Team Fortress 2 Retrospective

[Music] experiences can't last forever everything has to end at some point this seems to be the philosophy at valve right now they've moved on from a lot of what they were once known for as they explore innovations in technology and I'm proud of them but what about the things that are built to last this is a common goal that many multiplayer games tend to share and it's a great mindset to have but among those games that strive for endless replayability one stands taller than the rest one that has had a significant cultural impact and has continued to draw in tens of thousands of players for years that game is over watch nah just kidding you know what it is it's not often that a game can become a respectable phenomenon we've seen phenomena before yeah but one that is unanimously respected is hard to come by Team Fortress 2 is something that transcends its medium and yet it never overstays its welcome through the gameplay the videos the comics the jokes the characters we love the memories we share tf2 is more than a video game in the modern day but how did this happen how is it retained such an active player base after all this time and what has Valve been doing to maintain it well there's only so much I can say that hasn't already been said I honestly don't know if anything I say will feel refreshing or interesting but in an effort to find out how valve built the game so dearly beloved for so many years I'm going to dive into what made the game what it is today there are so many voices in this community and I'd like to articulate them in some way in this video I'll be sharing my personal experiences with one of the best multiplayer games to ever release whether you've been playing since The Orange Box or you're just looking to pick up the game today hopefully something of value can be found in this video I'm Liam Triforce and this is a Team Fortress 2 retrospective in 1996 quake took the world by storm doom clones would no longer be doom clones they were first-person shooters quake was more than just a solid single-player game though with the introduction of quake world for online multiplayer and the source code of the game being available to the public the genre expanded further and an explosion of creativity was born from the modding community although there are countless stories to tell about mod creators and games that have spawned from the quake engine I've already made a video about the game's legacy today we're focusing on two teams one made up of former Microsoft employees that banded together to create valve and three Australian modders that created a class-based CTF mod called Team Fortress you had nine now-iconic classes to choose from and you all had to work together in order to capture the enemy's flag rather than act as individuals the cooperation and coordination involved in a match of Team Fortress immediately set it apart from anything else on the market and it retained a sizable player base for a long time meanwhile valve had just finished half-life and revolutionized what a first-person shooter could be as a whole video games were going through a monumental evolution in the late 90s that remains unrivaled to this day it figures that these single and multiplayer master Minds would collaborate in the end valve hired the TF team in orders to port the game to gold source half-life's engine as a means of promoting the game's sdk in addition the new and improved team got to work on a sequel and this is where the slippery slope that is tf2 s development cycle began the game was initially shown off at e3 1999 as Team Fortress 2 Brotherhood of Arms it took on a realistic military look in the commander class aim to merge a real-time strategy into the mix both when end up being dropped as the militaristic aesthetic would prove to age fast and the commander class exerted too much control over teams after e3 news on Team Fortress 2 was virtually non-existent valve occasionally reaffirmed that it was in development stating that it had moved to the source engine at one point but people were left in the dark for years the biggest break in tf2 news came in 2003 when the infamous half-life 2 leak occurred this face of the game's development had been dubbed invasion due to the humans vs. aliens science fiction theme mystically it would have aged a hell of a lot better than Brotherhood of arms but there were a few gameplay decisions that deviated far from the original game some of these absurdities included the commander class becoming a mechanic in which all classes could issue orders from a tactical view of the map the engineer known in this game as the defender could only build a sentry gun and they could unlock weapons during a match the spy known here as infiltrator could snoop on the enemy voice chat all classes could create buildings and those buildings included respawn stations for faster respawn times tunnels which replaced teleporters barbed wire bunkers shield walls and all sorts of crazy game changers there's a lot to talk about it could honestly make up its own video invasion was a complicated game that I can't imagine caught on with play testers like they were hoping it would so they went back to the drawing board once again at this point team fortress players had already become quite familiar with the nine classes in the core feedback loop that comes from breaking through choke points while utilizing teamwork wasn't getting stale I guess valve eventually realized that sticking to what worked before and refining that concept wouldn't be such a bad thing the team got to work on setting the classes apart in creating defining characteristics designing new maps while remaking old favorites and most importantly of all settling on a truly timeless art style all of this became apparent as valve finally revealed Team Fortress 2's final design in 2006 as a part of the Orange Box the game went on to receive critical acclaim but it's legacy outlived that compilation disc it's funny really a good chunk of TF fans bought half-life just so they could play Team Fortress 2 once it was available to download I wonder if they were ever given a rain check for that if you've been playing team fortress since the beginning please let me know how the wait was for you I'm super curious anyway it's been 13 years since Team Fortress 2 hit the market and the game has evolved significantly since then with more weapons to choose from and maps to visit than ever before but the core experience remains intact just as the core of team fortress remains intact if you were to go back to the original mod in many ways Team Fortress 2 accomplished its goal tf2 both streamlines and evolves the class-based shooter in significant ways creating a dynamic and replayable experience across the board in order to examine the breadth of team forretress - we need to address a lot like a lot a lot and I'm itching to talk about it all but we have to start somewhere don't we and in my mind I can't think of a better place to start than what the reason Team Fortress took off in the first place its classes for my analysis of each class I'm asking three simple questions and giving very detailed and complicated answers those three questions being what does this class contribute as an individual how can this class fill their role on a team how is there such a high skill ceiling these are questions that I feel like valve asked themselves a lot when developing the game the classes needed to operate smoothly on both fronts with abilities and weapons uniquely beneficial less classes should share weapons their abilities should be easily applicable once understood and the classes should all invite high skill ceilings in order to capture that same replayability TF players are used to I imagine it was overwhelming to accomplish this for nine classes but the game has had years of updates to continually define these traits as a results valve has absolutely nailed it let's go over what makes each and every one of them so damn fun to play eat my dust there's a reason Scout is number one on the roster his gameplay at face value is immediately familiar to anyone that has played a first-person shooter run and shoot your scatter gun switch to your pistol if need be and swing that melee weapon if push comes to shove in an effort to define how Scout can contribute to a teamfight things have changed since the original team fortress rather than being a fast boy that can't deal much damage in the long run his speed and damage are his vital assets yeah now while that might sound inviting to a beginner as you play you begin to learn his greatest strengths and crushing weaknesses although Scout is the fastest class in the game and his maneuverability is unmatched allowing him to avoid taking damage in most situations he's not invincible in fact his health is so low that it feels like he's made of paper it won't take much to shut him down a direct hit from a rocket could almost entirely drain your health a fully charged body shot from a sniper could wipe you out and Pyro's lingering fire damage could spell your end all the same so keeping your distance is a good idea right well no actually the closer you are to an enemy the more likely it is that Scouts scatter gun pellets will all connect the stealing greater damage there's nothing quite like the feeling of having pinpoint accuracy in close quarters combat and blasting someone into oblivion boom bang feels amazing but these situations only arise from intelligent play scouts entire play style hinges on risk versus reward and it's more complicated than simply running and gunning that leaves us with your average Scout players constant dilemma when do you run and when do you gun in theory Scout could 1v1 every single class in the game and stand a chance he's capable of so much and yet he can be easily overwhelmed say you're up against soldier avoid the Rockets in a splash damage and while he's reloading getting close to finish him Demoman same deal really but a soldier and a demo man ah no it's best to get out of there see although scout can hold his own on the frontlines it's far less smart and rewarding to play this way because all it will take is some focused attacks to push you back however the ability to skedaddle your way on out of there if a situation seems too intimidating is virtually exclusive to scout and it plays a huge part in his role on a team that role being more complex and skill basse than an enemy you just shot in the face would realize now my team sucks there are three rules I live by when I play Scout the first being be brave this is crucial as damage output with scout relies on how close and accurate you're able to be being brave takes skill and if you don't have the skill you won't be an effective scout allow me to walk you through this process for years I was a terrible scout one of the worst Scouts you could ever ask for I couldn't hit my shots I was a sitting duck most of the time not properly utilizing scout speed to Juke enemies and I wasn't using my brain eventually I got fed up and I really wanted to improve my first step in this journey was utilizing the backscatter while it's shots are 20% less accurate it rewards you with mini crits if you shoot an enemy in the back this forced me to get up close and personal with enemies due to both the lack of accuracy with the backscatter and its mini crit potential in order to actually hit my shots I needed to annoy the [ __ ] out of people while using the backscatter I learned how to dodge enemy attacks and commit to all sorts of mind games because it was a necessary step in landing my shots the lack of accuracy also allowed me to train my aim as soon as I switch back to the scatter gun I was hitting pretty much all of my shots it was like taking off the training wheels I went from being a minor annoyance to a deadly nuisance there's something so satisfying about blasting an enemy that can't seem to hit your slippery ass another way the game rewards bravery is with the force of nature much like the other scatter guns you need to get in close for this to be effective but this one will knock back opponents the closer you are the farther they fly and the more damage you deal it's a great get off my point kind of weapon and there are a ton of those in tf2 but remember bravery doesn't cancel out foolishness and that's why rule number two is be smart this big brain time part of why I was successful in using the back scatters because I knew the lay of the land I knew which route would lead me to my next victim and I knew when to run away this takes experience but you can prove to be extremely useful to your team by picking off enemies that can't see you coming if you can flank behind a