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A great multiplayer add-on for one of the best
FPS's ever!
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Review by Leon
I'm afraid I was a bit slow to jump on
the Half Life band wagon. While my friends were coming
into work each morning complaining that they had only
had two hours sleep due to this game called "Half
Life", I wasn't too concerned. You see, I was
perfectly happy in my world of Red Alert and Warcraft
II. First Person Shooters were for the non-thinking
gamers ... so I thought.
It wasn't until recently when I became
the proud owner of a custom built Pentium III with cable
internet connection, that I downloaded myself the Half
Life Uplink demo ... the second the download had
completed, my gaming life had changed forever, and for
the better!
I drooled at the slick graphics, the way
the guards chatted with me, the abuse I received from
the Scientists! I found the sound to be captivating,
finding my heart beat raise each time I turned a corner,
trying to avoid the deadly military units scattered
around.
Once I had finished the demo (three
times - on easy, medium and hard! - I couldn't get
enough of it) I marched down to the local store and
bought the Half-Life generations pack (contained the
original game, Team Fortress, Counter-Strike and
Opposing Force). I installed the Half Life Game Of The
Year Edition, and was then informed an update was
available from the internet ... would I like to download
it?? OK I clicked, and there, with the click of a
button, went my sleep for the next 4 weeks!
You see, little did I know, that this
"update" actually installed the Team Fortress
Classic add-on. Before playing the Half Life single
player game, I was curious about the multiplayer side of
TFC. So, I entered a game, you know, just to see what it
was like....
The first thing that grabbed me was the
chaos I was witnessing behind my class selection screen
... I could see people running around, killing each
other, grenades exploding ... big guys with miniguns (HWGuys)
, medics, soldiers ... I was in heaven! But first, my
choice of class ... hmmm, Soldiers seemed to plain,
HWGuys too blast now-think later, scout ... who wants to
be a scout! ... ahh, the sniper! Perfect! So, I selected
the Sniper, and was thrown into this frenzied, chaotic
battle (the level at the time was 2Fort).
The graphics and sound were as
impressive as the demo I played (as expected), but I
could never have anticipated the enjoyment and self
satisfaction gained from downing someone on the opposite
side of the map with a head shot, knowing that somewhere
in the world, someone is sat in front of a monitor
cursing your name!. Team Fortress comes into its own
when you begin the team play though. When you see your
scout running into a head on collision with a HWGuy ...
you can picture the real life player behind this hulk of
a character grinning in evil anticipation of this poor
scouts death. A quick charge of the "red dot"
(the targeting laser on the sniper rifle) and POP!,
HWGuy down, your scout has a free run to the enemies
flag!! What had me slapping my head with outbursts of
DOH! was that after hours of playing, I realized that by
clicking the right mouse button, you activated the
snipers special skill (vision zooms in sniper-scope
style, making targeting 500 times easier!) ... all
together now, DOH!
I have played each class, and all have
their own strengths and weaknesses. For example, the
HWGuy has awesome fire power and amour, but moves with
the finesse and speed of Professor Klump from the Nutty
Professor!! Where as the scout is the quickest of the
classes, but has little in the way of weapons and amour.
Another of my favorites is the Spy, a character which
lets you take on the appearance of any class (friendly
or foe), enabling you to sneak up behind an unsuspecting
enemy and gain an instant kill with a quick stab in the
back! Ouch! You also have Medics (can heal his own team,
and poison enemies) and Engineers (can built
sentry-guns).
If you haven't played Half Life, either
single or multi player - then I suggest you go and but
it right now! If you have played it, then I suggest you
play it again ... right now! Basically, I loved this
game. It is well made, with few bugs, and has a vast
on-line community which is constantly coming up with new
maps and mods. If I had one criticism, then maybe it is
a little repetitive ... or maybe that is just my biased
opinion after 4 weeks of constant, non-stop play?
Conclusion:
| GRAPHICS |
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| SOUND |
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| GAME PLAY |
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| REPLAY VALUE |
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| OVERALL |
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Final Comments
Awesome game, with long lasting appeal
due to new mods and maps being produced almost every
day.
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