I heard the story about Team Fortress 2 that’s filled with bazillion bots. I’m very sad about it. But, hey! I’m not here for sad story. I’m here to review Team Fortress Arcade (2011) made by Eric Ruth.
Nice title screen. The logo and the main theme of Team Fortress 2 are here although bit crunchy. This indie game is made by Eric Ruth who also made Angry Video Game. AVG is just mildly interesting to me but TFA, I’m very excited about it because Team Fortress 2 is more like my thing!
No story exposition whatsoever. Once I press “enter” on title screen, I jump straight to the player select. If you know Team Fortress 2 very well, you shouldn’t be surprised that there are 9 characters to pick in this game. For first pick, I go with Medic which is the least combat appropriate among the mercenaries.
I mean look at this. Once I press attack button, Medic fires his medigun. Thankfully, enemies don’t get healing from his medigun. The control for player 1 is: W, A, S, and D buttons to move around. H button to attack in front of your character, and J button to jump.
This is more like it. His jumping attack is firing his syringe gun. Diagonally, though. I have quick reminder of Data East’s Captain America and The Avengers because of this diagonal shooting jump. According to readme.txt, Medic can jump longer if jump button being held. It is not based on Team Fortress 2, but it is helpful to shoot the syringe gun longer.
There are set of laser beam hazard installed in this level. With this and 4 player slots, this game has vibe of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles the game.
Pressing both attack and jump buttons produces a melee attack. Not the usual desperation attack but still useful especially for Medic. Medic_specialcompleted01.wav
Naturally, there’s boss that you have to defeat to finish the level. In this case, there’s RED scout. First, he runs diagonally and bounces on borders.
After running enough time, Scout decides to use his scattergun and walk up or down. Here’s the best chance to hit him before he runs again like hyperactive rabbit.
With that BLU team scores! Although, I’m not sure how the scoring works. Probably 1 point for each defeated enemy.
Level 2 is in the mine. For this level, I’ll be the annoying runt: Scout himself. His scattergun is pretty powerful. Since there’s no damage penalty over long distance, the scattergun can be deadly in long range. In this level, I have to push the payload like in the game however it doesn’t give me small healing when I push it. Scout_jeers10.wav
Another thing that is not in the original game is there’s rolling boulder appears once in a while that can hurt you. Scout_sf13_magic_reac06.wav
Oh, I see. We use the payload to explode these boulders that block our way. That makes sense.
Scout jumping attack is firing his pistol which is very weaker than the scattergun. You better stick with the scattergun if you play as him. Naturally, he can do double jump but his jumping attack sucks badly.
The boss is RED soldier and he’s currently jump rocket across the corner. There’s crosshair on the ground that mark where his rockets land. Keep your eye on those marks.
Here’s the soldier in the flesh. Now he does what the RED scout does. Walk up or down while firing his gun. Since his rocket is slow and my scattergun is hitscan weapon, I can just hit him and retreat to safety with ease. Scout_dominationsol02.wav
Next stage is called the elevator. For this stage, I pick my 2nd main: Demoman. His ground attack is grenade launcher. It’s solid and powerful weapon with limited range.
Demo’s jumping attack is: sticky bombs! Now, we’re talking. Funny thing is to detonate the bombs, I have to jump. But that means I can’t have sticky bombs on the level more than 2. I can also do the sticky bomb jump if I jump on bomb.
This big spherical robot is like Star Wars Droideka. He likes to roll around as big ball and he’s invincible while doing so. After enough rolling around, the robot will grow limb and start shooting. In that state, he’s vulnerable but he’s tough to crack. Because he can only be harmed in specific timing, sticky bomb is best against him.
The boss is RED Pyro. Man. I’m Pyro at heart and also like red. I don’t like against them. Their attack pattern is just running and firing their flamethrower which most likely how people play as Pyro. The infamous “W+M1” way. The noob. Demoman_dominationpyro01.wav
As experienced Pyro, I don’t suggest you do the “W+M1” way as Pyro. Use corner or wall to force your enemy engaged in close combat where Pyro most likely win with their deadly flamethrower.
