Ah yes, the timeless classic, where do I even start…A few years back I told myself that I would eventually do a review on this masterpiece of a game, but I never did… Shortly after, I PROMISED myself that I would do a review for this game when I hit the 1000 hour mark, and turns out I already missed that mark by a factor of about 70, so now I GOTTA do it. That being said, sit back, relax and enjoy my detailed review that follows…
I’ve I started playing this game since I’ve owned my steam account (probably the first game I downloaded on steam), about 8 years since this passing August, so it’s safe to say that I have had a go around the block with this game a few times. I should also mention that since I am 17 years old, this game has had its fair play in my childhood, and most of you can probably say the same thing about this game if you are an early 2000s kid like me. This game really did build a lot of my childhood and what lies within it. Don’t even get me started about all of the memories that I’ve made playing this game, and considering all of the time I have invested in this game itself, I would hope to have made some good ones. Some of my best memories of videogames in general from my youth came from playing with all of my friends on, you guessed it, Team Fortress 2. I remember when me and all of my friends would come home from school, and just hop online and just play for hours, match after match, till all of our parents would, one by one, tell us to go to bed. UGH I hate being sentimental and talking about the “good ol’ times” but those really were the days. It’s just a little emotional talking about a game that you have invested so much of your life into and what really formed your childhood, like it did with mine.

So, with that being out of the way, how’s the gameplay?
Straight up, its *classic*. Nothing about this game is “breathtaking” or like “super visually appealing”, it just the fact that the game is a “classic” and has an extremely recognizable art style, you really don’t realize how much you can appreciate the game itself until you have played it long enough. This game carries such a charm with it that no other game (at least that I have played) has even come close to. I could go into all of the reasons why this charm is so prevalent with Team Fortress 2, but that would take hours to cover it all… So let me just give a few examples that make Team Fortress 2 such a charming game:
the hats,
the taunts,
the 9 different classes and each of their very different personalities,
the backstory behind EACH of the 9 classes,
the meet the team videos,
Valves official source filmmaker films relating to the game and its storyline,
the overwhelming support and community that backs the game,
the different playstyles that each class holds,
the potential to “master a class”,
the overall simple mechanics of the game (like other games by Valve),
All of these reasons are why this game is loved deeply by so many people, including myself.
Let’s talk about popularity. This game is POPULAR, and not in the way you might think, Team Fortress 2 isn’t exactly a prospering game, in fact, mostly all of the “veterans” player base just keep coming back to play it, and more than likely it’s because of some if not all of the listed reasons stated before. The reasons why TF2 is so popular is simply the internet. Well, anything can be popular with the connectivity of the internet, but TF2 especially has been seen in so many memes and lots of other propaganda across the internet. It is so common, it could just be something not related to gaming at all, and it will still somehow have a Team Fortress 2 reference in it. Just take the engineer “NOPE!” clip and sound effect for example, that meme is everywhere.
Lastly to wrap things up, I would like to cover one last thing in specific, and that’s the community! Man oh man, this community is really like no other… You meet all sorts of people on there, some good, and some bad like any online game, bet most of all, genuine. However, that isn’t to say that there isn’t any cheaters, actually recently there has been quite a flood of hackers and cheaters plaguing the servers. One of these such bots are called “Sidney” bots, they’re usually pretty easy to spot because they usually have they’re name, “Sidney” then a series of numbers and letters after that. Cheaters themselves aren’t the problem though, it’s the exploit that allows the bots to leave the game after a kick vote has been called upon them. Shortly after the vote is insued, they just leave the game. Problem solved, right? Wrong. What happens next is they just simply join back, because the system didn’t get a chance to actually “kick” them, they ends up just leaving the game and simply joining back. The botting issue really has an effect on recent play, but I’m sure that the team of 4-5 programmers can solve this exploit within the near future.
All of this being said, the game still gets a 10/10 for me, mostly because of the influence that it’s had on my life, the countless memories, and all of the fun times that are associated with this game for me. I just hope that the developers can keep this game alive for the years to come, if it’s made it 10 years with their continued support, I wouldn’t doubt that it would make it another 10 at least. Even if valve were to stop its support in the future, the community would be right there to step in and take their spot.
Thank you to the devs and programmers that keep this game alive and thriving, without them TF2 wouldn’t be as good as it is, the game would not have made it close to 11 years if it wasn’t for them.





Sources:
(n.d.). Retrieved November 22, 2020, from https://www.teamfortress.com/?tab=updates
Team Fortress 2. (n.d.). Retrieved November 22, 2020, from https://wiki.teamfortress.com/wiki/Team_Fortress_2
Team Fortress 2. (n.d.). Retrieved November 22, 2020, from https://www.ign.com/games/team-fortress-2