sniper heavy medic or anyone else your team will be forever in your debt once you've mastered the art of flanking and you pair it with seal dodging and picking your fights you become this little mosquito that just can't be swatted the enemy team will hate you and that is what's most rewarding about playing like this speaking of being a mosquito it's really fun to hop into a casual match with some friends and swarm the objective as a gang of Scouts just a swarm of bugs converging and consuming everyone in their path but of course when you need to retreat or stay back it's important to remember rule number three your pistol exists yeah although scout is certainly not built for long-range combat there's a reason they give you a pistol in the first place there's a reason there's an achievement for taking down a century gun with your pistol there's a reason you can harvest help from enemies with pretty boys pocket pistol like an annoying douchebag indeed you can still be a nuisance from afar and with weapons like the mad milk or the flying guillotine you can slowly chip away a group of enemies while your team can back you up while utilizing these three rules you can pursue the high skill cap that Scout invites and that his movement and scattergun allow in earlier builds Scouts primary weapon was going to be the SMG and this wasn't changed until much later in development I couldn't imagine him without a scattergun it was a necessary change in order to evolve scout from his TFC predecessor and it's what gives him identity and makes him so fun to play of course scout can't really control ground during a tense impact combat situation which brings us to our next class romantic whether he's in the air or on the ground rain or shine night or day a great soldier can dominate the enemy team he is one of the easiest characters to understand he's one of the most versatile classes in the game and mastering him is an immensely rewarding process the core of his character is based around shooting a rocket launcher and it's quite amazing how complicated simply shooting a rocket launcher can be from a glance it's simple lead your shots land your rockets and just don't miss easy peasy but what about all the times you do miss see soldiers Rockets may be powerful but to compensate for the 100 damage a direct hit can do they travel slowly giving enemies a chance to dodge them for in Pyro's case a chance to reflect them you're always taking a chance when shooting at pyro it depends on whether or not that particular pyro can air blast properly we'll talk more about that in due time anyways yes the Rockets are designed to be dodged or countered in some way and hitting enemies means predicting what they're going to do in an infeasible amount of time thus the process of learning how to play soldier begins and it starts with Splash Damage first you predict where an enemy is gonna be if the enemy is too difficult to land a direct hit on you shoot the grounder wall next to them successive blasts can actually lead to kills and rather than being a crutch for new soldier players it's an essential part of his design hitting Splash Damage optimally means playing mental chess with your opponent shoot where they're going to be or wait for them to get closer and catch them off-guard as you refine your shots and outsmart enemies direct hits come naturally soldiers rocket launcher might be the easiest learning process to outline in tf2 but the nuances to is launcher are endless for example there's another thing to consider when shooting at enemies you can only fire four Rockets in succession before having to reload leading to situations where you need to consider how many Rockets you should fire before reloading relying on your shotgun or falling back if need be soldiers rocket launcher has a lot going for it and it might seem silly to encourage intelligent play considering the characters canonical lead poisoning but good soldiers know where to aim when to reload and who to focus in order to win matches it's amazing just how much of a difference hitting splash damage or strategizing with rocket reloads can make but soldiers utility doesn't end there he can be a vital asset to his team in more ways than one playing soldier on defense means pushing enemies back with rockets you may not be able to flank as much which is something all offense classes rely on but you can punish overconfident classes that rush objectives and guard the flank by playing the roamer I also like to use the battalions backup on defense not only does it grant me an extra 20 health but once my rage meter fills I can protect my team from critical hits 35% of incoming damage and 50% of incoming century damage which is great for pushing forward on offense soldier really is a jack-of-all-trades and he can contribute to his team in significant ways Here I am managing the choke point flank and our backline in order to prevent the enemy team from making a possible play all thanks to my trusty rocket launcher and I know medics love to be charged heavy but every once in a while you'll have that one medic that decides to Ober a soldier and when that medic is using crits Creed why don't you go limp he would not have created so we've evaluated his role as an individual and as an asset to his team but what makes the soldiers skill ceiling so high although hitting Splash Damage and direct hits and improving in that process is compelling in its own right there's one more technique that allows soldier players to take their character to new heights ever since the quake days jumping with rockets has become somewhat of a mainstay although it originated as an exploit by the time quake 3 rolled around even computer-controlled opponents were doing it it was a great technique that raised the skill ceiling in competitive play Team Fortress 2 has made it a primary technique for soldier to utilize soldiers classified as one of these slowest classes in the game due to his walking speed but really he has the potential to be one of the fastest you can travel incredible distances in the blink of an eye thanks to rocket jumping it's a technique that takes a lot of practice and strategy but the payoff is worth it once you've learned to the simple jump Crouch shoot combo you can use rocket jumping to throw yourself back into the fray more quickly than ever before but putting it into practice is a different story you need to know how much damage you'll take from your Rockets and when you hit the ground and if you can still fight while wounded but when you're prepared it's a great feeling Here I am taking control of the isolated point in badlands by rising above and raining a hail upon these poor souls there's a lot that can be done with rocket jumping that I still have yet to put into practice optimally like pogoing and playing troll sure with the market gardener but that's a testament to soldiers skill ceiling a crazed rocket launcher fiend that seems simple to pick up has an insane amount of depth to his gameplay in every waking moment Splash Damage direct hits rocket jumping strategy it's all here and there's always something to learn it feels like you can never stop improving with soldier even though he's so simple to comprehend if there were ever a class I would recommend to first-time tf2 players I think it would be soldier his health is modest his weapon is powerful and his basic strategy is easy to understand and execute his high skill ceiling compelled me to keep playing him even when I was just starting way back in the day or you could turn your brain off and play pyro of course that's hyperbole none of the classes in Team Fortress 2 are that easy but the pyro at first glance resembles that philosophy pretty closely they're flamethrower pretty much guarantees lingering damage so you can be an absolute nuisance by popping a few flames in there and running away holding those two magic buttons and melting poor souls that dare cross your path it's funny because this is exactly what pyro could be boiled down to in the first game I felt like an [ __ ] whenever I would pick pyro here not much has changed although you'll still need to coordinate with your team in order to effectively drive enemies away fire damage is so devastating that you can single-handedly turn the tides with an uber charge and even then sometimes all it takes is a sneaky push and some fire to get the job done look at this no one can escape without eventually succumbing to the fire as the damage lingers and Here I am destroying an engineer nest and crushing his dreams because I simply flanked around the choke point pyro is an evil being that rewards basic strategy with kills and captured objectives case in point the flog this weapon is the devil once your meter is filled by dealing damage you can't ought to gain guaranteed critical hits this absolutely tears through enemies turning them to piles of ash in the blink of an eye I completely understand why people hate fighting this class in most situations I tend to curse out the flog under my breath when I die to it it's probably not a good idea to teach new players that this is how you should play the game when I first set foot in team fortress back in 2007 I picked pyro and I was getting kills here and there from rushing an enemy with my flamethrower and I was a dumb kid I thought that I was playing the game right that's why when I switched to any other class and attempted the same thing I would get body of course there is some thought to holding that magic button combo like I've touched upon already flanking and playing stealthily can reward you with some great plays but that's only half of what makes a beneficial play in this game with scout flanking his way easier but actually killing people takes accuracy and skill soldier can make great plays in a similar manner but he's a sitting duck without mobility and that's where rocket jumping comes in handy skill makes up the second half of a play like that but with pyro yeah I can't really say the same thing sneak up on them push forward with fire retreat just chip away at their health with some guaranteed fire damage with all that said I think it's beneficial to have a pyro on your team their skill ceiling is much higher than you might be led to believe first of all Pyro's weapons can open up new doors for people that insist on playing aggressively although weapons like the flog and backburner encourage the same play style that Johnny day one install likes to stick to things start to get interesting with the dragon's fury why because you actually have to aim successive shots with the dragon's fury will also reward you with triple the amount of damage if the target is on fire resulting in some devastating plays no one can leave their spawn here and they're all falling before me the degreaser lets you switch weapons faster meaning that you can deal a significant amount of damage by switching between your degreaser and shotgun like a madman pyro secondary weapons invite the most significant alternative strategies though the flare gun is fantastic for punishing a burning enemy trying to escape as it deals critical hits to anyone that's on fire the scorch shot deals a similar amount of damage through mini crits but it has Splash Damage and its obnoxious to fight against these two are great on defenses they can prevent enemies from pushing forward in the interest of maintaining their sanity and when it comes to melee weapons there's always one I tend to stick by the power Jack gives pyro a bit of a speed boost which can make for really tense moments when you're rushing towards the point like a fast boy and it can also bring you some hilarious kills there's also the extinguisher for many creating burning opponents and engulfing people with the sharpened volcano fragment honestly there's a lot to talk about with Pyro's weapons I could spend a long time discussing them but the point is the majority of them encourage some semblance of thought when playing aggressively people will make you out to be some sort of evil person but that's just how it is for a pyro main thriving off the tears of your enemies however there are ways to earn the respect of your peers most of you have probably heard of the term high bro it was popularized by a wonderful sfm animation created by TTM are essentially you equip the homewrecker and assist your fellow engineer in dealing with spies if there's a sapper you destroy it if there's a spy you burn them and if there's a rocket you air blast it air blast air blast air blast oh where to start with Pyro's air blasts in 2008 with the pyro update Pyro's skill ceiling reached new heights if there were ever a way to gain the respect of fellow tf2 players it would be by using your air