Emphasis on teamwork makes for more playful wargames in 'Fortress'

If there's a video game genre that's gotten less friendly toward Joe Joystick over the years, it's shooters. Titles like "Halo 3," "Call of Duty 4," and "Gears of War" deliver intense experiences, but mostly cater to gun game enthusiasts: they tack on innovative features and nuance - vehicular combat, bullet penetration, realistic recoil and physics. It's compelling, complex stuff for the super-competitive, but high difficulty curves, touchy controls, and unforgiving online opponents don't invite casual action heroes.

Enter "Team Fortress 2." Valve's campy, cartoony first-person shooter is just as valid as when it released last October, emphasizing accessibility, balance, and integrated teamwork over hyperrealism.

TF2's appeal stems from its nine character classes, "professions" that let players adapt tactics and playing styles throughout a match: Scout, Soldier, Pyro, Demolitions, Engineer, Heavy, Sniper, Spy, or Medic, each with capabilities and vulnerabilities. The Soldier's rocket launcher makes him balanced in attack and defense, and he can blast the ground in unison with a leap (called "rocket jumping") to reach high ledges.

Engineers are the backbone of a good defense, whipping their wrench to build and maintain auto-firing sentry turrets in the field. Pyros excel as ambushers and chaos-causers with their flamethrower, Demos lob and detonate grenades, Snipers sit back and pluck passing foes from the environment. Tank-like Heavys tote a bullet-spitting gatling gun. Their best friend is the Medic, who tethers to teammates with a heal ray, mending wounds at medium range. Medics are also a target for Spies, TF2's clever class that can disguise itself as an ally or temporarily become invisible.

Ball them all together, and you've got straightforward, playable characters that create tidy expectations during gameplay. A lone Medic isn't going to manhandle you at close range; a Heavy takes longer to reach your territory; a Scout can't take as much punishment than a Soldier. The character spectrum lets players fill roles on the fly, flexing with their team's needs or how they're feeling. Want to disrupt and distract? Flank as a Pyro, or trick an enemy Medic into healing you as a disguised Spy. Getting abused in close-combat? Support your teammates as a Medic, or hold down the fort as an Engineer.

You might call it rocket launcher, paper, scissors, and TF2's selection of objective-based territory control and capture the flag maps only reinforce the need to work together to secure locations or steal the flag (an intelligence briefcase). Our favorite level, Gold Rush, has attackers not-so-subtly pushing a giant warhead up a track to the end of the level - the defending team tries to prevent this.

Most of the levels have built-in bottlenecks and choke points, meaning utilizing attack and support classes in unison is crucial to success.

Clean, crisp design subtly stitches it all together. TF2's characters seem sampled from a Pixar film or '70s action B-movie: simple features, and just detailed enough to communicate what they're capable of. The Medic's white coattails; the blue collar Engie's hardhat and overalls; the boyish Scout's aluminum bat; the Demoman's grenade bandolier; the Spy's twig silhouette - less is more to Valve, and the visual simplicity caricatures the cast just enough to make them iconic, fun fighters.

Well-placed humor layers the lighthearted, mutual vibe, but without compromising competitiveness.

A Heavy will cry "Thank you, doctor!" in a labored Russian accent if a Medic heals them; red crosses in word bubbles mark players calling out for first aid. Friendly spies wear paper masks to show what they're disguised as, and players can issue animated taunts (the Pyro strums his fire axe like a Fender; Heavys hug their giant gatling gun). The audio cues actually contribute a lot to gameplay - Engineers automatically shout out if a Spy's sabotaging their sentry, and the stock of sound effects for explosions and gun shots are distinct and intuitive, accurately conveying any mayhem out of eyeshot.

If there's one PC shooter that's remained relevant since last year, it's "Team Fortress 2." Valve continues to roll out achievement packs one class at a time to inject new content (unlock the Pyro's flare gun to flame from afar or the Medic's health-stealing syringe gun), but it's the game's outstanding accessibility and playability that makes it worth highlighting months later.