Now we know what kind of bounty those Team Fortress 2 mercs are fighting for.
A short while back Valve teased us with hints of a new game mode for Team Fortress 2, but at the time all anyone knew was that it was co-op and there were robots. On day two Valve let slip that there would be special upgrades available for those willing to risk their skins on the battlefield; canteens that, say, boosted ammo clip sizes or gave you a personal ubercharge, and special new abilities for your favourite character type. Day three is finally here, and players now know what they have to do to Mann Up and get into the combat zone. They also know what they have to look forward to when they get there.
First, the bennies: a swarm of new awards, including such gems as Metal Massacre (destroy 1,000,000 robots – yikes!) to Ctrl+Assault+Delete (destroy a sentry buster before it reaches its target), and many more. You also get a Tour of Duty badge once you successfully complete at least one mission, which will be updated each time you gain another glorious victory. Enough glorious victories will complete the Tour, which gets you onto the next – more difficult – Tour tier. Blow up enough of the metal menaces and you get items – scraps of new costume by the look of it – that don’t affect game play, but do look cool. There’s also a rare item drop if you complete all missions in a Tour of Duty, and the chance to get more items by turning in Vouchers, which can be bought or earned in-game.
Next, Mann Up! That’s what Valve’s calling its new game mode. The player has two options: play on non-Mann Co servers, or on official manly Mann Co servers. Those not wanting to go official still get loot drops as they would in a normal Team Fortress 2 match, and all of the missions are out there so there’s no missing out on game play. This mode is also free-to-play. In order to Mann Up you need to have a Tour of Duty ticket, which will cost you a mere $0.99. Once you present your ticket you can get into the official servers, and it’s the Mann Up players who get the costume drops, the Tour Badges, the Vouchers and so on.
You’ll be doing all this on new maps: Decoy (lure ’em to a fake Mann Co facility and wipe ’em out), Mannworks (defend a Mann Co facility) and Coal Town. Yeah … I’m not sure what to make of Coal Town. There’s probably coal there. Probably. Those are the maps revealed so far; there may be more in the works.
Good hunting, mercs! Mann vs Machine is now available for free download.
Source: Mann vs Machine