4th level is The Factory and this time I play as the heavy weapon guy. As you expect from Heavy, he’s slow but he can unleash hundred bullets with ease. Heavy_mvm_taunt02.wav
There are electric panels on the ground and Heavy is terrible at jumping over the hazards because how low his jumping height is. His jumping attack is not impressive either. He uses shotgun which less powerful than his Gatling gun. He’s another character that better fight on the ground than jumping often.
If you know Team Fortress 2 well, you should know that the bosses are the cast from left to right. So, this time the boss is demoman. He doesn’t use grenade launcher, instead he uses Chargin’ Targe. This is like fighting Sodom in Final Fight with the addition of several sticky bombs thrown in the floor.
Heavy is bad at dodging the charging. But once Demoman stands still to fire sticky bombs, he’s sitting duck to the minigun. Heavy_domination14.wav
The level 5 is just called the path. Shouldn’t be the level called snow mountain? This time around, I play as the rocket man himself: soldier (Rest in Peace Rick May). He uses rocket launcher and that’s about it. It’s powerful weapon but there’s slight inconvenient hitbox problem. Everyone fires their weapon from center of their sprite except Soldier where he fires his rocket slightly higher. I mean I get it that it’s because the rocket launcher is on his shoulder but it’s still inconvenient to me.
In previous levels, there is a part where you have to survive against group of enemies coming from left and right while the stage stops scrolling. While in this level and next ones, there’s actual “defend the control point” part so you have to actively capture the point while fending off enemies. Can Scout capture the control point faster? No idea!
Naturally, soldier can do rocket jump. Soldier_specialcompleted04.wav
Of course, the boss is heavy but he’s wearing ushanka because he’s not manly enough to show he’s bald unlike our heavy. Surprisingly, soldier is a perfect match up against heavy. Just keep jump above his head and fire rocket at that stupid hat.
Not even your stupid sandwich can safe you, heavy guy. Soldier_DominationHeavy03.wav
This level called the race because we’re racing our payload. Apparently, I pick the wrong character for his kind of objective. It’s the class that everyone hates yet everyone picks: spy. His revolver is slightly weaker than Scout’s scattergun but it’s quite useful to shoot enemies. His jumping attack also him firing his revolver but diagonally and in mid-air.
There are too many enemies pushing the payload and there’s nothing much I can do as spy other than kill incoming enemies while still near our payload. Sure. Might as well as smoke a cigs casually there, Spy.
Enemy’s payload reaches the destiny and at the same time our payload explodes for no reason. The enemy robots that push the payload, immediately retreat as they have done with their job. I can shoot them in the back as consolation prize that I fail with pushing the payload. You might think “Can your turn invisible as spy?”. The answer is yes but as you can see this is not the right moment to demonstrate it. By holding attack button, spy will turn invisible. This is where I commend Eric Ruth for his skill in making game because he can make enemy ai behave properly when Spy turn invisible. Enemies will stop attacking and walk randomly as if they lose the invisible spy. Spy_taunts05.wav
The boss is engineer. He will activate random mini sentry from those small red panels. If you know TF 2 well, you probably think Spy is good against engineer. But I feel like in this game the engineer is just clumsy. He can barely hit me with those mini sentry as I stab him repeatedly. Spy_DominationEngineer05.wav
The train is the 7th level and I play this level as the Sniper. His specialty is obviously the sniper shot. Holding attack button will make the sniper do the snipping. The longer you hold the attack button the stronger the shot is. If you just press the attack button, the rifle is not powerful enough even to kill the lowest grunt. So, you have to hold the attack button until the strongest shot which indicated with the brightest color of the laser pointer. It sounds very tiring to kill even the weakest grunt by holding attack button for quite long time but the strongest snipe shot can pierce through enemies in single line.
