- Joined
- Mar 18, 2003
- Messages
- 17,746
- Reaction score
- 6
To the modern FPS gamer, whose idea of a great multiplayer experience is wedging
their character between a high-definition bump-mapped muddy floor and a wall of
realistic anti-aliased sandbags as bullets fly past, Team Fortress must sound like
a homosexual intercourse innuendo. ?I squeezed in through the back entrance before
unleashing all of my firepower on his sorry ass!? ?I was right on him, charging
up my shot, but he was going too fast and I fired my load too soon!? ?This big,
burly engineer jumped on me and whipped out his wrench!? [br]
[br]
Little do they know, the original Team Fortress (TF) and the Valve-acquired Team
Fortress Classic (TFC) largely inspired many of the realistic, team-based games
we play today. Battlefield 2 and Enemy Territory: Quake Wars can both trace their
heritage all the way back to these games, which introduced us to the perverse concept
of stealing enemy flags and multiple team classes. This classic gameplay is what
Fortress Forever, the latest Half-Life 2 mod, is trying to keep alive by upgrading
TFC to the Source engine. [br]
[br]
So the relationship between the Team Fortress games should look something like this
horizontal family tree: [br]
[br]
<div align="center">
http://www.halflife2.net/images/features/review_FF1_tf_tree.jpg" alt ></div>
[br]
Don?t ask me how Heavy Weapon Guys managed to forge a family within a male-orientated
fighting force. Suddenly the aforementioned innuendos seem so much more appropriate?
[br]
[br]
Ahem. Fortress Forever isn?t a straight port of TFC, however. The gameplay is slightly
faster paced in a nod to the original Quake mod, and certain classes have been tweaked
(most notably, the engineer?s teleports have been axed). All nine classes remain;
the soldier, HWG and demoman are the hard hitters, while the engineer, pyro and
sniper are best suited for defence and the spy and scout are ideal infiltrators.
In practice it?s much more complex, as they all have multiple roles ? if you don?t
already know about them it would be best to check out the
[url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Team_Fortress_Classic" ]TFC
Wikipedia page[/url]. In essence, this mod is trying to preserve the sacred gameplay
of TFC before Valve?s soon-to-be-released TF2 comes along and messes everything
up for the old gaming veterans. It?s important, therefore, not to compare Fortress
Forever to TF2 ? as they are both trying to be very different games. The former
is firmly rooted in the past, whilst the latter looks to the future. [br]
[br]
While ?Capture The Flag? is the main game mode, Fortress Forever also inherits a
number of attack-and-defend maps from its predecessor, where the team on offence
must penetrate the enemy base and plunge their erect flag into the capture point.
This must be repeated multiple times to render the enemy sore and defeated. What?
Stop giving me that look. If that doesn?t stimulate your (seriously, stop it) interest,
There are a few extra map types including a ?hunted-style? escort mission (which
involves Winston Churchill and florescent yellow assassins). Maps are painstakingly
faithful to their TFC counterparts, and there are a total of 20 included in this
build. So, time to crack out the Red Bull and unplug the phone? Not quite. While
the eleven CTF maps are joyful in their simplicity, the others often feel stale
and dated. For instance, while Dustbowl is a classic map, traversing its linear
pathways and constantly getting gibbed by grenade spam doesn?t quite feel the same
when you?ve parachuted behind enemy lines from your friend?s helicopter in Battlefield
2. This is not to say that Fortress Forever is obsolete ? just that newer players
may fail to appreciate it. [br]
[br]
Visually, Fortress Forever is part of the plethora of realistic-looking Source mods
that are plastered in high-res textures in an attempt to be ?cool? and ?sophisticated?.
While most mods can get away with this, FF doesn?t quite pull it off. Sure, if you
browse through their media library the models, weapons and maps look great individually.
Professional, even. But when you?re in the thick of battle and you see a perfectly-proportioned
military soldier flung fifty feet into the air by a rocket launcher, only to fall
on the roof of a wild-west saloon and carry on shooting, your eyebrow may raise
quizzically. Unless you can?t move your eyebrows individually, in which case you
may stroke your chin instead. What I?m trying to say is that there isn?t any overall
art direction ? the characters are rehashes of the uninspired TFC originals, and
lack diversity. There isn?t much to distinguish a spy from a soldier if they?re
more than a few metres away, and on certain models it can even be quite hard to
tell what team they?re on. It?s also reasonable to wonder why such a light-hearted,
unrealistic game has such gritty graphics ? bases are covered in a layer of dirt
and grime, while weapons look as if they could be found in a real American gun store.
Not to mention that many of the maps feel completely out of place ? Cornfield takes
place in City 17, Citadel and all, while Monkey is positioned within some disused
jungle ruins. The only time when the game looks [i]right[/i] is on the generic-looking
grey maps, because the generic-looking classes fit right in. [br]
[br]
Now let?s talk about feeling. Not the kind of feeling that goes on when two heavy
weapons guys get locked in a hotel room together, but the way the game plays. Before
I go into criticism mode, I want to state very clearly: FORTRESS FOREVER PLAYS WONDERFULLY.
