Great collection of games with plenty of variety
Portal is a simple game, but it’s a confusing trip. Two portals that are linked can be placed on surfaces to enable one to navigate a huge rat maze of puzzles. You are gently guided though various moves that you can use later on in more complex ways, the last few of the normal puzzles are lengthy. The advanced maps are really tough, changing the originals to really get you thinking. The challenge maps entice you to complete the same puzzles in the least time, least steps or least portals. This section I found challenging most of all, trying to complete long puzzles in barely a few steps was just too frustrating for me. Luckily the game saves often, when you do a short sequence it will save after jumps rather than making you repeat whole puzzles. The game isn’t as sterile as it sounds, the nice little turrets talk to you and the announcer lady makes many jokes. It might sound weird but this game has a very good ending, perhaps because I was expecting just a series of puzzles. After the end you get a very funny song that makes it worth completing.
Team Fortress 2 is the final new game in this pack but this one is all multiplayer. The basic classes and concepts are retained from TFC and the previous fortress games. Many features have been cut, some classes are dramatically different in function. There are no grenades apart from the demoman, and this actually helps the gameplay from become a nade spam fest. The medic is now much less offensive in battle, he’s a support class to heal others and with enough healing he, and his healee, become invincible for a short time. The spy is downright annoying as not only can he disguise, he can go invisible for a short. The scout is a deadly close combat character, but he can only take so much damage. The game only ships with six maps, but its not a really bad thing as one behaves quite differently each time. I would have preferred more ctf maps, but control point maps aren’t as bad as they sound. Valve will release more maps in the future, it will probably be up to 10 this time next year. The most important thing to note about this game is how the game was designed to be funny. The taunts, the live commentary by the characters as they observe various things, the gibs and the announcers attitude all keep the funny style of TFC but greatly extend it so you can have fun even when you lose. I’m not a huge fan of critical hits, but they are probably included to help new players a bit.