New Team Fortress 2 Weapons, Map
It's hard to imagine Team Fortress 2 getting much better (though I did give the game a non-perfect 9.5 out of 10 in my review), but Valve introduced a few major additions to its celebrated multiplayer shooter Tuesday night in San Francisco.
At a special TF2 theme party at Blondie's Bar and No Grill (nice name), Valve gathered members of the press to check out a brand new map for the game, dubbed Gold Rush, as well as a potentially revolutionary "Unique Item System" that gives each player class upgradeable weapons. And lastly, Valve offered the first showing of the extremely funny "Meet the Scout" video. The bar was turned into something that resembled a mini-LAN party, with 20 Intel-based PCs (running Nvidia GeForce 8800 GTS cards), lots of drinks and a seemingly endless number of pizzas. And plenty of TF2, of course.
Valve gave attendees a chance to play Gold Rush and try out the new weapons at the Team Fortress 2 bash.
The Gold Rush map was loaded up on the PCs, and despite some power issues that knocked out around half of the computers, media members made the rounds on the new map. In appearance and design, Gold Rush is most similar to the Dustbowl. But instead of being a control point or capture-the-flag-style map, Gold Rush comes with a totally new gameplay style called "Payload" and is split into three captures zone. The Blu team must move the bomb payload on the train tracks through the three zones until it reaches the final capture point and blows up the Red team. The trick is that Blu players must be standing near the bomb to keep it moving through the map, and the more players that stand near it, the faster it moves. However, if no Blu team members are standing near the bomb after 30 seconds, it will begin to roll backward.
The Gold Rush map is similar to the Dustbowl but it introduces a new style of gameplay called Payload.
Valve said Gold Rush and Payload were designed to emphasize teamwork and a variety of strategies and quick thinking. It didn't take long to see that Gold Rush was quite different from other maps. First, the Red team has to be able to adjust its defense approach on the fly depending on how quickly the bomb is being moved and which capture zone it's in. Some parts of the map feature wide-open environments while the middle of the map contains a couple of narrow tunnels that serve as daunting choke points. Similarly, the Blu team must be able to make use of different classes at different points on the map. After playing Gold Rush for several hours, I think that the action-heavy map will be both challenging and entertaining for TF2 players.
A glimpse of the forthcoming Gold Rush map.
The biggest change unveiled Tuesday night was the Unique Item System, which works by giving each class three additional upgradeable weapons that players can unlock through class-specific achievements. Valve offered a glimpse of the UIS Tuesday night with the Medic, who gets three new weapons including:
- "The Blutsauger": a new Syringe Gun that comes with a catch - you can no longer score critical hits against enemies. However, players can use the Blutsauger to draw health from opponents every time a syringe hits.
- "The Critzcrieg": a new Medigun that uses its Ubercharge in a different way - instead of making the player invulnerable, it will allow him or her to fire 100 percent critical shots.
- "The Ubersaw": a new Bonesaw that will take damage done in melee attacks and convert it directly to an Uber-charge. Four hits with the Ubersaw will fully charge either Medigun model.
The Ubersaw absorbs damage done in melee attacks and converts it to energy for the Medigun.
The UIS weapons will be unlocked through a variety of new achievements for each class. If a player reaches 12 Medic achievements, he or she will receive the Blutsauger, while another 12 will unlock the Critzcrieg and the last 12 will deliver the Ubersaw. Some of the new achievements are colorful in both title and nature. For example, the "Midwife Crisis" requires players to heal an Engineer that's building or repairing a Sentry gun under enemy fire; "Family Practice" entails Uber-charging 10 of your Steam community friends; and "Medical Intervention" requires a Medic to heal and save a falling teammate in mid air before he or she dies on impact.
Instead of the Medic's three original weapons, players can achieve the three upgradeable weapons by completing 36 new achievements.
Some of these achievements are imposing and will take some time to complete. But Valve designer and Team Fortress 2 director Robin Walker said the idea is to encourage gamers to play the Medic more, which is currently the least-played class on TF2. "It's funny, because the Medic is the least-played class but he's so valuable and any good team has to have at least one good medic," Walker said. "They're so valuable, but everyone always seems to want someone else to play them."
To that end, Valve has even added the "Play Doctor" achievement that is awarded when a player on a team with no Medics is the first to switch classes after a teammate calls for a Medic and heals 500 health points. And with the new unlockable UIS weapons, the Medic can be played as a more formidable offensive class.
"We wanted to make the Medic more of a frontline class rather than being stuck in a support role behind the action. The problem with a support class is that the skill bar isn't very high; the difference between a good Medic and an average Medic isn't all that great," Walker said. "But if you've played with someone who's great at Medic, then you know that they almost have a sixth sense and know exactly where to be and where to look at all times. Now with the new weapons, there will be more variety in how the Medic can be played."
The Medic is just the first class to receive the UIS. Valve said more upgrades are coming soon.
Walker said Gold Rush and the UIS update for the Medic will be available soon. He also said gamers can expect more UIS additions for the other classes soon after the Medic's makes its debut. "We're going to start pumping these out quickly, as fast as we can," he said.
So what's the next class to get a UIS makeover? Walker said it's a good bet that the Pyro will be next. "The Pyro had some problems when we initially shipped [such as doling out points for lighting enemies on fire instead of just killing them], but most of them have been solved," Walker said. "Now we want to focus on people's issues with the Pyro being a little underpowered."
Stay tuned for more news on Valve's forthcoming Team Fortress 2 update.
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