There’s train passing through quite often. The joke is: it’s trainception, train on the train. But the joke getting feel less and less funny, the more I often getting run over by it.
Then there’s pile of explosive goods that obstruct my way once in a while. I think sniper is not meant for this level because I’m forced to use fully charged shot several times just to destroy this obstacle. Charging the shot against single enemy is already tiring. Now I have to charge the shot to the fullest 5 times for this obstacle. It’s very tedious. Hey, I notice there’s old cannon behind the obstacle. It looks like icon from an old windows game Bang! Bang!
The boss is this big robot that surrounded by orbiting orbs and also he can shoot orbs. How many times I make damage on him, the boss’ health bar doesn’t decrease. Sniper_sf13_magic_reac06.wav
Oh, I see. Once the robot is down, enemy medic appears to heal him. The medic is the real boss. Luckily 3 fully charged shots are enough to kill medic. Sniper_DominationMedic05.wav
Next level is called the stage. Isn’t this the Lakeside map? But I can’t see the lake so I give the game a pass. I’m playing as my 3rd main. The Texan tinker: Engineer. His main attack is: he hit the ground with wrench and a sentry gun spawned. Hit the sentry more to upgrade it to level 3, just like in the game. Level 1 sentry gun fires machine gun which barely kill the weakest enemy. Level 2 sentry gun fires double machine gun that can kill most lesser enemy. Level 3 sentry gun fires a rocket akin to Soldier’s. Sadly, the sentry gun doesn’t last long, making Engineer cumbersome for the combat.
If using sentry gun feels too tedious (sadly), you can just use the wrench to whack at your enemies. Engineer_meleedare01.wav
You probably can guess the boss this level is sniper. He’s up there on platform supported by those gigantic pillars. I can’t aim up so what I can do is destroy the pillars. The sniper either shoot with his sniper rifle or submachine gun. The thing is: both his guns are hitscan weapon so I can hardly tell how to avoid his attack. Maybe the sniper shot tracks my location closely while the submachine gun has fixed pattern in front of him. That’s my best guess.
Strangely, there’s boulder rolls from between the pillars. Dodging sniper’s attack is hard enough then there’s the boulder! Engineer_sf13_magic_reac02.wav
Finally, all of the pillars are destroyed. The sentry gun does quite good job on destroying them. Now the sniper falls to his -not so- gruesome death. Engineer_dominationsniper07.wav
The stage is called The Dark which is kind of untrue because the place is quite well lit even though it’s night time. The long wait is over! Now is the time for hudda hudda, hara hara, and other muffled mumbling. Make way for my very first main in TF 2: The Pyro! Because Pyro use medium-short range flamethrower, their gameplay kind of similar to Alien Storm when I play as Karla. In addition to flamethrower, Pyro can fire their flare gun when jumping. It goes without saying that flamethrower and flare gun can inflict burn damage over time.
This level introduces you with this ninja robot. He looks stupid to walk slowly toward me but suddenly he teleports behind me and slash my backside. Pyro_negativevocalization01.wav
I get surrounded quite frequently here. Luckily, my melee attack can hit around me. It might as well as desperation attack but it doesn’t cost health. It can one-shot kill regular enemies but it has reduced power against boss as I observed.
Surprise! Surprise! The boss in this level is the handsome rogue: Spy. As you know that Pyro is the best against spy. So, we get the positive match up here. Pyro_battlecry02.wav
The spy teleports randomly around the area. When he stops doing that, he tries to backstab which can instantly kill me. Compared to our spy that can’t instant kill the engineer, enemy spy is more competent. Eventually, we end up double KO. But since I have unlimited continue and the Frenchman doesn’t, I am the winner! Pyro_laughevil01.wav
There’s another level dubbed as The End. Kind of lousy name for final level. Anyway, this final level just straight final boss with next to no sidescrolling at all. I don’t know who this final boss is except he’s giant robot. My knowledge about TF 2 lore probably questionable. This boss fight immediately reminds me of final boss in Iron Commando however I can’t attack his head because he’s too big. There’s nothing I can do for now, except fighting these robot goons and dodging the rocket hand and explosive lemons(?).
