also become slightly more visible if an enemy walks into them or damaged by them, thus giving you away for a short time. Pyros are a Spy's worst enemy, as a small puff of flame from his flamethrower will set a disguised/invisible Spy on fire, blowing his cover to the enemy team.

My custom loadout:

Gentlemen?

• The Diamondback - 15% damage penalty, but stores 1 critical hit for each building destroyed with his sapper attached, doesn't have to be the sapper destroying it, as long as it was destroyed with his sapper attached, it will give 1 critical hit.
• Your Eternal Reward - A unique knife for the Spy, upon a successful backstab, the Spy immediately takes on the disguise of his victim. It is a silent killer: the victim's body won't appear, and his death won't appear on his teammate's killfeed, and there's no backstab sound as well. This is a very strong weapon in that you won't draw attention to yourself like the other weapons. However, the huge drawback is that you can't disguise normally at all. You can only disguise as the one you backstab, making the initial kill harder to procure.
• The Cloak and Dagger - This watch will render the Spy invisible indefinitely as long as he is not moving, but the watch consumes more energy while moving compared to the default watch. However, it has twice the energy regeneration rate, so as long as you're not moving very long distances, it should be fine.
• Fancy Fedora - For the handsome rogue that is the Spy.

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Phew...that was another long article, but I've finally finished covering all nine classes from Team Fortress 2. Of course, this was just a short summary of what the classes can do. In a few months time, new weapons might just render the information here obsolete (I hope not...I spent a lot of time writing these...)

For more detailed information on the game, visit the Team Fortress 2 wiki.

And now please excuse me, I have to start on playing more of Battlefield 3. Hopefully I can write about it in due time.

Adios kids.

Team Fortress 2

Back in June this year, the gaming world was surprised as Valve announced that Team Fortress 2 would adopt the Free-to-Play model.

Some gamers (mostly those who already brought the game prior to the model change) were more than a little hesitant about this radical change and sudden tsunami-influx of new players into the game; while many others, such as yours truly, REJOICED!!

Heavy: What sick man sends MORE babies to fight me??
I know he's laughing as he says that, it's just how he is.

After playing it ever since it went Free-to-Play, I've subsequently became a Premium member (after making purchases at the Mann. Co Store), I've feel that I've explored and played enough of the game to finally write about it proper.

Ever since its release in 2007, Team Fortress 2 has consistently stayed as one of the top multiplayer shooter games, alongside titles such as Call of Duty, Battlefield and Counter Strike. And after playing just a few months worth of it, I can see why.


This game is HILARIOUS. Everything from:the art style,
the sounds,
the weapons (HOLY MACKEREL LEVEL 42),
the maps (blurb for DeGroot Keep map - How did the manly men of Team Fortress appear at a tenth century battlement? Simple. The Soldier angered a magician.)
and even player deaths are hilarious.

Unable to laugh on the account that my head has been separated from my fucking torso. Along with my wank hand.

Its a different direction that from gritty realism that seems to be in all the modern shooters nowadays: Call of Duty, Medal of Honor, Gears of War, Resistance, Battlefield etc etc. This cartoon-y direction is a fresh breath of air, which helps it to stand out from the rest.

In-game, it is very easy to pick out the classes thanks to the loving detail placed on each class. From a single glance, its very easy to get a rough idea of what strategies to implement against the class you're facing against, eg. if you come face to face against a pyro, keep the gap between the both of you as big as possible so that his flamethrowers short range can't touch you.

And boy oh boy, have they put alot of effort into each class, each class has completely different styles of playing. That's NINE years worth of development quality right there for you.

Can't say the same for other games that had even longer development times

Each class has a different role to play in any game, and a team consists of a well balanced variety will easily win over a team that's just spamming one or two classes en massed. Scouts scouting; Spies spying; Demos demolishing; Snipers sniping; Engineers engineering; Medics medicating; Pyros pyro-ing; Soldiers soldiering; and Heavies HOLYSHITHEPUNCHEDOUTALLMYBLOOD!!!!

So for now, lets have a review of all the classes available, with my own personal weapon loadout.

The Heavy

Arguably the main star of Team Fortress 2, to date, he has appeared in every single Meet The Team videos, and is on most of their promotional material.

Well, he is a ginormous Russian with a minigun almost as big as he is, that certainly makes him memorable.

The Heavy has the most health on the team at 300HP (450HP when overhealed), this high health, coupled with his various miniguns, make him an extremely dangerous target at short to medium range conflicts.

The only problem is that he's typically very slow while carrying his minigun, and when he's spinning it up, he becomes even slower, making him an easy target for Snipers aiming for his shiny head or Spies backstabbing his barnyard sized back. However, his large size and health makes him a great target for a friendly medic as cover, and when uber-ed by the medic, can send an entire team running like cowards.

