If you don’t know, Team Fortress 2 is a wacky online first-person shooter game where you choose from a selection of nine colourful characters to defeat another team. I have personally sunk a ridiculous amount of time into this gem of a game, and what surprises me is how well it holds up all this time after its 2007 launch. Compared to the original Team Fortress Classic, there is still a feeling that you’re blasting your way through one of the largest online communities out there.
As
expected, Valve (the company behind Team
Fortress 2, the Half-Life
franchise and the Portal franchise)
have continued to ensure we spend Christmas glued to our office-chairs rather
than in the living room with our beloved families by giving us brand new
content. However, the content this year is perhaps baffling.
Valve
have finally addressed the issue of stickybomb-spammers, and there is the usual
selection of hats and costumes. But, surprisingly, there is also the inclusion
of a new game-mode, available to play in the ‘Beta Maps’ section. This
continues Valve’s recent trend of introducing new content in the Beta-section
for players to test and give feedback on before it’s introduced into the game
proper. This was used to develop the ‘Robot Destruction’ mode – which lacks
the fast-paced action of the other modes, but effectively pushes the cartoon
setting of the game into space.
But
now we have another new mode in the Beta Maps: ‘Mannpower.’ Rather than a new
map, this mode is merely several ‘Capture The Flag’ maps recycled with
superpowers and grappling-hooks. This may seem like a marked improvement, but
sadly it isn’t – and ‘Mannpower’ simply doesn’t work as a fun game. It’s
difficult to imagine how this mode could be salvaged, even with Valves proven
ability to work miracles.
 |
| Getting stuck on a wall. That happens a lot here. |
The
mode isn’t so much Beta as barely out of Alpha. The quality of the whole piece
is lower than the majority of fan-mods available, with a lighting engine and
animations for the grappling hook non-existent. The grappling hook itself barely
works, and is extremely awkward to use thanks to the hook being mapped to the
‘h’ key. Often I would send myself careening into a wall and become stuck, as
have many other players I’ve observed. Attempts to zip around the map have frequently
ground to a halt as I get stuck on a wall and have to wait for an enemy to put
me out of my misery.
I’m
also disappointed that Valve hasn’t created a new map that utilises the
grappling hook. The hook itself only serves to break the game, as when the
fiddly thing works it can shoot you across half the map. It’s as if every class
can sticky-jump/rocket jump, meaning the mechanic functions like ‘no-clip,’ and
only serves to exploit the flaws of the map rather than explore the
multi-levelled plains of the map.
 |
| And again. |
What’s
more, it’s a distraction. Most players seem uninterested in capturing the flag,
as they’re busy trying to zip around like they’re playing Just Cause. Escorting a glowing briefcase across the map seems
trivial compared to the ability to fly whenever you want to, and so a whole new
objective is required. Perhaps a scavenger-hunt that requires zipping to tough
spots on the map in order to reach the highest number of points before the time
limit runs out? (Although, that would require a functional grappling hook.)
Aside
from the grappling hook, the only other alteration in this mode is the ‘superpowers.’
Randomly lying around the map are various superpowers in the form of tokens.
Whilst better implemented than the grappling hook, these superpowers need
rebalancing. The vampire-power is relatively useless, as is the aiming-power –
but the regeneration power and the ‘haste’ power turns you into an unstoppable
machine, much to the annoyance of the opposing team. These superpowers also don’t
run out unless you die, so you’ll either be stuck with a power you don’t want
or you’ll be a god for the majority of the round. Giving each power a
time-limit would probably stop players hogging all the best powerups.
The
good news is that these rebalances are easily fixable. True, the superpowers feel
like rejects from a ‘Scream Fortress’ map, but I can definitely see them being
a nice addition to gameplay. The other problems listed require more than a
re-balance, however. Whether Valve continue with this new mode or not, it’s
certainly not going to leave beta anytime soon. Honestly, I think they would be
better off making ‘Prop Hunt’ an official mode.