blast let's break it down first off pyro can extinguish burning teammates in order to regain 20 health all you have to do is right-click while aiming at them and they will be forever in your debt second you can push enemies back seems only slightly disruptive in concept and it doesn't damage the enemy but with enough creativity and thought you can completely change the course of a game with it heavy pushing the cart never fear pyro is here the inverse of this works - I want a competitive match by air blasting this poor heavy into a corner while my team pushed the cart into the goal need to clear the Poynting king of the hill or control points pyro can totally take care of that for you it is almost my favorite part about playing pyro almost know my favorite thing about playing pyro is reflecting projectiles this is Pyro's most devastating ability and it takes a lot of practice to truly master whenever a projectile is reflected and it hits an opponent it mini crits them rewarding skill and reflexes with a class that desperately needed something like this you have to know when to air blasts know where to aim and pay attention to your ammo depending on the distance between you and your enemy you may only have a split-second to react but a successful air blast can be a game-changer the medic gave soldier a steady stream of Crockett's and harassed us preventing us from pushing the cart any further I saw an opportunity and I took it not my time to shine yeah stuff like this never gets old it's always insanely gratifying to crush the enemies confidence with pure skill remember when I mentioned soldier taking a gamble with enemy Pyro's well here's a fantastic example of what not to do against pyro this soldier knows I've been defending the final point for a while and he's aware that I have a functioning brain I extinguished this heavy and Juke the soldiers rockets it's just me and him now this soldier would not only jeopardize his own life by shooting at me but also his teams and yet he does so anyway an enemy Scout jumps out of a window not realizing what lies in store for him next due to his teammates negligence keep it down Liam yep that's right if you shoot an explosive at pyro be prepared to face the consequences of your actions thank you demo this mechanic makes pyro both easy to learn but insanely fun to master Pyro's versatile weapon selection and usefulness thanks to air blasting makes them a valuable asset to their team and the skill kept being based around air blasting sets you up for exciting moments like some of the stuff I've shown you pyro may be an evil class but they're a necessary evil a skilled pyro can adhere to a team's needs in so many different ways and I can always respect a skilled air blast from a pyromania a stinky play there's a lot to hate about pyro but there's also a lot to love so I can't stay too mad at them evil comes in many forms however let's take a look at demo man for such a long time I have hated playing against a good Demoman their stickies they're direct hits and the way they seem to be able to control ground with relative ease always pissed me off then one day I decided [ __ ] it if you can't beat them join them hahaha I can't believe that worked honestly this felt like I was being corrupted I had become the very thing I swore to destroy but unlike pyro demo ads based gameplay actually does take some basic learning before you can become effective and that's what makes playing as I'm rewarding the first thing to get the hang of are the pills in his grenade launcher the arc they travel in as well as their explosion radius are essential in getting kills as demo men in order to train your aim I recommend using the iron bomber as the pills have very little role and you'll get used to landing them next to your opponents this is actually my favorite grenade launcher of the bunch as a result see a direct hit from one of these pills does a hundred damage meaning that assuming none of your enemies are over healed two direct hits are enough to kill eight of the game's nine classes the trade-off is that it takes a lot of practice mind games and timing in order to hit them at a 1v1 you can also shoot them at random into a battle like an absolute degenerate and hope you hit shots because that actually works sometimes and I think that's what I've hated most about demo means much like the basic pyro plays sometimes demo players know they can get away with stuff like this and of course I did this - I mean it's doing something right oh god I'm becoming one of em aren't I that's what I realized what compelled demo players to improve launching your pills just right to do the maximum amount of damage is incredibly satisfying feat you can always work on your launcher proficiency and that feedback loop is one of the main reasons I love this game so much but the grenade launcher isn't the only thing that makes demo man so compelling this here is the sticky bomb launcher and in the right hands it can be the enemy team's worst nightmare once you've become accustomed to how each map works and how players progress through you can take advantage of this predictability by thinking ahead planting sticky bombs on the payloads so that when this poor soul backs away from the fight he's dead planting them on the flank so no one can take you by surprise without being gypped first launching them on to a point when the enemy is distracted and punishing them for existing yeah playing demo man makes me feel dirty I feel like the black suited spider-man getting a taste of this incredible power as it's slow consumes me eventually I expect to be one of the most hated tf2 players this side of 2/4 I guess it helps that Demoman skill ceiling is as expected very high direct hit pills feel so good to land because of the effort it takes to get to that point stickies are emphatically satisfying because you get this overwhelming rush of dopamine as you have smart your enemy unless you spam them like an absolute tool but that's not the point this is all only scratching the surface of what demo is capable of remember rocket jumping well demo has his own version of that called sticky jumping and it's honestly way easier to get the hang of it only took me a few matches to grasp how useful it could be when rushing the point or raining hell in a century nests from above air strafing allows you to trim the fat of a level and jump right back into the action letting slower and more important frontline classes take the teleporter in the meantime and there's still more to talk about you can replace your sticky bomb launcher with a charging shield like this splendid screen or the tide Turner in order to rush enemies and bomb the hell out of them if you pair this with one of demo man's melee weapons you can transform into the illustrious demo night using rant surfaces in order to fly through the air and chop down some sorry bastard that happen to be below you this takes mastery of the game engines nuances but valve see stuff like this is a feature rather than an exploit it's not easy to thrust yourself into combat without a gun in this game despite the damage that demoknight is capable of it takes a lot of practice to become solar light it's like learning how to play an entirely new class but the complexities of these classes are what make up my love for this game demo is a versatile beast on both offense and defense he can pose a threat to the enemy team and although he is a despicable class to fight against it's so much fun to improve with him I'm so sorry guys I love this class and I will continue to fall to the darkness after playing so much demo man I'm feeling this insatiable bloodlust I love tearing enemies down and I want to see them fall who else can I pick to fill that role is the heavy although heavy is a vulnerable bullet sponge and although he needs to rely on his team to make plays his raw power makes him one of the most addictive classes in the game if an enemy is unprepared or unequipped when they meet him around a corner they're as good as dead look at me go I just cannot be stopped here he's nice heavy was the first class I ever played as in Team Fortress 2 so he holds a special place in my heart there's a lot to learn about both playing as and fighting heavy for one heavy can take a lot of damage he's usually the first one to be coordinating a push and he's usually the big distraction while the other classes flank around or pick off enemies because of this heavy was a perfect introduction for me into what makes this a team shooter my entire team knew that I was a valuable asset in controlling an objective so they made sure to keep me alive and helped me out on the offensive he's great at keeping enemies away no matter what role he's supposed to be filling you'd think that with the sheer size of this lad there'd be no way to take him down but heavy definitely has his weaknesses he's the slowest class in the game and the gloves of running urgently aren't gonna help him much in that regard he's an easy pick for snipers and spies and although he may be good at absorbing bullets he isn't invincible a good heavy needs to strategize for example he needs to know what he's getting himself into before he pushes and coordinate with his team so that anyone that can potentially drain his health is eliminated once that happens everyone works together to back up this big turret with legs as he moves the cart forward and wins the game he also needs to know when he can act as an individual in order to make things easier for his team with patience heavy confined higher ground or flanking routes and totally demolish an enemy team on his own how do I do this you might ask well with my trusty banana I can replenish all of the health I might have lost on the battlefield I use this over the sandwich due to its quick recharge time meaning that I can play more aggressively and retreat quickly if I need to have a quick bite indeed sometimes it's best to just take a break and observe the world around you as you chow down all of these elements come together to create one of the craziest classes and Team Fortress 2 as an example here is an anxiety ridden moment that I'll never forget we were on defense but things weren't working out for us our engineers were being sabotaged and we didn't have enough damage dealing classes to keep the enemies at bay I took matters into my own hands I managed the flank on my own picking off classes one by one after I felt it was safe I stepped back out onto the choke to find the entire video game situated in front of me so from here I stayed to the sidelines but eventually our nest was being infiltrated again so I picked off their heavy and demo from afar after sustaining a ton of damage and a retreat to eat my banana again but in comes their spy who dies tragically I feel completely isolated from my team as the enemy pushes forward I managed to brute force my way in until they're heavy and sniper both start riddling me with bullets and you know what you should just watch this transpire four arrows in your head [Music] that is the beauty of Team Fortress 2 although the enemy team consistently exploited my weaknesses I'm able to persevere based on knowledge of the map strategy and heavies damage output heavy is such a fun class to strategize with that although he may be mechanically simple there's a lot of thought that goes into when your gun should be spun up and when you should fight that's what I love about heavy the coordination that goes into being able to rip through a team is what's most rewarding and his skill cap is based around the strategies that you can implement although sometimes it's best to take a break from the carnage in relax that's right there's nothing better than just taking a load off and letting your buildings do the work engineer is always a valuable asset to his team a century gun for pushing teams back a dispenser for saving your teammates lives and a teleporter for letting your most valuable frontline classes reach the battle in time engineer is truly the kick back and relax kind of class hanging out with your team while leveling up your buildings and chilling out together completely stress-free let's analyze engineer by taking a look at what usually takes place in a single match the first thing I usually do is place my teleporter entrance at spawn maintaining a teleporter means place to get out of sight and reach of the enemy team but also close enough for you to repair it if need be it also needs to be close enough to the objective so that your buddies can rush into the fray without any delay this is part of what makes engineer so fun to improve with you get to experiment with risky placements and your own knowledge of a map in order to