Team Fortress

Game: Team Fortress
Developer: Team Fortress Software
Platform: PC (Half-Life Mod)
Release Year: 1996
Stephen's Rating: 7/10

This original version of Team Fortress was a Quake mod way back in 1996. This was ported to the GoldSrc (Half-Life 1) engine in 1999, and it is the Half-Life mod which I played.

Basic Plot

There is no plot. The game involves two opposing teams consisting of multiple players who battle each other and to complete certain objectives.

Gameplay

In its essence Team Fortress is a class based team battle game between the red and blue teams. By class based I am referring to the different character classes which the player can take control of during a game, each of which has unique abilities and weaponry.

The classes available are:

• Scout - Fastest but weakest class. Useful for capturing flags and getting to objectives quickly, but greatly outclassed in terms of combat ability.
• Spy - Also very weak unit but is able to change appearance to look like an enemy player, choosing which class they'd like to parade as. Had a knife attack for backstabbing enemies. Used for infiltration and assassination.
• Medic - Light warrior with the ability to heal allies and infect enemies.
• Engineer - Light warrior with the ability to built and upgrade automatic turrets. These turrets could be used to fortify important positions on the map.
• Pyro - Fire-themed heavy infantry with a flame thrower among other weapons.
• Soldier - Heavy infantry with a bazooka.
• Heavy Weapons - The ultimate heavy infantry with a chaingun but very slow movement speed.

There are usually map objectives as well including capturing the enemy flag or holding strategic points. This is similar in gameplay to Tribes.

I think this is a set of class models from the original Quake version, I'm having trouble finding images of the version I played - all I seem to find are screenshots from Team Fortress 2.

Unlike Team Fortress 2 every class had some kind of grenades which could be used during combat. These were extremely useful and were effective at clearing out enemies who were "camping" in particular spots, and could even be used to get to high areas (by timing a jump as a concussion grenade went off, you could leap great distances).

Positives

The variety of classes and large number of players in a game meant that no game was ever the same. There was a kind of wonderful chaos about the game and each game was filled with action.

Negatives

It didn't have the realism of Counter-Strike in terms of head shots or falling damage, which was actually not necessarily a bad thing but was one of the reasons I stopped playing.

Again, I can't tell if this is from the GoldSrc engine or Quake.

Memorable Moments

Team Fortress was my first taste at first person multiplayer action online. I really liked the game and only stopped playing because Counter-Strike grabbed my attention more and provided a game which required more skill and complexity to master.

My favourite class was the Engineer and I got pretty good at taking kills with the shotgun, and building turrets inside the enemy base without them noticing.