F2P of the month: Team Fortress 2

So beginning this month, I'm going to try and start reviewing free-to-play games; one a month. Because who doesn't like free stuff?

Background:
Team Fortress 2, if you've been living under a rock since 2007, is a team-based, class-based first person shooter created by the guys over at Valve (Portal, Half-Life, Half-Life 2). Upon its release, it cost money; however, TF2 went free-to-play in mid-2011.

The plot:
You're funny. What plot?

The gameplay:
Team Fortress 2 is one of the most popular free-to-play FPS games for a reason. It's damn good. There are 9 classes split up into 3 categories:

• Offensive: 
• The soldier, a rocket launcher wielding... soldier. Probably the easiest class to pick up and play, as rockets don't require much accuracy... just hit around your enemy and they're bound to die eventually.
• The scout, a speedy trickster designed to capture flags and capture points. Fast, but weak; however, in the hands of a good scout player, he can be very very deadly.
• The pyro, a... pyro. Easily one of my favorite characters. Great for destroying the other team, because flamethrowers.
• Defensive:
• The demoman, an expert with grenades. Able to lay down sticky grenades, and detonate them remotely. Not a bad offensive character either if played right.
• The heavy, a big, slow, Russian tank. Uses a giant minigun. He's not too hard to use either, just kind of spray with the giant gun you're holding and hope for the best.
• The engineer, easily my favorite character by far. Sets up turrets, teleporters, and dispensers that hand out free health and ammo to teammates. Best used to defend critical capture points or flags.
• Support:
• The medic, a... medic. Heals teammates, and can build an "ubercharge", which by default makes the medic and the person he's healing invincible for a short period of time. Combined with a heavy or a pyro, the medic can be very, very dangerous.
• The spy, a dagger wielding, backstabbing, hard to play bastard. The spy can disguise himself as a member of the opposing team, sneak in, and assassinate enemy players. There are a few ways to tell a spy from a teammate, but in the heat of the moment, I find myself being killed by spies way too often.
• The sniper, everyone's favorite. Sits at the back, pops heads. Another one of my favorite classes. Also he's Australian. 

There's a few gamemodes to Team Fortress 2, including "capture the intelligence (flag)" and "capture points" (domination). A player-vs.-computer mode was added recently, in which a team of players has to defend a base from enemy robots. Games are either serious or not; that is, depending on the server you're playing on, players will either try to do the objective, or just kill each other. Either way, it's pretty awesome. 

Graphically, the game has a style that's hard to describe. It's not quite cel-shaded, but it's close. Honestly, it feels like you're playing with action figures sometimes. It's got a really neat art style that no other game really has. The game sounds pretty good too, which is important when you've got dozens of guns going off at once. They all sound very distinct and stylized.

The verdict:
If you like class based shooters, play it. If you like multiplayer FPS games, play it. If you don't like those, play it, it's free. You've got nothing to lose. It's a 4/5 from me.