It seems like only yesterday that I hassled a Valve employee for a Team Fortress 2 t-shirt at E3. Well, perhaps not yesterday. As a matter of fact, it was eight years ago. That’s when Team Fortress 2: Brotherhood of Arms was first unveiled to the press. It was a much different game then but the core vision of the class-based shooter has always been a pillar of its development.

Flash forward to last week when we finally, after eight long years, got to try Team Fortress 2 in the wild. Despite some launch problems that delayed the beta until Tuesday for most people who pre-purchased The Orange Box, this version of Team Fortress 2 is up and running beautifully. All the classes are available for play on a handful of maps and the fighting is as frenetic and ferocious as ever.

The first thing that immediately stands out - and is evident from the trailers Valve has published - are the game’s incredible new graphics. They aren’t grounded in gritty realism like Call of Duty 4 or even anything of a fantasy nature along the lines of BioShock. This approaches the Pixar horizon that has been talked about for so many years as a milestone for PC gaming. The characters look and move like something you’d see in a Pixar movie (the biggest influence being from The Incredibles), which gives the game a very stylized yet extremely impressive animated appearance.

It isn’t a cartoon look or a cel-shaded game like XIII but rather a very close approximation to the Pixar style of rendering humans. It may look like the game is light on textures, but there’s a lot happening under the surface to get this world to look like a big-budget CGI cartoon. The characters all have a variety of unique animations and each is instantly identifiable from the others.

I found the look to be very refreshing. Sometimes I get tired of the photo-realistic look that many games strive for and it’s nice to see some artists create a new space in which to play. As Valve states on their site: "TF2 features the most advanced graphics of any Source-based game released to date - and the most exciting class-based action ever created." I believe it.

Engineers hard at work building machines to kill you.

It was the class design that set the first Team Fortress apart from the rest of the mods and shooters in the field and it’s the classes that give Team Fortress 2 so much depth. It’s important to note that you can’t pick up another class’ weapons and use them. You can get ammo or metal from fallen players but that’s it. I’ll step through each one giving a brief description and my personal experience - albeit short.

Scout - This is your flag runner plain and simple (he can also capture control points faster than any other class). He’s low on armour but much quicker than anyone else on the battlefield.

The Scout is armed with a half-length aluminium bat, a hand-held shotgun and a pistol. Yet, his power is in his speed. The shotgun can deal brutal damage in close but you’d better always keep moving because this guy can’t take the heat. The Scout is also the only character capable of double-jumping in order to change his direction in the air. Your best bet with this character is to try to avoid conflict and get the map objectives accomplished. Capture flags, take control points and keep your head down.

Soldier - This is probably the most-balanced class and a great place to start if you’re unfamiliar with the game. The Soldier packs a rocket launcher and a shotgun as well as a shovel for melee. This gives him some range and splash damage with the rocket while also providing the stopping power of the shotgun for tight situations. Soldiers are the guys who like to get into a little of everything whether it’s attacking or defending. I didn’t like the Soldier class as much as some of the others but that’s just because he doesn’t have much going on. Playing the Soldier makes the game a pretty straight-forward shooter in every sense.

Pyro - This was one of my least-favourite classes. The Pyro carries the flamethrower, which rivals the shotgun as the best close-range weapon in the game. He also wields a shotgun and fire axe. My problem with the Pyro is that he really isn’t fast enough to close the distance and work the flamethrower. He’s great coming around a blind corner, but in a long hallway or out in the open, it can be frustrating. I’d think replacing his backup weapon with maybe a single-shot or three-shot rifle would be better to give him a light-ranged attack. Some guys were having a blast with him but he doesn’t fit my play style very well. Maybe I just need to get used to him.