Strangely enough, I don't actually see that many Heavies in the servers that I play, despite them being one of the deadliest classes around. They tend to be the number one target for a lot of players though, maybe that's why.

This is my custom heavy loadout:

ALL OF YOU ARE DEAD!!

• Default Minigun - with Strange properties that record the amount of kills, best compromise between all the primary Heavy weapons IMO.
• The Sandvich - mostly to heal the medics actually, if they're healing me; I only use it to heal myself when I don't have a medic healing me.
• Gloves of Running Urgently - when active, grants extra 30% movement speed so that I can get to my destination faster, but lose 6 hp per second, a very minor disadvantage considering the Heavy has so much HP.
• Coupe D'isaster - it's a hairpiece. Grants +100 to hair, -100 to male pattern baldness.

The Scout

The fastest class in the game and with his ability to double jump, he can literally run circles around his enemies. This Boston loudmouth thrash talker's playstyle is actually quite suicidal: he gets in close with his scattergun, fires a shot or two then runs off like mad.

He, along with the engineer, spy and sniper, have the lowest health at 125HP, so he has to rely on hit and run tactics. But since he has incredible mobility and can double jump, this is not a problem. Learning how to play the scout requires quite a bit of effort, I haven't gotten around to playing him without dying every minute.

One of his greatest contributions to the team is that he can accomplish his objectives twice as fast as the other classes (barring Soldiers and Demomen equipped with the Pain Train), whether he is capturing a point or pushing the cart. In Capture the Flag mode, his mobility gives him an advantage at actually being able to run back, and evade the enemies with the Intelligence.

As I said before, playing a scout isn't really that easy, as it's a bit suicidal; where most classes would avoid a lone Heavy in close range shootouts, the Scout actually runs in close with his scattergun, blasts him a few times then runs the fuck out. The scatterguns that the Scouts equip are deceptively powerful, three point blank blasts can kill any class except the Soldier and the Heavy.

This is my custom loadout:

What is your major malfunction, brudda??

• The Soda Popper - After 13 seconds of running and jumping, it can deal mini-crits for 8 seconds. But only has 2 shells compared to the 8 of the default scattergun, so I have to make sure each blasts count. On the other hand, it reloads very fast.
• BONK! Atomic Punch - Upon drinking it, the Scout becomes immune to damage for 6 seconds, but is unable to attack. Still susceptible to knockback from explosions and gunfire though. Very good for directing sentry gun fire so that your teammates can take out a sentry gun encampment. Contains water, radiation and sugar.
• Sandman - with Strange properties that record the amount of kills, its alternate fire enables you to launch a baseball which will stun and damage your target at medium to long range. Its disadvantage is that you reduces your maximum HP by 15, which is already pretty damn low in the first place. But, two words: TAUNT KILL. BONK!!!
• Mann Co. Cap - Painted gold with a can of paint I found in-game. I think it goes pretty well with his whole look, no?

The Soldier

Ahh, the military head hunter/collector lunatic from the American heartland (though the sanity of the rest of the team is pretty much questionable as well). The Soldier is currently one of my favorite classes to play, and is a very versatile class.

He is good for attacking and defending, has the 2nd highest health at 200HP, and his various rocket launchers deal very good AOE damage. Furthermore, he can equip different buff placers in his secondary slot to buff the teammates around him, making him a decent support class.

His signature skill is his ability to rocket jump: Point the rocket launcher at your feet, jump-crouch, fire the rocket and watch as your Soldier flies sky high with flaming boots (OF DOOM!!!) at the cost of some HP. This gives rather good mobility, as his movement speed is the 2nd lowest, he's only slightly faster than the Heavy. And if equipped with the Pain Train, the Soldier can accomplish objectives twice as fast like the Scout!

The Soldier is probably the most popular class from my playing experience thus far, as he's a very straight forward class to play and the learning curve is not very steep. But as the saying goes, "Easy to learn. Hard to master". He should continuous fire his rocket launcher as he arguably the 2nd most threatening class after the Heavy, thus good for crowd control, but he has to make sure most of them hit as his ammo is rather restricted (at best he has 24 rockets at his disposal). He is also the type of class that has to be constantly on the move, or he will be easy prey to the Spy and Sniper thanks to his low move speed. Furthermore, rocket jumping takes some practice to get used to, and failed rocket jumps not only deal unnecessary high self damage, it lowers his already pitiful ammo pile.

This is my custom loadout:

You are all WEAK! You are all BLEEDERS!!

