This review is a Spy!

Author's Rating:

Pros: Amazingly fun, fantastic gameplay and overall a great game to play.

Cons: Sometimes awful loading time and terrible lag, you may find yourself raging from dying heaps.

The Bottom Line: 
One of Valve's coolest games alongside the Portal series, Team Fortress 2 is an awesome first-person shooter and certainly worth your time to play.

Author's Review
Valve Corporation is undeniably one of the most creative FPS developers in today's modern games. The Half-Life series was a thrilling installment to the first-person shooter genre, with the Counter-Strike and Left 4 Dead franchises following closely behind. However, there is a series that people left untouched until 2007, and that's the Team Fortress series.

I'll start off with a basic background story: Valve had gotten started with their new release Half-Life, rounding up speculation and acclaim back in '98. In 1999, they released their second game, titled Team Fortress Classic, which didn't nearly come as close to popularity as their first one did, much to their disappointment. With their seeming failure being forgotten, they moved back to the Half-Life series, and then began creating other franchises, while leaving Team Fortress Classic in the dust. It wasn't until 2006 that somebody decided to check up on some development history and found the forgotten game. The company gave a sequel a shot in 2007, and, with their new fame and fanbase in hand, they successfully released Team Fortress 2. This game went on to round up thousands of eager gamers and quickly became a big hit in the FPS genre.

I'll put it shortly: this game is brilliant.

First off, it's not like any other games.
I don't quite know what to say about the plot - mainly because there isn't much to comment on. Teams RED (Reliable Excavation and Demolition) and BLU (Builders League United) are neck and neck in their race for whatever they're trying to achieve, and the people of both teams will do whatever it takes to defeat the other and claim victory for themselves. You're role as a mercenary is to dominate the other team through means of any weapon you can find, and, of course, reach whatever objective it is you're trying to reach - but that's for later. There is little for storyline in this game, but that's okay, I feel that you don't need a plot for a great FPS. The gameplay is the main section of this review.

First off, there is no single player mode, only multiplayer, so this already makes it unique compared with Valve's other works. Training mode, perhaps, can be considered as single player mode, but that's really only for working up your skills for multiplayer mode. Originally, there were only six default areas to play in, but nowadays there is a grand total of thirty-five stages for all your comedic FPS action to take place in. Seven different game modes can be chosen from, ranging from capture the flag (or briefcase) to payload races to arena battles to even a medieval area. There are hundreds of servers to choose from and play in, all with their different mode and stage, so little variety is not a problem in this game.
A quick tip on choosing servers: it's highly recommended you choose a server with low "ping" - the time it takes to connect to a server - and even more recommended that you choose one with "Instaspawn", which will immediately respawn your character after you die. Pretty nifty! "Fast respawn" (these two terms are noted by the titles of the servers, as far as I know) is just as reliable, so long as you can bear to wait a second or two.

Now let's get stuck into the actual gameplay. You have a choice of nine individual classes of characters to choose from and fight with, all with their particular personalities and balanced battle statistics: the Scout, the Soldier, the Pyro, the Demoman, the Heavy, the Engineer, the Medic, the Sniper and the Spy. These characters are placed equally under three categories - Attack, Defence and Support - but all can be substituted for each others' roles as long as you know how to play. I'll give a brief description of what everyone can do:

The Scout is a fleet-footed, self-asserted individual who is mainly used in Capture the Flag modes being the fastest, and therefore the one more used for capturing the flag. Don't get him wrong though - do you have any idea about who you're messing with?
The Soldier is a daft veteran of who-knows-what war with a passion to kill those who happen to be in the way of his lethal rocket launcher. In one shot (or three, depending on class), he can explode his enemies and send their body parts splattering across the ground. He is, using an Internet/gaming term, a tank.
The Pyro, a mysterious and allegedly female arsonist, battles with a (rage-ensuing) flamethrower and sets everyone alight to win his/her kills... except, of course, when they pull out their axe and cut up everybody's limbs. People who use Pyro well have a straightforward process: run in, light people on fire, run away, rinse and repeat.
The Demoman, a Scottish alcoholic, is an all-round class to play as, as teaming up with anyone isn't a difficult option. His grenade launcher and sticky bomb launcher demolish any one who gets directly hit by them. Demomen, however, are mainly used for destroying enemy buildings, especially sentry guns.
The Heavy is a patriotic Russian who has a love for his precious minigun named Sascha and will rip apart anybody who dares touch her. He takes quite a few hits to take down being the largest class and is used mainly to powerhouse a team's way through the other's defensive barriers. Any Heavy player knows that they pair up well with the Medics.
The Engineer is a Western country man who builds sentries, dispensers and teleporters for the team's aid. He tends to either place his creations in very tactical positions for a more intelligent approach to battle or positions that will help him wipe out waves of enemies.
The Medic is a semi-psychotic German surgeon who, as you'd have guessed, heals players in need of health. With his Medi Gun, the Medic collects UberCharge - a source of medical power used to make him and the player the charge is being used on become invincible and more powerful for a determined amount of seconds. This is why the Medics usually team up with the Heavies in offensive tactics.
The Sniper is an Aussie weapons pro, used to pick off any particularly annoying enemies that are creating inconveniences. Snipers tend to hang out in hidden areas so they don't get spotted easily, and good snipers change their location every three or so kills.
The Spy is a French stealth expert that takes a sneaky approach to killing enemies rather than the usual obvious attacking scheme. Using his cloaking device or disguises to trick his opponents, he cuts off the enemies' players one by one with his butterfly knife or revolver. He can also be used to electrically sap an Engineer's machines.
This game has so much variety and creativity to it, it's almost impossible to pick which class to play as. The videos of the advertisement collection called "Meet the Team" has been posted on the TF2 Wiki, along with the official soundtrack too. Check them out!

The multiplayer mode is online, so you'll be playing against real-life human beings and not any badly programmed computer AI. Though with this comes some pretty awful lagging speeds, you learn to tolerate it and go hunting for better servers, which nine times out of ten you have success with. It's a great experience to play TF2 online, studying your opponents' different strategies to create your own particular style and try out different techniques of playing. If I had to describe Team Fortress 2 with one word, it would have to be unique, because not only is the game unique itself with its character classes and mode settings, but also because you make it more unique by creating (or expanding upon) your own FPS style and setting up everything to meet your standards. The witty individuality of TF2 is what makes it such a brilliant game.

Alongside all that fantastic gameplay, the visuals and music are both pretty impressive. The graphics depict a cartoony yet somehow realistic gore of defeating your enemy, with blood being splattered every which way direction. The areas are colourful and designed well, while the music is great as well, with a total of thirteen different tracks - nine official and four not - to hear in the game.

And also, if you have a Steam account, you've already got this game because Valve made it free to own. All the more reason to play it!

Although this game can sometimes be incredibly rage-ensuing with quick snipers, spawn campers and hackers, Team Fortress 2 is one of the most enjoyable games I've ever played, and, as I said in my last review, what makes a good game good is how fun it is. Any gamer, whether you're an FPS master or if you haven't gone near a shooter, will definitely like this game and what it has to offer. It gets ten thumbs out of ten from me - Valve created a masterpiece, and I really hope a third installment is made. Check it out, see what you opinion is on it, and I guarantee you'll enjoy yourself playing it.