assist your team optimally it's so rewarding to get support points for teleport after teleport of course there are things that frustrate me just a little bit about building a teleporter for example do you see the scout trying to take the teleporter don't be this scout let's low and important frontline classes take it first like the heavy medic or soldier scout can run to the frontlines it's what he was built for also don't fight over the teleporter when there's someone at the mashed potatoes out of buffet what do you do you get in line and have some manners if you're a pyro and your medic needs to get to the frontlines to heal you're heavy let the medic go first people that fight over the teleporter make me so angry all I'm trying to do is win us the game and people like this unnecessarily handicap teams huh okay let's calm down after all engineer is a chill guy wife read about things just keep building and watch things unfold let's talk about our next building this is Spencer and he'll give you and your teammates health and ammo when you need them most there are many options for Spencer's placement ranging from right up in the middle of the action or slightly out of reach or next year sentry gun or in the back lines by your teleporter for people to fall back on Spencer is a very important building and can help you maintain your other buildings by feeding you metal in matches where you won't have much time to build a nest before your enemies show up you'll need to figure out when the best time would be to build in as it cost half of your metal to build a simple level one Spencer but without Spencer you'll need to figure out where you can get your metal from and metal management can be one of the most stressful things while playing engineer especially if your teammates steal your metal when your buildings are about to go down and you're completely dry and don't steal my metal oh okay sorry about that I lost my cool ammo is for sharing not hoarding even though my sentry gun went down because I was out of metal and had nowhere to turn to okay all right never mind playing engineer is not stressful all right it just isn't check it out my sentry gun can take care of everything I love trying to find the sneakiest spots that also happen to cover a lot of ground and punishing the enemies that try to push forward everything about engineer is finely tuned for teamwork strategy and player ingenuity if you're able to maintain your nest you'll be rewarded with a wealth of kills in an enemy team unable to achieve their objective although that makes the big old sentry gun a valuable target and the enemy team knows that it's the only thing standing in their way so as a result things might get a little heated well you spy mr. poopy head okay I can't lie anymore playing engineer is very stressful it's one of the most stressful things I've experienced in a multiplayer shooter I can't handle any of my buildings going down without throwing a tantrum alongside the reward that comes from intelligently strategizing for a match there's this visceral feeling that spawns from maintaining your nest wall under fire it Joseph's and bullets rained down on you but you have to remain calm communicate with your team and hope to god they actually come to your aid when you're being assaulted by a soldier or spy this is where weapons like the rescue Ranger come in handy so that you can reach your buildings from afar if you need to move around your nest and when it comes to defending your babies no weapon comes close to the bullying that can ensue if you equip the Wrangler this thing allows you to take manual control of your century and reduces incoming damage by 66% if you're able to stay out of sight while using this thing or your sensory placement is especially cheeky you can be a total scumbag look at us we're unstoppable here not even a spy can sneak back here without getting caught yeah as an engineer sometimes it's best to take matters into your own hands although it might seem like engineer works best when he's working with his team remember the three primary questions I asked earlier the first one was regarding a class's individual contributions an engineer can totally act as an individual case in point my favorite shotgun the frontier justice whether you're on offense or defense this thing can really put the enemy team in their place for every kill your sentry gun gets you'll get a back stock of a wrench crits once the gun goes down now as tempting as it might be to rush out there and take advantage of those crits after building up a significant amount of them it's not wise to waste them you can intentionally destroy your sentry gun at any moment to gain those crits this is great on defense when you have some time to rebuild your century and on offense it's an essential move having control over when you gain those crits means getting more kills and winning more games engineer may not be a dps class but he's never defenseless this soldier launched me up in the air but unbeknownst to him I'm thirsty for some revenge bye good night Irene speaking of which engineer can be a total nuisance during a full frontal assault on offense alongside moving your dispenser and teleporter upward with every capture you can equip the gunslinger in order to use a disposable mini sentry it shoots pretty dang fast and since it's designed to be singled out despite the damage it can cause you can load up on revenge crits and push forward like the terrifying Texan you are always destined to be it's so liberating to play engineer on offense and it's a testament to how useful a clever engineer can be to their team at this point class categories are nothing but a suggestion you can put these classes either side of the field and they can do something there's a lot to talk about with engineer strategy weapon loadouts and more but I'm not uncle Dane so I won't go over everything here but engineer skill ceiling is basically limitless the class endlessly rewards creativity has no match of Team Fortress 2 is the same as the last and he can contribute to a match in surprising ways there's a lot to learn and a lot to practice so get out there and build of course for some people staying behind and supporting your team from a distance is a preferred play style that's one of the main reasons Medic exists to be honest I'm surprised at how unwilling people can be to pick medic sometimes I guess people see his responsibility to keep the team alive as either overwhelming or as if you're babysitting your teammates personally I see it as a challenge once you get the hang of how medic can be used you can apply yourself in so many different ways with your teammates moving all over the map and exerting themselves I find it really fun to keep up with them and make sure their health has topped off it's like playing an entirely new game in which I can act passively and heal my teammates but of course medic can contribute to a victory in a big way while healing injured teammates medics übercharge meter will fill and once you unleash that thing well connect it to a teammate the entire course of a match can change in an instant thanks to your invulnerability there's a reason a medic uber charging a heavy has become one of the most iconic images and Team Fortress 2 it's because a strategic coordinated push that can win matches often begin with an image such as that so it takes skill in both active and passive fields to play medic as you both frantically try to keep all your teammates alive and make split-second decisions that could change the game there are other many guns that can give you different ubercharge effects as I'm sure most of you are aware the gratification granted by a crit screen uber makes me want to gravitate towards it every time when pushing we may be invincible with the stock minigun but a well-coordinated crits craig means wiping the floor with the enemy team in seconds and taking background I've also grown fond of the quick fix not only does it heal the weakest of teammates much quicker it's ubercharge can turn you and your pocket into an annoying bullet sponge but my favorite medigun is easily vaccinator this ramps up the chaotic nature of healing multiple targets that have come to love while playing medic in exchange for a traditional invulnerability period you can switch between three damage types and use 25% of your meter it's a negate a certain percentage of damage for a short period of time it's an incredibly fun Medi gun that contributes to my volatile play style as medic and I've made some of my best plays using it not many people like it when I use the vac in competitive matches because they can't coordinate a great push with it but I've made it work and sold them on my play style sure you can't use it all the time but it's too much fun I can't put it down I'm sorry oh yeah don't believe the medics on your team by the way even if they're a new medic they're all just trying their best to keep you guys alive positive reinforcement goes a long way always be sure to thank your medic after every heal as it'll not only make them feel better about what they're doing but it'll also make them more likely to heal you as the match goes on take it from me if you treat me with kindness as I play medic or coordinate with me I'll immediately gravitate towards pocketing you in a pinch unless you're a spy I guess that sounds stupid speaking of pocketing people playing medic has always left me with some special moments in this clip our team is getting murdered one by one at the final point on granary our team is spread too thin and I can't run over to the other side without risking my life so I stuck by this soldier and together we attack the enemy team for ages they couldn't kill us it was like this desperate struggle to stay alive and from that moment forward we shared a special bond that's the kind of stuff I live for when I play medic although he can't act as an individual very well aside from using the insanely useful Crusaders crossbow and my philosophy towards the games classes kind of falters there Mattox skill ceiling and importance on a team make up for that he's designed from the get-go to be a team player above all else and the game does a great job of allowing the player to pursue reflex and strategy as a medic Maine medic is actually one of my most played classes in tf2 to this day and while he is a very simple class to understand there's a lot more to him than meets the eye so I feel excited every time my team needs a medic in contrast it's not often that a team might feel they need a sniper [Music] you got a forehead on your like a coffee table wait cabal your head wider [Music] while medic is involved in pretty much every battle and most teammates turn to him for help in dire situations sniper is isolated from the rest of the match and his encounters with other enemies are always intimate and personal it reminds me of the relaxing area between spawn and the frontline that you can observe while playing engineer except it's part of snipers core design now throughout the years I've always been a terrible sniper to this day he remains my least played class and yet his gameplay simply boils down to clicking on heads sure you might need to charge a shot for the beefier opponents or get a body shot on a tricky target like scout but that's what you'll want to be doing most of the time clicking on those heads but there's so much thought and skill that goes into doing something like that first let's talk about aiming your window of opportunity to click on a head is always quite small unless your target is standing still it's always nerve-racking when trying to hit a moving target and I find myself waiting for the perfect shot instead of just going for it I also have a severe case of Guitar Hero aim meaning that I always wait for my target to walk into my crosshair it's pretty good strat but it's not something you should be doing exclusively rather you should pair this technique with tracking that means following an enemy head until you're confident you could predict their movements and then shooting this takes patience to follow up on but once it clicks you will start hitting more shots getting good at sniper means putting yourself in similar scenarios and thinking about how you can improve every time another sniper picks you off or you're singled out by an enemy combo there's an opportunity for you to think about what you could have done better how can you improve your aim and who should you kill first once that happens it all comes down to playing a lot of sniper just like every class I've discussed already practice makes perfect or at least the closest thing you can get to perfect the replayability of tf2 comes from