Fields of battle

Each map comes with a handy introductory video.

Team Fortress 2 has only six maps, all set to allow a maximum of 24 players in two teams. Dustbowl, Well and 2Fort are tweaked remakes of Team Fortress Classic maps, while Granary, Gravel Pit and Hydro are completely new designs. Each map is introduced with a short film clip that describes the unique elements of gameplay.

2Fort is the only Capture The Flag map, with a briefcase full of intelligence documents acting as the flag. The geometry is almost identical to the original from way back - the only changes I could see in addition to all the eye candy is the new bridge that now includes a roof to protect runners from sniper fire, and the switching of the basement lift to a set of stairs. Both changes are clearly made in the name of fun and playability, and the map plays just like in the old days.

Hydro on the other hand is the only Territorial Control Point map - a set of six areas, with two of them in play at any one time. Both sides are attacking and defending at the same time, and capturing the enemy control point moves the winning team forward on the overall map for the next round. Initially Hydro feels a bit complex, and in some ways this map feels like it could use 32 players to fill it up. Hydro would probably play a lot better in proper pre-arranged matches with each player doing a pre-set job. In public servers it's hard to keep enough people on the offense while still providing a good multi-class defense - often a single Scout or Spy slips through the general bloodbath in the middle, offs the token defense and caps the control point before anyone can stop him.

Combat in Team Fortress 2 is messy business - plenty of loose limbs around.

The Killcam points out the bits of your remains that happen to end up in the shot.

The rest of the maps are all Control Point maps. On two of them, Dustbowl and Gravel Pit, teams take turns in just defending or attacking - one side protects it's control points while the other team tries to capture them. Captured points are locked to the attacking team, and the defense has to fall back to cover the next point that just opened for attack. Gravel Pit mixes things with three Control Points - A and B are open to attack when the round starts, and once both are captured, C opens for capture. This forces the defenders to split their forces, and concentrated assault on just one Control Point tends to create imbalanced matchups, leading to quick loss of the first Control Point. After that the rest of the map plays pretty much like Dustbowl.

Granary and Well are also Control Point maps, but here both sides attack and defend at the same time. When the round starts, both teams own two locked control points, and the remaining central point is up for grabs. Once it's captured, the two front line points are always unlocked for a tug-of-war where one side tries to end up with all five control points. Both of these maps are designed to be geometrically as even as possible for both sides, and also play best with proper pre-arranged teams or random gatherings of more skilled players. In public servers the problem with simultaneous attack and defense tends to rear it's head - someone slips through and caps a point before the main furball duking it out even notices.

Going for gold

After your remains have been splattered all over, it's good to reflect on the bright side of things.

Valve has nicely ported the idea of achievements to the whole set of games included in the Orange Box to the PC. Just like on the Xbox 360, you get little bits of bragging rights by completing certain feats during play. Some come off almost by accident, some take considerable effort to complete. In addition to the achievements, Team Fortress 2 keeps accurate statistics of just about everything you do in the game. In addition to providing statistics on the loading screens, this data is used to occasionally brighten your day when you are blown to bits.

All the statistics are also available using the new Steam community features, offering a great way to compare your records with your friends. This adds a nice element of persistent competition to an otherwise non-persistent game. Some fansites have also begun accumulating their own databases of player statistics, and all this together with the usual Source engine support for competitive play point to a bright future for Team Fortress 2 as serious competition game.