H'okay, let's start with the basics of this wonderful game. Team Fortress 2 is a team-based first person shooter game that runs on the PC (I heard the X-box version is bad, I do not advise you get that one). It's played always online with other people on your team or against you in various team-based games. If you're not the type of person who likes to play online with others, or if you don't even have internet, this is probably not your type of game. These various team-based games can vary from the typical Capture the Flag games, to Capture Point Games (Basically, teams fight each other seeing who can capture all of the Check Points before time runs out), Arena (Most Players living wins), Cart Races and more. What makes the game even more interesting, is the fact that it's Class based. What's that mean? Well, it means that a player can choose from 9 different unique classes in order to best stratagize with his team-mates in beating the enemy. This also means teams and games are always balanced (To an extent), unlike other games where everyone gets the same weapons leaving many people to just jump around and spam Rocket Launchers. And every class is useful in it's own way.All the classes are balanced that they each have their Primary Weapons, Secondary Weapons, and then their Close Combat weapon. This makes it so that even if each class plays differently, they still all get a fair advantage at killing each other. To make this EVEN better, every class gets 3 unlockable weapons (As patches and updates happen) That they can switch out with their initial weapons to design the perfect character. The 9 classes are also split up into 3 groups of 3, determining what they excel in. The 3 groups are Offense, Defense, and Support. Here we go:
Offensive Classes:
Okay, these classes are the ones used most to quickly clear out enemy buildings and Control Points, and cause quite a bit of damage on the way. All three are deadly if used properly, but are all quite different when contrasted.
The Scout:
The scout is the fastest of all of the classes, able to use their speed to always be the first into an area where they can quickly shoot off a few rounds of their scattergun and then dash away. The scattergun's wide-blast radius makes it a very useful gun for a quick moving character. You can shoot inaccurately due to your dashing but still land hits on your opponents, which is great for driving them back, not to mention the ammount of damage you can do if you get close enough. To make it even better Scouts can double jump allowing them to reach higher areas quicker than anyone else, which makes them a great infiltrating class
Starting Weapons: Scattergun, Handgun, Baseball Bat
Unlockable Weapons: Force-a-nature, Bonk! Atomic Punch, The Sand-bag
The Soldier
The soldier is the most basic yet ideal attacking class. Their weapons are made to be able to send optimum damage at a range, and at close fire allowing them to be a very good offense class. With substantial health and a Rocket Launcher, the Soldier is able to fire rockets about making it very difficult for enemies to maneuver with rockets everywhere. Not to mention the fact that if a Soldier fires a rocket at your feet, you get sent flying into the air, which is a tactic he can even use on himself to move through fields quickly. Then just to help them out more, they also get a shotgun which can dish out decent damage at close range.
Starting Weapons: Rocket Launcher, Shotgun, Shovel
Unlockable Weapons: Yet to be Added
The Pyro
The Pyro is a personal favorite of mine, since they're the most unique of the Offensive classes. Just as the name entails the Pyro is a guy who runs around with a flamethrower lighting everyone on fire. Though when put at a distance they can easily be taken out, a Pyro has the advantage of running into a room, dousing everyone in fire, and then getting out while they all burn to death. Being sneaky is the key to a good pyro, where you can sneak up on enemies, and then set them a-light before they even realize it, and then put them out with your trusty Firefighter Axe. This combo makes the Pyro one of the best room clearers, and close quarter classes.
Starting Weapons: Flamethrower, Shotgun, Ax
Unlockable Weapons: The Back-burner, The Flaregun, The Axtinguisher
Defensive Classes:
Defense classes are the best at exactly what it says, defense. These guys can make it very difficult for an enemy player to infiltrate a base or even get close to a control point. But, that doesn't mean they can't be deadly when switched to offense, in fact if used right these classes can be used for either.
Demo-Man
I'm not well versed in the art of the Demo-Man, since I don't really play him. However I've been killed by enough Demo-men that I know how useful this class is. The Demo-man, is the bomb guy. He's the one that makes everything explode. He has a grenade launcher that can lob explosives in an arc at enemies at a distance that also bounce around the area making it hard for the opponent to maneuver, allowing for him to also spam them in a tight area stopping movement. What makes it better, is then he can fire his Sticky Bombs, grenades he can place around doorways and floors, that once you're free to move, explode once he triggers them (By right clicking). The long range of the guns make it so that most of the time, you've exploded before you even see him
Starting Weapons: Grenade Launcher, Sticky Bomb Launcher, Beer Bottle
Unlockable Weapons: Yet to be added
The Heavy
This is Heavy Weapons guy. He's a big guy, with a big gun, and a lot of health. When healed by a medic the Heavy can go up to 450 health making him hard to kill, especially with the fact that if he see's you, that mean's he's firing is very very large mini-gun, which can effectively kill anyone he can get in his sights, especially if they're bunched together. At a distance the gun is good at holding enemies at bay, though it doesn't do a lot of lethal damage, however at mid-range the gun can slaughter almost anyone who isn't smart enough to try to strafe around the big guy. This class I consider to be the most Offensive of the Defense classes, because of how much damage this guy can really do.