mastering each class you can play for 10,000 hours and you still won't be perfect in a few areas and with sniper this becomes apparent immediately after I threw my temper tantrums when I'd miss my shots and get killed I took some deep breaths applied everything I'd learned and eventually started hating some fantastic shots I was so proud of myself your team may not be able to understand why you're so proud and they can't see what you're going through and trying to land those headshots but as long as you're picking off those valuable targets they can at least breathe easy knowing a heavy can't pin them down without risking his own head in the process sniper is such a unique class in that regard contributing to the team does actually boil down to killing as many people as you can there's not much strategy to consider like with other frontline classes it's simply a game of raw skill that's why when I out snipe an enemy sniper in a duel I feel like I'm king of the world if you can't click on those heads as reliably as you'd like don't worry there are other ways sniper can contribute to a match that often go overlooked one of my favorite weapons in tf2 history is snipers trusty jar of piss if you throw it at an enemy or a group of them it'll leave them vulnerable to mini crits which can allow your team to push forward and shred some enemies to pieces my pace actually allowed us to cap a point that is a sentence that I just set out loud another option for snipers that have a hard time hitting headshots is the good old Huntsman this turns sniper into an archer and hitting headshots means factoring in the travel time of your arrow while predicting enemy movements considering I'm such an avid flare gun user this came naturally to me and I managed to have a lot of fun playing like this like demo night and the gunslinger the Huntsman essentially turns sniper into an entirely different class so there are a lot of ways sniper can be effective and I don't feel nearly as anxious when I see two underperforming snipers on our team as I used to be it's because I know what it's like to be those snipers and I know that someday they'll be capable of performing the same fantastic feats that I was able to accomplish I tried not to rip this video off but Laci Purple's video on the self-doubt and anxiety that comes with playing such as skill driven class as sniper perfectly encapsulates what it is that keeps people coming back most of us have probably already seen these beautiful videos already but if you haven't holy crap they're good oh one last thing remember to switch to the Razorback if need be because in the heat of the moment as you're looking through your scope and focusing on tracking enemies you never know when a certain someone will be right behind you I never really was on your side although spy isn't my most played class he is easily my favorite class in tf2 and I've been dying to talk about him he can be one of the most destructive classes in the game and he features some of the coolest mechanics I have ever seen in a video game period however spy isn't easy to come to grips with you need to learn a lot before you're able to outsmart the enemy team in order to walk you through what I think makes spy such an incredible class I need to tell you about my learning process one day my friends and I were queued for a match on harvest and I made the brave choice to pick spy as it turns out harvest happened to be one of the best maps I could have chosen to learn how to play spy it's tight corridors and claustrophobic battles meant I could slip in at any given moment without arousing suspicion of course it's not that easy you can't play like an idiot and expect eight kills here at first I had no idea how I was gonna sneak in I have no clue how the enemy team is gonna act so I need to study them first in order to do that I decided to cloak around and analyze their behavior before blending in harvest allowed me to do this for extended periods of time thanks to the plethora of ammo boxes lying around that refilled my cloak meter that and this training wheel revolver that gives me more cloak I learned that the snipers in my match generally tended to climb onto the roof so I walked up the stairs disguise the sniper while the enemy team watched and they didn't think anything was wrong I get up there and backstab two snipers this was insanely gratifying as a new spy player but I knew I couldn't stop there snipers are easy picks as we've already demonstrated I needed to slip into the frontlines and get some more valuable kills I noticed that their scout had gone one way so I stuck to the other side of spawn disguised as him and made my way towards the point while the blue team was fighting I struck spy allows for opportunities like this to arise at any given moment there's so much complicated thinking that goes into hiding amongst the crowd and I found myself chasing that feeling here's an example of a big brain spy play performed by this spy right here during this match we had a few spies on her team attempting to learn how to play the class I saw this spy and I thought he was adorable he's looking for the right mo two-strike so I decided I'd show him how it's done then I saw he had his revolver out and I immediately realized that I had been pranked and before I knew it you are an amateur and a food that's what I love about spy there are opportunities to completely fool your opponent all over the place and the smarter you are about blending in with the enemy team the more kills you can get a good knife to use in order to train for backstab killstreaks is the big earner thanks to the speed boost and cloak it grants you want kill it can help close gaps and make some great plays across the map nowadays I like to use the connivers kunai because it grants me an over heal every time I backstab someone I pair this with a Diamondback which grants me one crit per backstab and two crits percept building this can enable me to play aggressively like an actual degenerate and go further beyond what was ever intended for Spy Liam please my age none is sore from being stabbed I feel like a little ninja when I play spy eventually I stopped trying to blend in and instead I went for kills I realized that preventing an enemy push meant simply killing their heavy hitters and if I were clever about when I backstab I could slip back out of the fight before anyone could find me of course I learned that backstabbing in the midst of an enemy team meant getting myself killed almost instantly but if my opponents were lined up and there were but a few of them I knew I'd spotted my opportunity for a play I've graduated from the Ninja Academy and now I'm gonna become Hokage believe it [Music] [Music] it's important to note that spy can land a backstab even if an enemy is only facing 90 degrees away from him and there's also an occasion where a spy could stab someone in the face because the server saw backstab regardless of what either player saw this can enable some fancy stabs and if you pair that with some great a movement you can apply the core of what spy is all about in head-to-head combat outsmarting opponents and getting behind them for a stab there's a lot to talk about with spy and I could go on about different loadouts for days the dead ringer invites a totally new way to outsmart your enemy as it allows you to fake your death and punish unsuspecting opponents your eternal reward allows you to disguise as the enemy you just backstab potentially letting you chain together back stabs while players think you're one of them there's a lot to discuss and there are many ways to enjoy spy what matters is that you find something that works because as long as you're helping your team and making a difference it's all good thank you thank you so much but of course spy is perhaps the most accurate representation of what it means to play tf2 so many ways to play so many things to learn so much fun to digest it all and apply your knowledge as a team the game only needed nine classes to demonstrate this 9 incredibly focused classes with countless ways to apply yourself and countless combinations of teams and weapons a seemingly endless amount of depth and a seemingly endless amount of fun Team Fortress 2's classes make the game mechanically rich and they established the game as one of the best multiplayer shooters of all time I could spend a thousand hours pushing through the same choke point and still learn things about how I can approach an objective in order to make a game last Team Fortress 2 should be used as reference not in terms of surface level gameplay but in how it achieves replayability through genuine mechanical depth I don't expect anyone to be able to rival them but it certainly helps a game out to try but all of this despite my praise isn't what made tf2 jump out at people it was the personality of this game that did in that first trailer for Team Fortress 2 we got our first look at the art style that the game would take on although it proved to be a timeless style taking notes from artists like Dean Cornwell and masking the low polygon count this trailer would not have sold the general public on the game take a look at this image although all of their designs are distinct and make them easy to point out from afar in an oversaturated market of multiplayer shooters the team knew they needed to push themselves in order to make a splash now we compare this early image to the image that we've all seen a million times and you can already see there's a major difference in conveying personality from just looking at this image you get a basic idea of what these characters is supposed to be like heavy looks like he's calm and collected here but as we know he loves to fire his gun it demonstrates the two sides to his character that have been established both involve subtle writing and in the comics devotion to family devotion to sasha collected heavy crazy heavy soldiers upright pose might convince you that he's a fan of war but there's one subtle detail that really sells his true character his helmet is pulled over his eyes it's a detail that I've always loved as it reflects the duality president him a crazy war machine that also happens to be just a little stupid and suffering from just a little bit of lead poisoning engineer is a pretty chill character and they convey that through a simple neil scouts crazed look in his eye as he readies his bat cells his cocky attitude it's a brilliant image all around if that weren't enough then I assure you valves viral marketing has sold people on the game and I'm sure there are gonna be people in the comments section that were sold on the game because of those shorts the meet the teen shorts were these beautifully animated lovable videos that establish the character's personality and abilities within a short timeframe and they're so damn funny I have no doubt in my mind that those overwatch and apex Legends shorts would not have existed without these videos valve has always had a legendary writing staff but Team Fortress 2 really brought out the best in them their one-liners in game are such a beautiful gameplay enhancement it doesn't matter what a character is doing or shouting about every line of dialogue exudes such refined personality for each character we almost got a TV show about these characters on Adult Swim but Val took so long with it that eventually the pilot was released onto YouTube in conjunction with the love and war update what can I say about expiration date that hasn't already been said nothing so I won't drone on about it okay I'll say a little bit about it it's a culmination of everything that makes this game special i watch expiration date at least once a week these days it's just it's so good but without a doubt the reason these characters have held such a special place in my heart for years is because of the voice acting these performances have left such a huge impact on me and have partially inspired my drive to try voice acting Nathan veterans performance as Scout is impeccable his cocky Boston attitude makes everything he says so fun to listen to Gary Schwartz gave two phenomenal performances as both demo man and heavy thanks to his deep vocal range and ability to convey over-the-top emotion in both characters so many a heavies lines have been firmly implanted in my mind and they always seem to make me smile John Patrick Laurie's crazy fake Australian accent sells snipers genuine passion for what he does Greg good Eve's voice is perfectly suited to the engineers gameplay and everything he says seems to motivate me in some way it's just a chill but determined attitude everyone does such a great job and I hear their voices in my head sometimes when I'm