Year: 2007
Type: Original Soundtrack (OST)
Composer(s): Mike Morasky
Number of tracks: 32

★★★★★

The Avenged

When Valve, the creators of the Half-Life series, released the inconspicuous Orange Box with the three titles Half-Life 2: Episode 2, Portal and Team Fortress 2 in 2007, it was assumed that the latter two games would only be decorative accessories. Looking back on these milestones in video game history today, 13 years later, the second episode of the shooter series about Gordon Freeman pales into insignificance by contrast and one thinks back wistfully to the story of the murderous artificial intelligence GLaDOS and the countless skirmishes between the RED and BLU teams. As you can see from the title of this review, today I want to talk about the music in Team Fortress 2.

But I have to briefly explain why the game is considered a milestone - at least for me: in my opinion, multiplayer before Team Fortress 2 was always 'serious business': grim war scenarios large and small like in the Battlefield-series or Call of Duty, precise tactics like in Counter-Strike or fast shooter action à la Unreal Tournament. These games were fun, and still are today, but all of them - with the possible exception of UT - take themselves very seriously. Sure, you can have a lot of nonsense within a serious scenario (we think back to the C4 buggies), but the basic tenor always sounded more like Wagner than Rednex. Meet Team Fortress 2.

Team Fortress: Classic (1999)

Team Fortress 2 (2007)

A total of nine different classes compete against each other in teams - a familiar concept, except that each class represents a character, a character with a personality and backstory; the hero shooter genre was born. Where later representatives such as Overwatch focused on superhero epics, the forefather was one thing above all: funny. Each character was more wacky than the next and while the battle madness provided enough entertainment through the different characters and interactions with and against each other, Valve accumulated this humorous flood in numerous videos, including the introduction videos of the individual classes, called 'Meet the ...', in which all nine 'heroes' speak sometimes more, sometimes less eloquently.

These short videos amused me for weeks back then and individual quotes are still part of my recitation routine today - who still cares about the Erlkönig today when you can recite 'Meet the Soldier'? So here's a recommendation: if you don't know them yet, go and catch up. Some more, some less funny, they are made with love and have always been an entertaining treat for the players.

Incidentally, we also have Team Fortress 2 to thank for the external achievement concept, which Valve transferred from TF2 to almost all games published on its Steam platform. In this respect, there is again milestone potential, albeit questionable. Incidentally, I also briefly covered the topic of achievements in my bachelor's thesis on loot boxes (from p. 27), so if you're interested and know German, you're welcome to take a look. Well, enough sidetracking, now to the music.

As I already mentioned in my Counter-Strike: Source-review, the music for this Valve game was also created by Mike Morasky, who was able to flex his musical muscles for the first time here. The premiere succeeds with flying colors. In contrast to its shooter predecessor, the soundtrack of this hero shoot-em-up has a theme and a clearly recognizable character. The main theme Team Fortress 2 is a recurring element in which Morasky's style, characterized by electric guitars, is particularly evident. The droning, as we experts call it, takes up a dominant, propelling part of the theme, while the fairly constant melody keeps bursting in and out in big band style with timpani and trumpets.

This combination can also be found in other tracks such as Intruder Alert or MEDIC! . But other musical tropes also have a place in the OST, such as the kitschy-romantic musical interlude with accordion in Petite Chou-Fleur, which is reminiscent of Bella Notte from Disney's Lady and the Tramp Susi und Strolch and reflects the stereotypical French character of the Spy. Each character also has their own theme, which was mostly used as background music for the corresponding 'Meet the ...' videos.

The musical characterization of the jackknife-wielding spy is not limited to his amorous side, as in the aforementioned squeezebox tune. Instead, the spy is also portrayed as a cold-blooded, calculating murderer in his accompanying 'Meet the Spy' video, which is also evident in the track Right Behind You . In a thriller-like suspense, a short sequence of notes begins on the piano, accompanied by strings that build up menacingly and then subside again. The theme raises the hairs on the back of your neck and fits perfectly with the invisible threat, which can sometimes turn out to be very visible and close at hand, as in the video.

Other character themes such as Drunken Pipe Bomb for the Scottish demolition expert (Demoman) or that of the slightly crazy medic in Archimedes also make use of classic cultural motifs such as the bagpipes to convey corresponding images. And polka, as in Soldier of Dance , is of course also a must. It all comes together to form a coherent overall work, but it couldn't really be described as 'outstanding' if there weren't a few tracks that make the soundtrack special for me.

On the one hand, I could mention the tracks that create a kind of agent feeling in the style of the Mission: Impossible-films through the use of driving bongos, which I simply love; examples of this include Playing with Danger or the even better Faster Than a Speeding Bullet (from 'Meet the Scout'). Or one of my absolute favorite tracks, which I already mentioned in my review of League of Legends: Season 1: The Art of War.

As a background accompaniment to the 'Meet the Soldier' video, this track works much better than its peers without the accompanying visual input. It captures the militant character of the overdrawn war veteran, its marching character immediately conjures up images in the mind and the drum extravaganza is simply incredible fun to listen to despite its basic uniformity. As with the Team Fortress 2-theme, the big band orchestra is also used briefly later in the track and so the song fits in well with the overall concept of the OST. Unlike the other tracks, however, the piece does not drift into the comical or jazzy at this point, but instead has a menacing effect, which once again underlines its gravitas.

For me, this is the absolute highlight of the soundtrack, which perhaps comes off better overall than comparable albums due to the nostalgia lens, but is a lot of fun overall in my humble opinion. Hey Morasky, it is possible.

Nostalgia warning

The rating of the individual tracks is purely subjective and clearly colored by my own experience with the game. You can find out more in the article About Nostalgia.

No.	Title	Artist(s)	Ratings
01	Team Fortress 2	Mike Morasky	5
02	Playing with Danger	Mike Morasky	4
03	Rocket Jump Waltz	Mike Morasky	3
04	The Art of War	Mike Morasky	5
05	Faster Than a Speeding Bullet	Mike Morasky	5
06	Right Behind You	Mike Morasky	5
07	Petite Chou-Fleur	Mike Morasky	3
08	Intruder Alert	Mike Morasky	3
09	Drunken Pipe Bomb	Mike Morasky	4
10	More Gun	Mike Morasky	3
11	Haunted Fortress 2	Mike Morasky	3
12	TF2 Saxxy 2011 Theme	Mike Morasky	3
13	A Little Heart to Heart	Mike Morasky	3
14	MEDIC!	Mike Morasky	4
15	Archimedes	Mike Morasky	3
16	Dreams of Cruelty	Mike Morasky	4
17	The Calm	Mike Morasky	4
18	ROBOTS!	Mike Morasky	4
19	Dapper Cadaver	Mike Morasky	3
20	Rise of the Living Bread	Mike Morasky	4
21	Red Bread	Mike Morasky	3
22	Three Days to Live	Mike Morasky	3
23	Seduce Me!	Mike Morasky	3
24	Stink Lines	Mike Morasky	3
25	It Hates Me so Much	Mike Morasky	3
26	Misfortune Teller	Mike Morasky	3
27	Soldier of Dance	Mike Morasky	4
28	RED Triumphs!	Mike Morasky	3
29	BLU Triumphs!	Mike Morasky	4
30	Yeti Park	Mike Morasky	4
31	Saxton's Dilemma	Mike Morasky	4
32	Mercenary Park	Mike Morasky	4