"Team Fortress 2" is slowly approaching its ten-year anniversary, as it was originally released on October 10, 2007. Despite the team-based shooter genre overflowing with competition, especially since the release of "Overwatch," Valve's popular free-to-play title continues to go strong.
A new update entitled "Jungle Inferno" is now available to download. This addition brings forth a handful of fresh content, including six new maps and a weapon upgrade for the Pyro class. All flamethrower weapons are improved with this release, although the priority is mostly for Pyro himself.
Maps
From the new maps released for "Team Fortress 2," only one is made by Valve themselves. "Mercenary Park" takes Saxton Hale's "Yeti Park" and adds a coat of fire to everything. The remaining maps are community-made and follow the same aesthetic as the developer's official release.
As mentioned earlier, Pyro is the true MVP of this update, receiving a few pretty cool items. One weapon is called "Dragon's Fury," which gets stronger with every consecutive hit. The other weapons are tactical in nature, offering new ways to handle mobs or providing a speed boost at the expense of firepower.
"Team Fortress 2" allows players to unlock these new items by taking part and completing in-game tasks. This update coincides with the start of a new campaign, bringing forth a slew of new challenges to complete and reward to collect.
Despite being such an old game, Valve's shooter is hardly showing its age.
A retrospective
"Team Fortress 2" is undoubtedly a successful game, but should someone entirely new to the series give it a try? "Overwatch" is hardly all that welcoming for noobs, and Valve's version is pretty much the same. Due to a lack of a proper in-game tutorial, new players are likely to struggle to come to grips with the flow of gameplay.
It would be perfect if each class had its own tutorial to make it more welcoming for those unaccustomed with team-based shooters.
There is an established fanbase, so anyone starting out is left with no choice but to jump in the deep end. There are even competitive leagues centered around the game, so it is taken very seriously.
"Team Fortress 2" is a sequel to a "Quake" mod released in 1996. The free-to-play shooter was bundled as part of the "The Orange Box," alongside "Half-Life 2" and "Portal," for its original release in 2007. With an aggregate score of 92 on Metacritic, this is one of the best multiplayer titles on the market.