There are barely any glitches, the game runs as smoothly as a Valve game and everything
is polished so well you can see your enemies die twice; once for real, and once
in this shiny game?s reflection. Inevitably however, it isn?t perfect. Many of the
weapons feel weak and unsatisfying. Sure, the nailgun is [i]supposed[/i] to feel
like you?re sprinkling household tools from a tube, but the sniper rifle? The pathetic
sound effect and significant lack of recoil makes it seem like a scoped pistol.
With the notable exceptions of the HWG?s minigun and the super shotgun, this applies
to pretty much all of the weapons in the game. The normal shotgun doesn?t even have
a reload animation. Seeing as modellers and texturers have put a huge amount of
effort into making these guns, you?d expect them to be given an equal amount of
attention when they?re sewn into the game. Though, to be fair, part of the problem
is the Source engine itself. It?s no coincidence that the majority of Half-Life
2 mods end up with weapons which seem surprisingly similar to the infamous HL2 SMG,
which undoubtedly fires paperclips. The Source engine may also intimidate TFC veterans
? Fortress Forever will [i]never[/i] feel identical to TFC so long as the physics,
movement and effects are all dictated by Half-Life 1?s hip new younger brother.
I can?t help but wonder whether Fortress Forever would be better suited to one of
the Unreal engines. [br]
[br]
Fortress Forever is a brilliantly made, well polished Half-Life 2 modification.
However, part of the reason why this review has been so overbearingly negative is
because at this moment in time, Fortress Forever needs to be a [i]godsend[/i]. With
veterans stubbornly sticking to TFC, and new players inevitably drawn to TF2, you
have to wonder if there?s any room for Fortress Forever. Were there no competing
Team Fortress games I would slap a 9/10 sticker on this mod and move on, but in
the current context that wouldn?t be particularly helpful. Instead, I?ll say this.
If you?ve played TFC and you like bunnyhopping and grenade spamming, try Fortress
Forever out. See if you like it. You might be pleasantly surprised, but don?t expect
to delete good ol? TFC from your Steam list just yet. On the other hand, if you?re
new to the world of Team Fortress, just buy the Orange Box. Having played in the
beta I can tell you that Team Fortress 2 is a bloody brilliant game, and as long
as you?re not interested in training in the ancient oriental art of jumping like
a rabbit (I?m sure most people reading this review don?t even know what I [i]mean[/i]
by that), then TF2 is a far superior game to both Team Fortress Classic and Fortress
Forever.
their character between a high-definition bump-mapped muddy floor and a wall of
realistic anti-aliased sandbags as bullets fly past, Team Fortress must sound like
a homosexual intercourse innuendo. ?I squeezed in through the back entrance before
unleashing all of my firepower on his sorry ass!? ?I was right on him, charging
up my shot, but he was going too fast and I fired my load too soon!? ?This big,
burly engineer jumped on me and whipped out his wrench!? [br]
[br]
Little do they know, the original Team Fortress (TF) and the Valve-acquired Team
Fortress Classic (TFC) largely inspired many of the realistic, team-based games
we play today. Battlefield 2 and Enemy Territory: Quake Wars can both trace their
heritage all the way back to these games, which introduced us to the perverse concept
of stealing enemy flags and multiple team classes. This classic gameplay is what
Fortress Forever, the latest Half-Life 2 mod, is trying to keep alive by upgrading
TFC to the Source engine. [br]
[br]
So the relationship between the Team Fortress games should look something like this
horizontal family tree: [br]
[br]
<div align="center">
http://www.halflife2.net/images/features/review_FF1_tf_tree.jpg" alt ></div>
[br]
Don?t ask me how Heavy Weapon Guys managed to forge a family within a male-orientated
fighting force. Suddenly the aforementioned innuendos seem so much more appropriate?
[br]
[br]
Ahem. Fortress Forever isn?t a straight port of TFC, however. The gameplay is slightly
faster paced in a nod to the original Quake mod, and certain classes have been tweaked
(most notably, the engineer?s teleports have been axed). All nine classes remain;
the soldier, HWG and demoman are the hard hitters, while the engineer, pyro and
sniper are best suited for defence and the spy and scout are ideal infiltrators.
In practice it?s much more complex, as they all have multiple roles ? if you don?t
already know about them it would be best to check out the
[url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Team_Fortress_Classic" ]TFC
Wikipedia page[/url]. In essence, this mod is trying to preserve the sacred gameplay
of TFC before Valve?s soon-to-be-released TF2 comes along and messes everything
up for the old gaming veterans. It?s important, therefore, not to compare Fortress
Forever to TF2 ? as they are both trying to be very different games. The former
is firmly rooted in the past, whilst the latter looks to the future. [br]
[br]
While ?Capture The Flag? is the main game mode, Fortress Forever also inherits a
number of attack-and-defend maps from its predecessor, where the team on offence
must penetrate the enemy base and plunge their erect flag into the capture point.
