In the midst of a great gaming event comes another. We’re here at the Leipzig Games Convention in Germany, where Valve is demoing the latest version of Half-Life 2 for Xbox 360.
The bumper next-generation package that will eventually retail under the guise of Half-Life 2: Episode 2 will contain Half-Life 2, the first PC mission pack Episode One, plus the new Episode 2 single-player game Portals AND Team Fortress 2 – sequel to possibly the finest multiplayer first-person shooters of all time. This is quite a lot to take on board all at once. We needed to grab ourselves a chair.
It was a new trailer for Team Fortress 2 providing the focus for Leipzig, which proved to be a master class in multiplayer game design. Its genius is the clearly defined roles of the several classes involved, apparent from a brilliantly choreographed display that showed how a typical battle might pan out.
Valve, the creative team famously responsible for the Half-Life saga, talked us through the demo beginning with a squad of soldiers on the receiving end of an Engineer’s rocket-launcher, and then further brought down to size by a chain gun wielded by the Heavy class. Clearly tackling these guys head on is not the solution, as a Sniper’s shot to immobilise Mr Chain Gun cleverly proved. This would’ve made our Sniper very clever indeed had he seen the Spy coming to stab him in the back. Okay, that would’ve been hard given the Spy’s invisibility up until that point.
Scouts are fast on their feet, dodging spectacularly though hails of bullets. Demoman can flush you out of the deepest hiding place with a barrage of explosives. Although you wouldn’t think so from their early display of ineptitude, even Soldiers have their day using the art of rocket-jumping to propel them high into the air onto ledges or through windows – an amazing short-cut unavailable to other classes.
Absolutely stunning! We needed a slap on the face to recover.
