Team Fortress 2 Review (Society Gaming)
This isn't a joke review, I know I have close to 4k hours in this game and that's not including all the different mods/console versions I've played as I really, really, really love this game. It's been a staple of my teenage/young adult life, and there truly has never been nor will there ever be a game to replace it. I'm not recommending it because this game just isn't like it used to be due to neglect from its developers and the experience for a newer player is most likely to be abysmal.
The game is infested with bots and cheaters as Valve, the multibillion dollar corporation with all the resources in the world, chooses to do nothing about it. Their way of "combating" this was butchering the experience for a free to play user by heavily restricting communication, instead of, you know, developing an anti-cheat that's actually worth a damn.
But even then, I wouldn't mind cheaters that much if it weren't for the god-awful matchmaking system that's been stinking up this game since 2016 like a half-opened jar of rancid horse radish you forgot in the back of your cupboard since Bill Clinton's daughter got her dad's dick wet. Seriously, after all these years, I still cannot fathom a single positive thing it added to the game and we're reaping the consequences of it's addition as the bot/cheater problem wouldn't be anywhere near as bad as it is now if it weren't for it's inclusion.
Even if you do get in a game that's absent of cheaters, there's still a good 80% chance that the game you join will be a complete steam roll either with or against your favor. Playing with friends and trying to introduce them to this game always goes south as it consists of: wait 10 minutes to be put in a match, wait another minute for everyone to join, have both rounds end in less than 5 minutes due to the teams being utterly stacked, wait 5 minutes for a map vote, then leave the game and re-queue for an additional 10 minutes anyways because half the server rage-quitted after last match. Oh, and pray to god one of your friends doesn't get autobalanced halfway through, as there's basically no way you can change teams unlike years before.
Because how you played the game before, you looked in the server browser, found a server that was running a map/gamemode you liked, joined with your friends, and if the game was unbalanced you could either manually join the losing team to help them, or have autoscramble kick in which worked at least half of the time. It wasn't perfect, but I 1000% prefer it over the utter nightmare that is modern matchmaking. It's not nostalgia either, a community made mod called Team Fortress 2 Classic has that old system I just mentioned and I can play that game for literal hours in a single day, something I haven't done with normal TF2 in the longest time due to how frustrating it is to simply get put in a match. I can't even really put my finger on it but this matchmaking system has been the WORST thing I have ever seen added to a video game and I think it's going to pre-maturely kill this game.
I have a bit of a love/hate relationship with this game's community, but at the end of the day I've realized if you play this in 2023 you're just going to encounter every flavor of manchild there is. Hope you enjoy playing with obnoxious furries, weaboos, racists, and pride flag waving weirdos you probably shouldn't have around your children. I guess there's nothing inherently wrong with having these people present in your playerbase, but if these groups consist of the majority, then that really says a lot about the absolute state of your game.
We get "updates" every summer/Halloween/Christmas that consist of community made content with absolutely ZERO (0) quality control. I know the art style has been dead since the inclusion of paints in like 2010, but oh my god the new stuff that's being added to the game is almost inexcusable and quite embarrassing. I'm talking about cosmetics that have no regard for the intended art-style and throw team/class recognition out the window, maps that not only play like shit but look like baby's first project with the hammer editor being OFFICIALLY ADDED TO THE GAME. Valve literally cannot be damned to get at least 1 single person to check the quality of the content that's being included to one of their most popular IPs that rakes in tons of cash.
So yeah, if you're a new player or somebody thinking about getting back into TF2, I wouldn't bother. I want this game to be remembered for it's stunning legacy throughout the early '10s, offering the most fun experience you could have online, and not the pathetic zombie that it is now. There's nothing like it, but there's a lot of video games out there you can waste your time with. Don't waste your time with this one. Save it for something more enjoyable and do not enable Valve's neglect by blowing your wallet on stupid cosmetic items.