playing other games they're that powerful even all the death screens are fun to listen to they just put so much effort into them I love them I can't imagine how awesome it must have been to record dialogue for this game and all its encompassing media my favorite performance has always been Rick Mayes though his performance is the reason soldiers personality is so refined his confident yet inept delivery makes every line flawless out of all the tf2 mercenaries I've always loved soldier than most not only is he the character I always go back to in-game but his dynamically stupid personality has become iconic to me and that's why the news of Rick Mays death hit me like a truck both his portrayal of peppy hare and starfox 64 and soldier in this game have been really really important to me for years certain lines that he read just came out in regular conversations sometimes they were just they were a big deal to me and it's surreal to think that he's gone in order to honor his legacy valve abruptly broke their silence on tf2 and pushed an update for the game that puts statues of the soldier on every map in memoriam in one of my lobbies that day both teams congregated by the statue in order to pay respect to a man whose voice will live forever in our minds and our hearts Godspeed Rick you will never be forgotten were good son real good maybe even the best you these characters may be stereotypes but they're significantly fleshed out stereotypes that rise above and beyond preconceived notions the comic series will really drive that home if you haven't read it yet I won't spoil what happens in it but it's somehow managed to make me love these characters even more and I didn't think that would be possible with a dose of phenomenal comedic writing and genuine humanity and its characters it's an essential companion to the game tf2 just wouldn't be the same game without these characters so many games have tried and failed to capture that same vibe most one-liners and apex legends I find myself enjoying ironically as I spam them in front of my teammates overwatch may have a ton of personality but none of its dialogue is even close to being in line with what made me fall in love with tf2 s and with the hours of content that is spawned from this game the amazing videos and content creators that have gotten their start thanks to this game its legacy speaks for itself lazy purple stabby scheming uncle day in tf2 clowns starry crow funky the countless sfm animations and just the art in general that has spawned from tf2 it's more than just the game it's a lifestyle it's a pastime of its own it's a way to express yourself creatively in countless art forums all of it was made possible both by Valve's own efforts with their sfm shorts and when the game went free-to-play in 2011 tf2 exploded in popularity after that pushing the game into a modern era for a new audience to enjoy as you probably already know by now tf2 is very important and I've Illustrated why and how that became the case and you think with such a large community and cultural impact tf2 would still be in an amazing state today well unfortunately I can't say that's true in the past I have established valves history of poor communication after half-life 2 episode 2 valve went from being open about the future of the series to being completely silent for years their philosophy was to ensure that fans didn't go wild at the crazy twists and turns their projects were facing but in actuality it was causing more harm to the community than good and nowhere is this more evident than in Team Fortress 2 right now they've left it with minimal updates for the past couple years it is virtually impossible for me to recommend getting into tf2 today unless you have friends that are willing to walk you through it and you are very patient individual you'll need to be patient for a number of reasons but let's start by addressing the fundamental design blunders if you've just installed the game your first instinct will be to queue for a match and select whichever character interests you most the most information you have to go off of our little bullet points that tell you about a character's core concept nothing about what weapons you have or how to use them effectively or how to fill the roles required from your team honestly it's a miracle I ever figured out how to play the game in the first place the game's tutorial does a somewhat decent job teaching you the ins and outs of your average match and it teaches you about a couple of the crucial classes for team composition but it is embarrassingly outdated and nowhere near detailed enough to cover the full scope of the game these days Rainbow six siege has it's situations and overwatch has basic quality-of-life features that make learning how to play the game much easier practice stage allows you to freely experiment with the game's various characters and the game fills you in on what roles might be missing from your team calm or well it used to now you have to pre-select the rules you're able to fill before queueing stretching out wait times into oblivion and making experimentation obsolete but I'm getting off track the point is tf2 barely scratches the surface of what's possible unless you pay attention to the tips that are randomized on loading screens or tucked away in your stat tracker they go over a ton of the class nuances rocket jumping C tapping the various weapons strategies for every character how different characters can benefit your teammates everything a beginner could benefit from learning isn't easily accessible unless they know where to look another example damage numbers are not on by default they're vital in deducing how much damage each weapon does and learning about the effectiveness of a weapon is a key part of the tf2 learning process and speaking of weapons the random drop system in this game is pitiful although some weapons can be unlocked by getting a certain amount of achievements with a character most of them are awarded to you a complete random this means that new players might not even know the Jag exists and it can be such a crucial wrench for the engineer I would recommend the crafting system but it can take forever to get some of this stuff done you might as well buy the weapons you want most on the Steam Community Market tf2 is astonishingly bad at communicating vital knowledge about the game and I think that stems from how the game has evolved since its humble beginnings because of the original mods tightly knit community word-of-mouth and sharing advice with other players allowed the core player bases skills to develop think the philosophy behind solving the original Legend of Zelda but from a multiplayer team-building standpoint by the time Team Fortress 2 rolled around in 2007 the people purchasing the game would have already had a surface level understanding of how to play and all of the extra weapons and game modes that were added as time went on added compelling complexities while potentially overwhelming newcomers that middle ground has never been struck and learning how to play Team Fortress has become an antiquated and cumbersome process oh and let's not forget about random Chris casual has become the most reliable way to play tf2 for players of any skill level but with the incredibly diverse strategies and weapon combinations possible in the game it feels absurd for that to be completely invalidated by antiquated mechanic that rewards playing like your brain is made of vanilla ice cream uncle Dane made a phenomenal video on the topic back in 2018 and his pokémon battle analogy is not only educational but it's also the most scathing and relatable critique of the system I've ever seen in the context of learning how to play tf2 I should bring up a valuable point he made what giving a random crit does to a new players continually learning brain is likely more damaging in the long run than it was to the blood pressure of the person they just Crockett it when a new player discovers that they could possibly get a kill just by spamming repeatedly or by running toward someone while swinging their melee weapon they're going to keep doing that because hey just pressing W into a crowd of people worked really well for them once when they randomly killed 5 people with a crit grenade launcher so why wouldn't they just keep doing that over and over until it eventually happens again considering tf2 s tutorial doesn't already convey how strategy can be an important factor in getting kills or making smart plays that help your team being an isolated individual that shoots rockets and gets kills you don't deserve could lead to many more bad habits and a large period of time where players have been unnecessarily handicapped by their crappy learning experience but let's say you're on the other side of the spectrum you've been playing the game for a really long time and you've mastered a lot of what the game has to offer how can you apply your knowledge what venues does the game offer for you to go up against other highly skilled players although an unofficial competitive community existed for years an official competitive mode was added to tf2 in 2016 with the meteor match update and it's a mixed bag I'm gonna be honest the most favorite competitive community game type is called Highlander with teams consisting of nine players each one player for each class this guarantees you'll always have a medic to fall back on a sniper and spy to pick off targets and a heavy to push forward with but this mode also means each player needs to fit their designated roles exceptionally well valve realized this and opted for a 6v6 setup instead with freedom to switch between characters in order to optimize strategy on-the-fly and slightly modified rules for modes like payload the smaller less chaotic amount of players enables CP maps to have proper coordination and not result in an endless tug-of-war if a team can organize a great push without Highlander removing this part of tf2 S design and with the focused team sizes every character counts and you'll need to make decisions quickly and efficiently do you need two medics or do you need to lose them both should you have a heavy on attack if the enemies are capable of focusing him and pushing you all back it's a lot of fun and I believe it's how tf2 was always meant to be played every aspect of the games carefully crafted teamwork potential shines gloriously so what are the problems first of all the current map pool is disgusting there are only two payload maps badwater basin and swift water there's only one map for both attack defend and king of the hill those being Gorge and viaduct and for some stupid reason there is a capture the flag map in there too I guess I could understand why they choose turbine over the others but capture the flag is a pretty terrible mode for tf2 it's a relic from when team fortress was designed as a rock-paper-scissors kind of game and which players didn't necessarily have to rely on one another's abilities but rather you could strategize based on who can do what and send them out individually for example engineer and sniper are way less fun on say to four than they are on frontier for example the fun that comes from moving engineer buildings around the map in order to keep them alive and strategically push the enemy back has devolved into turtling to the extreme put a century by your battlements or the intelligence and sit there and look pretty snipers can maneuver around and find great spots for picking off enemies across the other maps but in 2:4 you're pretty much stuck in that one little nook for the entire match unless you really want to die the same can be said for turbine and I dread whenever it shows up in a match it's stupid but the icing on the cake here has to be the fact that the rest of the pool is made of control point Maps there are nine of them to be exact like I mentioned before some CP maps benefit greatly from the 6v6 structure Badlands elevated point towards each team's base can create some dynamic combat scenarios and granaries points are all unique chokes that invite different strategies with each push but sunshine feels like every point is that one two infamous choke and dust ball metal works and Vanguard both bore me after a while and even in the best CP Maps stalemates can still occur with evenly matched teams here is how I would personally rearrange the map pool for competitive you guys can yell at me after but I want you to at least hear me out starting with attack defend I would leave gorgeously soul map for this game-mode dustbowl is a little too [ __ ] up for competitive so I wouldn't even bother putting it in unfortunately attack defend can be completely one-sided in a 6p6 