Starting Weapons: Mini-gun, Shotgun, Fists
Unlockable Weapons: Natascha, The Sandwhich, The Killing Gloves of Boxing
The Engineer
This class was designed with defense in mind, and that's just what he does. Sure The Engineer only has basic weapons like the Shotgun or Handgun, but attacking is not where he specializes. The Engineer is there, to build guns, lots of guns. The engineer has the funny little ability to be able to pick up scrapped weapons and materials and use it to build objects. Objects such as Sentry Guns, Dispensers, and Teleporters. Sentry guns once upgraded enough, can make it extremely difficult to capture anything, since right when you get into view they launch rockets at you and just make your day unpleasant. Dispensers are even more troublesome with the fact that the Engineers teammates can just run to them to become healed, and get ammo. All this makes it obvious that an Engineer will usually set up near a capture point and defend it better than anyone else.
Starting Weapons: Shotgun, Handgun, Wrench, Toolbox, Demolisher (Last 2 are gadgets not weapons)
Unlockable Weapons: Yet to be added
Support Classes:
When you don't fit in with everyone else, this is where they put you. Though they do not excel at frontal attacks or defending a control point, these classes all have special ways of being able to tip the scales to their teams favor.
The Medic
Another favorite class of mine, The medic is the healer, able to follow classes around with his Medigun, and heal them from a few feet away, even putting fires out. He's usually seen around Heavies, since with their health already being insanely high, being constantly healed makes them very hard to kill. To make that worse, once the medic heals enough with his Medigun, he can unleash what's known as an Ubercharge. This makes the person he's focusing the beam on Invulnerable for a short period of time. Combining that with a Heavy who charges into a small room, can almost completely wipe out everyone there who is not smart enough to run.
Starting Weapons: Syringe Gun, Medigun, Bone Saw
Unlockable Weapons: The Blutsauger, The Kritzkrieg, The Ubersaw
The Sniper
Just like any other game, The Sniper is that guy who is hiding in a corner somewhere, shooting you repeatedly. The sniper is meant to be stealthy and well hidden, so they can shoot you before they get spotted. Headshots are an instant-kill, and when his shot is fully charged it does 3x the damage a normal shot does. But the one-shot reload of the gun makes it obviously not an offensive attack weapon. If someone does get too close the Sniper has the SMG which can spray bullets wide enough to cause enemies to back off. Though I prefer the SMG, most people switch it out for the unlockable, Jarate, which is just a one shot jar of piss that disorients opponents and puts out fires.
Starting Weapons: Sniper Rifle, SMG, Kukiri
Unlockable Weapons: The Huntsman, Jarate, The Razorback
The Spy
The sneaky bastard of the game. The man who makes you think he's on your side, and then stabs you in the back and takes your mother to dinner. This is the spy. This stealth based class excels at sneaking up behind opponents and then killing them, usually in one shot. They're greatest weapon is the fact that they can disguise themselves as an enemy class, allowing them to infiltrate easily and then kill, everyone. Pyros can ignite disguised spies on fire, even spies that are using their cloaking devices. But if there are no Pyros around, it can be very difficult to tell your teammates apart from a spy. This makes it dangerous to even turn your back to a supposed teammate, since if it's a spy, that gives him a large target for a one-hit backstab.
Starting Weapons: Revolver, Butterfly Knife, Cloaking Device
Unlockable Weapons: The Ambassador, Cloak and Dagger, Dead Ringer
These are the basics of each class, which I think shows that the game has a whole bunch of variety among even just the classes. I wish I could hype it up a bit more, but it's one of those games that after hearing about the basics like this, you really have to test it out for yourself, to feel how it plays. It's not a difficult game to get either, just go to Steam.com and register a steam acount (For free), and then you can download that game and any other steam game you would want to play, and play them on any computer that has steam. It's a very useful system.
Now, before I leave you feeling maybe a bit dissatisfied, or maybe a little more interested, I'm going to grace you with a few of the best "Meet the Class" videos. Maybe these will peak your interests.
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