Suddenly our CEO Saxton Hale gives the final boss huge uppercut. Pyro_thanks01.wav
Saxton Hale’s uppercut makes the giant robot’s head falls. Now I can burn it and decrease the health bar. But soon the head returns to the neck and I have to dodge all of the attacks again until our boss decides to interfere. Sure, boss. Take your sweet time.
I just notice the cube’s pattern in the background. It looks like companion cube from Portal. Mayhap the final boss is from Portal franchise?
Although the procedure to defeat the final boss is long, I can defeat him relatively easy and fast. Pyro_laughlong01.wav
I was hoping some epilogue that may explain the plot of the game but no. All I get is this fake The Southern Hospitality reward screen. But I’m relieved that this is just joke. I’m more afraid of shady trade page that may infect my laptop with various viruses than not getting Engineer’s alternative wrench. Besides, I already got The Southern Hospitality. It’s pretty useful to make spy bleeding. Anyway, we’re done here.
Eric Ruth games’ Team Fortress Arcade (2011) is very nice Indie game of Team Fortress 2. It’s side scrolling shoot em up which is quite rare genre. There are not many that I can think of the genre. Konami’s Aliens and Sega’s Alien Storm are the only example that I can come up with. There are so many things in the gameplay that Eric Ruth gets them correctly. Especially the reasonable enemy AI when my Spy turns invisible. Thing that I find it lacking is the variety of enemy. The enemies should start with weak grunt with melee attack. Instead, the weakest enemy has ability to shoot laser from get go! That doesn’t sound fair. The closest thing to enemy with melee attack is the ninja robot that can suddenly teleport behind you. Again. It doesn’t sound fair. There should be more enemy type, like melee weak enemy or melee large enemy. There’s an enemy type that can fire flamethrower besides shooting laser from distance. Then there’s annoying Droideka like enemy type. I feel like the game requires pick-up items. If the dead enemies drop health item or other thing (for example: screen-clearing bomb, temporary invincibility, or speed up), the game will be perfect. One last thing. I think the game requires one more button for special action. For example: Scout uses mad milk, Soldier uses shotgun or buff banner, Pyro uses the Manmelter, Demoman uses Chargin’ Targe, Heavy uses sandwich, Engineer uses Pomson 6000, Medic uses Crusader’s Crossbow, Sniper uses Jarate, or Spy uses disguise. This special action is limited to ammo count that you can replenish with drop from dead enemies. Take aside of my criticism, the overall gameplay is pretty solid, fun, and accurate to TF 2 game. Attacker class (scout, soldier, and pyro) and defender class (demoman, heavy, and engineer) can relatively play the game in single player mode. But for special class (medic, sniper, and spy) will have hard time playing the game alone. Spy probably the best among special class that able to play the game in single player. However, his revolver is pale in comparison with scattergun, rocket launcher, minigun, grenade launcher, or sentry gun. Medic is probably the weakest in playing solo because he’s healer for God’s sake! At least he can regenerate his health over time. I like that whenever you start the level or respawn, you appear on Engineer’s teleport. It’s nice and accurate detail. The input command for melee attack is bit awkward. I wish it’s just with single button press. The music is fairly good although bit weak. The graphic is quite great. The presentation is charming. One thing that i very love is...
The screen of Winner's don't use drug by William S. Session which usually appears in any 90s arcade game in America. Eric Ruth put that deliberately to make the game like Arcade game but in fact it is PC game. It is nice joke.
It goes without saying that Team Fortress Arcade (2011) is wonderful indie game for Team Fortress 2 fans. Even if you are blind to TF 2, I still recommend you to play this game. It’s fun game with unlimited continue. What else you want? Hat? Don’t be ridiculous!
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