match with the attacking team making one solid push half the round would end right then and there both points need to benefit the 6v6 structure otherwise the defending team can be easily overwhelmed from an open angle gorgeous choke points however are pretty balanced on both sides so I'm fine with it staying for king of the hill I would include Badlands and lakeside in the q pool both maps have a fairly straightforward layout with 1 or 2 alternative paths for flanking and retreating and badlands has proven itself worthy and competitive already that middle point has involved me in some fantastic fights now as much as I love harvest there is no way I would ever recommend it for competitive it's too crazy for its own good now for payload I think most of us can agree that at the very least upward should be in there it's an astounding map and while it's at its best in a full public lobby its focus design through claustrophobic flanks and a winding ascent can still be fun in 6v6 it seems perfectly fine tuned for each class I love it I'd also like to throw Borneo in there for similar reasons although the final choke point could be difficult to break if a competent engineer is set up there there may not be enough players to successfully coordinate that last push and I might seem unfair so the suggestion is still up in the air finally limit the number of control point maps to 5 with badlands granary snake water gully wash and process and you have yourself a balanced line-up of maps that all focus on variety while weeding out the potentially repetitive or unbalanced aspects of the others speaking of balancing I'm no authority on this but I suspect that weapon strategy is a little bit different with a 6v6 set up the vaccinator for example made sense when you could have up to 12 players shooting at the person you're healing but with only six your patient turns into this obnoxious bullet sponge that can absorb everything the enemy throws at them unless they all focus on you which distracts them from the other opponents snipers jarate is nice for assisting your team and taking out a small group of opponents at a public match but in competitive that small group is now suddenly half the enemy team and the cow manglers guaranteed mini crits and fire damage are just evil all three of these weapons are banned from major 6v6 leagues coincidentally perhaps valve should adopt the global whitelist it's tricky because they can't rebalance weapons specifically for competitive play so what's next well it's probably too late for them to make a decision the last relevant update for competitive was released in early 2018 and even back then the mode was struggling to maintain a consistent player base and that sucks because tf2 has the potential to be one of the most compelling competitive shooters in the industry but valve hasn't capitalized on that potential at all and as time goes on it's looking like they never will today tf2 has been largely abandoned by valve so far this year there have only been four updates for the game with new updates only being pushed when they really have to do something for comparison by this time last year there were eight updates pushed in 2018 there were 11 in 2017 there were 15 and in 2016 there were nearly 30 you can see how progress has slowed over time the last major content update was in 2017 with jungle inferno and since then there has been little to no communication about the feature of tf2 content all they'd have to do is give a simple yes or no in order to reassure the community or give them closure but apparently that is too much for valve to handle as usual what's most likely going on is developers have chosen to leave the game for new and exciting projects like half-life Alex as is valve tradition they give their developers a great deal of freedom to work on whatever projects interest them at any given moment although I can't blame them for wanting to move on from a 13 year old game with an engine that is starting to get a long in the tooth tf2 is reaching all-time Heights on Steam for a while now it's been seeing an average of 60 to 65 thousand players everyday or more and considering updates have been released out of necessity rather than existing to maintain longevity it has left the game in an embarrassing state but why is it embarrassing exactly well the game has been infested with hackers and boss one of the updates was made in order to stop the bots from crashing servers you can try to kick them but they'll leave before the vote is finished and just keep coming back hey guys future Liam here while I was editing this video valve pushed another update that seems to slightly alleviate the issues with bots and it looks like in the future they'll be doing more to stop the spread so good on them for that but again this reaffirms my point that they've only been updating this game out of necessity when things are getting a little out of hand anyway back to the video hackers have even invaded competitive and remember you can't kick people in competitive so you're just stuck they're basically guaranteed to lose MMR the game has been left in an unacceptable state with the community immediately voting to kick BOTS as they spam some vile filth in the chat and with the lack of any concrete MMR and casual teams are often made up of people who've been playing since they left their mother's womb and people who are probably fresh out the womb tf2 is going through a bit of a rough patch and I doubt very many people at valve feel like revisiting it in a major way thankfully the community has taken it upon themselves to carry on the game's legacy one of my favorite ways to play the game today is through servers hosted by creators TF which have custom maps contracts events and even cosmetics for you to experience spillway might just be one of my favorite king of the hill maps in tf2 whoa leo that felt good the team has breathed new life into a decade-old formula had gone through so many times before and I plan on hanging out on these servers for a long time I'm really proud of the work they've done here there are a lot of questions that have to be asked in regards to Valve's plans for the future they realize that their other multiplayer games are gonna make more money and have a bigger following csgo and dota2 remain the top two games on Steam in terms of concurrent players but what confuses me about that philosophy is that it seems to go against what valve has always stood for valve had so many opportunities throughout the years to pursue the most profitable avenues for them like Steam but they instead focused on making generation-defining video games and giving young game developers a chance to see their vision come to life and with the undying passion creativity and love the community has shown for Team Fortress 2 you'd think that someone at the company would like to keep the legacy alive right perhaps their silence is a message a low like this isn't uncommon for valve but it is uncommon for a game that you used to have content coming out pretty much every day from all corners of the internet and that happened for years maybe valve is finally saying goodbye to this game and we as a community have to accept that is it finally time to say goodbye to tf2 or should we continue to be vocal about the game is our passion justified or is it absurd that was the big question I asked myself while writing this video and I believe I have my answer when I came back to Team Fortress 2 last year I struggled to pinpoint just what it was that kept people coming back longer than most multiplayer games after doing the same thing for so long surely anyone won't be like ok I get it yeah the game will forever be endlessly rewarding and timeless but most people need to take a break from any video game no matter what it is well the more I played the more I learned what truly makes Team Fortress 2 the special game that it is everything I've mentioned in this video is what creates a mechanically sound video game but at its core the heart of Team Fortress 2 is the fun you can have with your team while recording for this video I got closer to my friends when I wasn't able to see them we were able to communicate strategize and play some fantastic matches of TF I made new connections with random players from around the world for example I was playing medic and I followed this random pyro to the ends of the earth unfortunately this was a while ago so I don't haven't recorded but I tried to recreate it whenever I could with flogging Pyro's I do brew them they'd flogged and almost every time we'd be able to coordinate a push for our team and clear a choke point in every match we were clever about our timing and locations so we weren't spotted by the enemy team before we pop over at Russian all-in-all we shared this unspoken bond and we both knew how special it was we played a ton of matches together and when they left I was pretty sad I still think about those games we've played even if we never truly knew each other tf2 makes me think about the human beings behind each person area that we share games with we're all sharing those special moments together no matter the distance we can all bounce advice and ideas off of one another get creative and be a part of this community no matter what valve does or doesn't do with the game in the future that pair with its immense replayability and depth that I could spend countless hours investing myself in is why Team Fortress 2 will forever be an insane but enduring and timeless experience the thousands of hours you've seen people spend on this game are totally warranted and passion for the game has spawned some of the best content I've ever consumed tf2 is much more than just a revolutionary first-person shooter it's a multimedia phenomenon that created an explosion of art videos mods and countless other things however those things wouldn't have come about if the game wasn't something you could dedicate yourself to and Team Fortress 2 has more than enough to offer in that regard the word timeless gets thrown around a lot these days and I've said it probably enough in this video already but if I can hop into a match on dustbowl and have just as much if not even more fun as I did when I first got the orange box in 2007 something worked I know I was reluctant to recommend this game to newcomers and that it did be difficult to find people to teach you how to play but the truth is the community is very welcoming and friendly it's also very tightly knit I've been recognized on more than one occasion in this game which I always thought was unlikely to ever happen considering the size of this game wonders never cease with it speaking of the community while writing this video I asked my audience what kept them coming back to Team Fortress 2 after all these years I was unsure if anything I was saying was relevant or interesting in this video and I was worried it was gonna seem redundant I've been having this problem with a lot of my videos lately I'm worried that I'm not looking deeply enough or that I'm echoing things that have been said a thousand times and with a game like Team Fortress 2 who was overwhelmed honestly I'm still a small fish in a big pond I feel so inferior to all these creators I've looked up to for so long that have inspired me to finally finish this very video you're watching right now so I had reason to be afraid of what the world would think but after reaching out any fears I had about what I was saying in this video were quickly diminished and sharing personal anecdotes about a game where those stories come naturally didn't seem so stupid anymore so yes Team Fortress 2 is one of the sharpest multiplayer video games I have ever played in my life everything about it is chaotic yet refined insane yet calculated that will never change and our endless love for this game doesn't have to die out just because valve wants to leave the game alone when I say that experiences and perhaps the game's glory days are behind us but that doesn't mean we ever have to forget how it makes us feel and it's never too late to just hop into a match and start playing to cap things off I like to share with you some clips that perfectly encapsulate what I believe make tf2 this special game that it is those crazy moments that I share with my friends has the games mechanical depth sense of humor team-based coordination and strategy and natural ability to make me laugh all come together I've been liam triforce and I'd like to thank you for watching now let's go play some tf2 I'm just paranoid to exist are you a spy huh long as you guys don't kill my baby I'm fine yeah I'm linked to the spine we can put yours back get a regular man yes I do man [Music] [Laughter]