This must be repeated multiple times to render the enemy sore and defeated. What?
Stop giving me that look. If that doesn?t stimulate your (seriously, stop it) interest,
There are a few extra map types including a ?hunted-style? escort mission (which
involves Winston Churchill and florescent yellow assassins). Maps are painstakingly
faithful to their TFC counterparts, and there are a total of 20 included in this
build. So, time to crack out the Red Bull and unplug the phone? Not quite. While
the eleven CTF maps are joyful in their simplicity, the others often feel stale
and dated. For instance, while Dustbowl is a classic map, traversing its linear
pathways and constantly getting gibbed by grenade spam doesn?t quite feel the same
when you?ve parachuted behind enemy lines from your friend?s helicopter in Battlefield
2. This is not to say that Fortress Forever is obsolete ? just that newer players
may fail to appreciate it. [br]
[br]
Visually, Fortress Forever is part of the plethora of realistic-looking Source mods
that are plastered in high-res textures in an attempt to be ?cool? and ?sophisticated?.
While most mods can get away with this, FF doesn?t quite pull it off. Sure, if you
browse through their media library the models, weapons and maps look great individually.
Professional, even. But when you?re in the thick of battle and you see a perfectly-proportioned
military soldier flung fifty feet into the air by a rocket launcher, only to fall
on the roof of a wild-west saloon and carry on shooting, your eyebrow may raise
quizzically. Unless you can?t move your eyebrows individually, in which case you
may stroke your chin instead. What I?m trying to say is that there isn?t any overall
art direction ? the characters are rehashes of the uninspired TFC originals, and
lack diversity. There isn?t much to distinguish a spy from a soldier if they?re
more than a few metres away, and on certain models it can even be quite hard to
tell what team they?re on. It?s also reasonable to wonder why such a light-hearted,
unrealistic game has such gritty graphics ? bases are covered in a layer of dirt
and grime, while weapons look as if they could be found in a real American gun store.
Not to mention that many of the maps feel completely out of place ? Cornfield takes
place in City 17, Citadel and all, while Monkey is positioned within some disused
jungle ruins. The only time when the game looks [i]right[/i] is on the generic-looking
grey maps, because the generic-looking classes fit right in. [br]
[br]
Now let?s talk about feeling. Not the kind of feeling that goes on when two heavy
weapons guys get locked in a hotel room together, but the way the game plays. Before
I go into criticism mode, I want to state very clearly: FORTRESS FOREVER PLAYS WONDERFULLY.
There are barely any glitches, the game runs as smoothly as a Valve game and everything
is polished so well you can see your enemies die twice; once for real, and once
in this shiny game?s reflection. Inevitably however, it isn?t perfect. Many of the
weapons feel weak and unsatisfying. Sure, the nailgun is [i]supposed[/i] to feel
like you?re sprinkling household tools from a tube, but the sniper rifle? The pathetic
sound effect and significant lack of recoil makes it seem like a scoped pistol.
With the notable exceptions of the HWG?s minigun and the super shotgun, this applies
to pretty much all of the weapons in the game. The normal shotgun doesn?t even have
a reload animation. Seeing as modellers and texturers have put a huge amount of
effort into making these guns, you?d expect them to be given an equal amount of
attention when they?re sewn into the game. Though, to be fair, part of the problem
is the Source engine itself. It?s no coincidence that the majority of Half-Life
2 mods end up with weapons which seem surprisingly similar to the infamous HL2 SMG,
which undoubtedly fires paperclips. The Source engine may also intimidate TFC veterans
? Fortress Forever will [i]never[/i] feel identical to TFC so long as the physics,
movement and effects are all dictated by Half-Life 1?s hip new younger brother.
I can?t help but wonder whether Fortress Forever would be better suited to one of
the Unreal engines. [br]
[br]
Fortress Forever is a brilliantly made, well polished Half-Life 2 modification.
However, part of the reason why this review has been so overbearingly negative is
because at this moment in time, Fortress Forever needs to be a [i]godsend[/i]. With
veterans stubbornly sticking to TFC, and new players inevitably drawn to TF2, you
have to wonder if there?s any room for Fortress Forever. Were there no competing
Team Fortress games I would slap a 9/10 sticker on this mod and move on, but in
the current context that wouldn?t be particularly helpful. Instead, I?ll say this.
If you?ve played TFC and you like bunnyhopping and grenade spamming, try Fortress
Forever out. See if you like it. You might be pleasantly surprised, but don?t expect
to delete good ol? TFC from your Steam list just yet. On the other hand, if you?re
new to the world of Team Fortress, just buy the Orange Box. Having played in the
beta I can tell you that Team Fortress 2 is a bloody brilliant game, and as long
as you?re not interested in training in the ancient oriental art of jumping like
a rabbit (I?m sure most people reading this review don?t even know what I [i]mean[/i]
by that), then TF2 is a far superior game to both Team Fortress Classic and Fortress
Forever.
