Pages

Monday, September 8, 2014

Multiplayer FPS Analysis: Team Fortress 2 (CTF, Turbine)

Back again with a quick Analysis of TF2's Capture the Flag Level, Turbine!

Turbine was one of the first community-made levels to be officially published/released by Valve. Yay!

Team Fortress 2 is an obscenely popular multiplayer FPS available for all consoles, but was originally created, and preferably played, on the PC. The game is comprised of many different level styles, some created by Valve, and some created by the community. There are eight different types of games (capture the flag, king of the hill, payload, etc.) but today I'll be talking about this Capture the Flag level in particular.

When you choose a level, you pick a team: red or blu. After you pick a team, you pick from one of the three classes, which are categorized into offensive, defensive, and support. In Offensive, there is: the scout, the soldier, and the pyro, in Defensive there is: the demoman, the heavy, and the engineer, and in support, there is the medic, the sniper, and the spy. You pick based on whatever your particular favorite playstyle is.


First of all, TF2 has a very basic UI. You have a health meter (in the bottom left corner) and slightly above that is a chat box that allows you to communicate with other players. In the bottom center is the number of "intelligence", or flags, each team has captured. There are two teams; red and blu. The blue side indicates the number of intelligence "blu" has captured, and the red side indicates the number red has captured. In the right bottom corner is your ammo and other things related to your weapons. On the top is the amount of time allotted for the rest of the game.

You move around using the mouse to aim your camera and WASD to move around. Space is jump, left click is shoot. You can press 1, 2, or 3 to switch weapons, or use your scrollwheel. I figured it out pretty quickly, having not played TF2 in a while.


The goal of the turbine map is to basically capture the other team's "intelligence", or flag. In order to do so, you must run into the other base, run into their suitcase, and run back to your "intelligence" location, or base, to capture it. However, you must do all this without being blown up by the other team, which is difficult.


The turbine map in particular is very simple. Each side is the exact same as the other (no variations, like some maps have), with the same vantage points and large area in the middle. Most of the blood is shed in the center, when one of the other team tries to take a brave stand and run over to the other side (see me pictured above).


Besides this, the entryway to the center room is protected by a temporary door, which opens when you get close to it. This is probably to help keep players from being sniped/immediately shot at when they walk down the stairs. It gives the player temporary cover so they aren't blown up immediately; just shortly after.


Each side also has a small ventilation shaft to sneak through. Unfortunately, this makes you an easy target for spies (one of the nine classes you can pick from), which I died to more than a couple of times.


The vent has three entrances/exits, one of which is a drop down into the intelligence room, and is unenterable after you jump down, and the other two entrances are right into the large room, and one right outside the two player's starting areas.


Littered around the level are plenty of ammo boxes and health chocolate bars (and halloween boxes? not sure if seasonal), which can be used strategically while you're fighting in mid or needing a quick recovery.

If you run low on health or ammo at any point, you can also run straight back to the spawn spot, where there are several lockers that will restore your ammo and health back to maximum.

Stay classy!







No comments:

Post a Comment