Channel: Liam Triforce

Views: 1,678,420

Keywords: Team Fortress 2, tf2, how it feels to play, lazypurple, retrospective, critique, analysis, review, documentary, liam triforce, valve, steam, half-life

Id: BIDxJ-dUG4I

Length: 83min 22sec (5002 seconds)

Published: Thu Jun 18 2020

Reddit Comments

[u/Clearskky]

TF2 was a masterclass in game design. World could use a TF3, if we can get a new half life game after over a decade I can believe that there will be a Team Fortress 3 some day.

[u/SomeCalcium]

I remember using the degreaser with the axetinguisher on pyro back in the day. It was a lot of fun to light someone on fire, air blast them into a corner, and then melee them down.

[u/[deleted]]

Everything about TF2 - its characters, its art design, its gameplay (with random crits being the exception), is so head and shoulders above it's competition. In my opinion it's the best multiplayer fps ever made, which is why it's disappointing that for the last 3 years it's basically been on life support. The game still has so much untapped potential left in it.

[u/Levo_Star]

Team Fortress 2 is both immortal and of a dying breed.

TF2 is still alive and kicking but the genre it belongs to is perhaps gone for the better part of a decade now. No one's really making shooters for matches around 16-32 players. Now-a-days you either go full battlefield or small scale 'heroes'. No one makes a Killzone 2, MoHAA, Soldier of Fortune, or a RtCW type mp game.

It's either something ultra tightly balanced for 8-10 players or a game about wads of players crashing into another wad. It's just kind of gone and that's sad.

[u/ToasterToasts]

TF2 was a magnificent game.

It is a shame how far it's fallen since its peak years from 2007-2011.

It's a case study of overdoing it in terms of features and scope. Adding unfitting modes like "casual" (read: unbalanced and unmoderated) matchmaking instead of focusing on community servers, e-sports modes for a game that isn't balanced enough for e-sports, loot boxes/add-on item overload, and overall graphical downgrades over time just sent the game into a downward spiral. Not to mention neglect to stop massive problems like racist/lag bots infesting every corner of the game.

[u/[deleted]]

I think a lot of people boil down what is good about the game to "the classes are so well designed", but in my opinion the game is actually much deeper then that on a systemic level. It's why other games like Overwatch which seem to have a similar basic idea of classes with clear strengths and weaknesses can't touch it's greatness.

The most fundamental thing that sets TF2 apart from almost all other shooters is it's very specific design choice around distance and damage: all classes except for the sniper (and demo if you are a god) face severe damage drop off on basically all weapons. The result is that all fights are made to be close and personal, and means that in order to meaningfully push objectives you have to get in close to the point. A notable exception to this is the engineer and his sentry, which to my knowledge has no dropoff on it's bullets: it's fitting then that in response to this, damage against sentries faces no drop off, evening the playing-field in that respect. Understanding movement, and how to get at optimal ranges to enemies to do damage while managing risk is a skill set which all classes need, though positioning might vary between classes.

Another obvious standout is how momentum works in that game: obviously there is source strafing and air control, which are already important, but the fact that all weapons, even hit-scan bullets, knock players in the direction of the damage opens up a huge transferable skillset for all classes that comes from a systemic mastery of the game in the form of surfing damage to escape: almost anyone good at rocket jumping will also be a fairly good medic due to the inherent understanding of surfing projectiles being transferred over to help you as a medic survive. Time to kill is also so high in TF2 at medium ranges that it is very likely you will have a chance to manifest these skills fairly often.

In comparison, what systemic mastery do characters in games like Overwatch provide you, other then a basic mastery of aim, gamesense, and ult economy? The transfers of knowledge mostly come from players characters of similar archetypes (ana, widow, and ashe) rather then from a master of a game system which can permeate all aspects of your gameplay.

[u/penpen35]

There's so many things about TF2 that's worth looking into and discussing. Heck, even just talking about the mechanics of the 9 classes and how they inspired the hero-based shooters that are becoming mainstream would give us plenty to talk about.

I just don't know why when I mention that there's plenty of things to discuss about TF2 and some would say there's nothing worth discussing anymore. I've played the game since the Orange Box and I still don't feel like I've mastered any of the classes (maybe decent in pyro, heavy and spy), though honestly I stopped playing for around 2 years now. It's an incredibly deep game.

[u/Game_Recognize_Rame]

Not a big fan of how TF2 has gone. I was a big fan of TF2 at launch but the whole thing feels fucking super bloated with all of the weapons they crammed in. Early weapons were exiting and felt in line with the rest of the gameplay but now the whole thing looks like a mess and completely destroys the art design. The promotional guns are truly the worst where we were getting Deus Ex guns thrown in as a cheap advertisement.

I don't care for Overwatch but if they started throwing in promotional guns and leaving gameplay "content" behind lootboxes like the TF2 weapons do people would lose their fucking minds.

I've still been searching for a vanilla tf2 server (with airblast and some other improvements) but I haven't found one.

I don't like CounterStrikes pink anime weapons as much as the community does but I can say that game has preserved it's core gameplay much better than tf2, and is of a similar age.

[u/Clbull]

Team Fortress 2 is pretty much a dead game at this point.

For all the problems Overwatch has (and there are many), Blizzard at least do a competent job teaching players the ropes and enforcing competitive team comps.

TF2 meanwhile has a casual matchmaking mode that is full of aim-bots who are programmed to either gang up on and kick you from the server if you try to initiate a vote kick against them, or deliberately crash the server in an exploit that took Valve weeks and lots of shaming to patch.

The source code leak from several weeks ago should also be very worrying since TF2 has hardly been updated for years. More ways are going to be found to break the game and kill off what little player base it has left.