Comments on: Go Team! Part 7: The Soldier

By: Dutchviking

Dutchviking — Mon, 05 Nov 2007 20:18:49 +0000

I liky it boom. Big boom… like boom boom in pants, but better.

By: Medieval Warrior

Medieval Warrior — Thu, 25 Oct 2007 20:46:46 +0000

Soldier is fun because you make people go all explodey.

By: Peter M

Peter M — Thu, 25 Oct 2007 04:52:39 +0000

While the crowd that reads this website probably doesn’t realize this, the rocket jump technique actually originated with the game Marathon, which came out once upon a time on “that other gaming platform”, and predated Quake by 2 years. Now if Gil Amelio hadn’t butchered the mid-90′s Apple, and if Bungie hadn’t sold out to Microsoft, then this would probably be more well-known, but so be it. ;)

By: Arathain

Arathain — Mon, 08 Oct 2007 15:01:23 +0000

I learned a great time to learn the rocket jump, on a public server, while accomplishing something useful for the team even while failing. Since medics get uber-charge faster when healing wounded team-mates, during the start of any round with a set up time Soldiers ought to be pairing up with a medic and repeatedly blasting rockets at their own feet. Since you’re doing it anyway, it’s the best time to get some practice in.

By: Kieron Gillen

Kieron Gillen — Wed, 03 Oct 2007 18:27:30 +0000

Spacegirl: That last paragraph was poetry.

By: Spacegirl

Spacegirl — Wed, 03 Oct 2007 18:15:30 +0000

The Soldier is the work horse. I recall a few month old IGN preview of TF2, where Valve said essentially that. This is the man that gets it done on offense. He eats turrets for breakfast, Heavies for lunch, And just about anything else at dinner.

In many ways, he is the LEAST specialized of all the classes. While maybe not the mathematically perfect Man for a given situation, he also has perhaps the fewest hard counters of any class. The rockets are very effective at a range many other weapons are not. They are lethal farther away than Shotguns or Grenades or the Flamethrower, but still not QUITE far enough away that you can’t put pressure on a sniper, to force him from standing still. Outside of obvious things (A pyro in your face out of nowhere, a robotic headshot sniper, some sort of terrible Uber-Charged death army), the only real trouble I get into is with a Scout. I think it will become easier as I get used to their jump lengths and where they may land, but I feel a good scout will always be tricky for any class, and maybe a bit more for the soldier.

But in the End, if you are an FPS player, and you don’t know your way around a Rocket Launcher, A Shotgun and a Melee Weapon, what are you doing? These weapons are the oxen that have sowed our fields since the dawn of WSAD. They are our Forefathers, and on their stalwart, winged backs we will always find the Path of Pwn.

By: Garth

Garth — Wed, 03 Oct 2007 10:51:20 +0000

Even as a child of Quake, I find myself shying away from Soldier.

And to be honest, it’s [i]hard[/i].

I played a Pyro almost exclusively in QTF. I dabbled in other classes, but nothing beat clearing an entire room of 5 people with Napalm Grenades and the Flamethrower. It was just such a fantastically [i]maniacal[/i] situation — people on fire (screaming), flames everywhere, pure chaos, and all created by me.

But in the back of my head, there’s always that little voice saying “If you were a Soldier, that turret would be toast. You could rocket jump onto that ledge. You could be [i]gibbing[/i].

By: Scatterblak

Scatterblak — Tue, 02 Oct 2007 03:13:30 +0000

sigh…. you kids….

By: mentasm

mentasm — Fri, 28 Sep 2007 15:19:39 +0000

“In Team Fortress 2 terms, he’s The Oldest Profession (er… without the having sex with people for money thing).”

TF2 has that profession…..

He doles out healing for UberCharge.

By: Iain

Iain — Fri, 28 Sep 2007 08:24:34 +0000

More people would study Physics if we called it “The Science of Boom”. I propose we lobby for a change in the curriculum!

By: Arathain

Arathain — Thu, 27 Sep 2007 22:16:07 +0000

Funny you should say complicated. I think one of the game’s key strengths is the stripped down nature of the classes, each of which really only does a very small number of things well, leading to the joyous and fascinating interaction between classes.

That said, when I tire of tactics and want to just shoot stuff, I go Soldier. Everything boils down to where I place those rockets.

By: MaW

MaW — Thu, 27 Sep 2007 22:15:03 +0000

Soldier is my second-favourite class, after medic. There’s something guiltily fun about firing rockets everywhere and watching the gibs fly.

Probably because when I’m a medic, soldiers keep doing it to me and I do enjoy a bit of payback.