• Black Box - with Strange properties that record the amount of kills, it heals you for 15HP for each enemy you damage with it, this helps with staying alive and staying in combat longer even with the aid of a medic. Best to fire onto a group of enemies for best results.
• The Buff Banner - After dishing out roughly 600 damage, it will be fully charged and can be released to buff you and your allies in a large radius to inflict mini crits on your enemies. Works especially well in large groups and with invulnerable uber-ed allies nearby. Excellent team offensive-support gear.
• The Equalizer - Damage and move speed increases as life is lower, I don't actually use this for combat though, its quite suicidal. I use it more for running away at low HP.
• Ghastlier Gibus - Recently upgraded from the Ghastly Gibus due to the Very Scary Halloween Special update patch. I like it 'cause it covers his eyes. Yes, I know. I find that he looks better (and less insane) when his eyes are covered. Plus I think it fits with his raving homicidal personality.

The Engineer

 The defining camping and turtling class for the game. This Texan genius engineer is a vital part of any team, his buildings enables teams to get to the frontline quickly, staying there and holding it.

The Engineer has average movespeed, but very low health at 125HP (150HP if equipped with the Gunslinger). Engineers have a unique resource to build their buildings called Metal. Each Engineer can only carry 200 Metal maximum, and be restored by picking up ammunition, weapons, the health locker and his own dispenser at set rates per intervals.

Engineers are capable of holding their own in a fight as long as they have their Sentry guns and Dispensers up, but they always have to keep an eye out for spies who will come along and place sappers on his buildings, disabling them and slowly damaging them. Spies will be their greatest threat, as the Engineer has to choose between getting rid of the sappers and risk getting backstabbed by the spy OR try to kill the spy and risk losing his buildings.

While Engineers are self sufficient, their greatest allies will be their fellow Engineers and the Pyros. Engineers can help fix each others buildings and help to set up the buildings faster, a nest of two Engineers working together is far more dangerous than 2 separate nests far from each other. And one Engineer can work to kill the Spy while the other removes the sappers. The Pyro on the other hand, while near a dispenser, will continuously use his flamethrower, which will set fire to any invisible or disguised spies. Furthermore, the Pyros can use their flamethrower's airblast to blow away rockets, grenades, sticky bombs and even enemies (especially invulnerable ones) to keep the buildings safe.


An Engineer can construct 3 buildings:

• A Sentry gun that has 3 levels of deadliness, primarily used for defending, sentry guns can easily take out any class short of a overhealed heavy and invulnerable ones, alternatively, with the Gunslinger, they build Mini-Sentries. <Detailed information on Sentry Guns found here>
• Dispensers which can heal nearby units and replenish ammunition, has three levels, with each level healing and replenishing more than the last level. It's also the primary source of Metal for Engineers. Dispensers are vital for keeping a team healthy and sufficiently armed for prolonged confrontations.  <Detailed information on Dispensers found here>
• Teleporters, well, teleport (duh), quickly bringing your teammates to the frontlines upon a full charge, which each level reducing the time it takes for a full charge. This actually consists of two buildings, one entrance and one exit, a one way journey. Upgrading one end upgrades the other, same goes for repairs. <Detailed information on Dispensers found here>
  

This is my custom loadout:

Take it like a man, shorty.

• Frontier Justice - Can store critical hits for your sentry kills and assists, though the criticals are only accessible upon the destruction of the Sentry guns, and they don't carry over upon death. However, the critical hits can be very devastating, killing most classes in 2-3 hits. But must be extra careful as this shotgun can only carry 3 shells maximum.
• The Wrangler - It's a special tool that lets you have direct control of your sentry gun, you can then manually fire the sentry gun's armaments outside of its normal range. At the same time, the sentry gun gains a forcefield to block 66% of the incoming damage.
• The Jag - This particular wrench lets you build 30% faster as long as you're whacking them with this. The downside is the 25% damage reduction, but then you have your shotgun for them spies, so it's not a big deal for me.
• Mining Light - For the physical representation of constantly streaming bright ideas.

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Damn, that was another long ass article. And I only covered FOUR out of the NINE classes!! Bloody hell, writing long articles is starting to be a consistent thing with me isn't it?

Anyways, this has been a pretty long article. I will continue on the remaining 5 classes in my next post.

Until then, laugh along with the Meet the Team videos made by Valve. It'll really put a smile on your face.

• Meet The Heavy
• Meet The Soldier
• Meet The Engineer
• Meet The Demoman
• Meet The Scout
• Meet The Spy
• Meet The Sniper
• Meet The Sandvich
• Meet The Medic
• Meet the Pyro (someday....)

Adios, kids.