You might know what this game is already: Valve's zany hat simulator with an attached class-based multiplayer shooter. It's had over 15 years of updates, dozens of new maps, and more than a hundred weapons added. I've been playing Team Fortress 2 on and off since 2009 (or 2008, depending on how you count it) and I still think it's worth playing, but its glory days are past it. You shouldn't let that discourage you if you're new, though. As of late 2024, Valve has finally been taking aggressive action against bots and cheaters in official matchmaking.

Even with that, this isn't much of a live service game. Updates that aren't security/bug fixes or annual holiday updates full of community-made cosmetic items are small, few and far between - the golden era of stuff like the Über or Engineer updates is long gone. The game's absolutely ballooned with cosmetic items and just stuff in general, to the point where the stated system requirements from its 2007 release date are laughably insufficient. The map list is also littered with gamemodes that are either retired or never seemed to get off the ground to begin with during the game's long history.

However, the game itself is still pretty good, though it'll probably take a little getting used to for new players due to the amount of stuff it has. The variety of weapons allow you to switch up your playstyle, while rarely managing to be outright better or worse than the stock weapons you start with. Frivolous and numerous as they may be, the cosmetics allow you to do the same with your looks. The character designs of each class are still memorable to this day, and they absolutely bristle with personality compared to, say, Overwatch's heroes. There's still thousands of daily players on matchmaking and community servers, even after so much time has passed. While Valve's support of the competitive scene is arguably too little too late, at least there still is a competitive scene, as well as official support for other community endeavors. It's a free-to-play game with no pay-to-win microtransactions. Most importantly, despite the usual beer-and-pretzels nature of casual play, the quality competitive shooter at the heart of TF2 still exists underneath everything else, and its pedigree commands respect no matter what: Team Fortress got its start as a Quake mod, and the first standalone game (Team Fortress Classic) was a Half-Life mod.

I wish Valve would pay more attention to TF2 again so they can get the game in better shape, or at least get the long-promised Heavy update out; as of this review it's been literally several years since it was announced. But as it is, TF2 is still pretty fun and worth at least a bit of time, for new and old players alike. Only time will tell what happens to it next.

You might know what this game is already: Valve's zany hat simulator with an attached class-based multiplayer shooter. It's had over 15 years of updates, dozens of new maps, and more than a hundred weapons added. I've been playing Team Fortress 2 on and off since 2009 (or 2008, depending on how you count it) and I still think it's worth playing, but its glory days are past it. You shouldn't let that discourage you if you're new, though. As of late 2024, Valve has finally been taking aggressive action against bots and cheaters in official matchmaking. Even with that, this isn't much of a live service game. Updates that aren't security/bug fixes or annual holiday updates full of community-made cosmetic items are small, few and far between - the golden era of stuff like the Über or Engineer updates is long gone. The game's absolutely ballooned with cosmetic items and just stuff in general, to the point where the stated system requirements from its 2007 release date are laughably insufficient. The map list is also littered with gamemodes that are either retired or never seemed to get off the ground to begin with during the game's long history. However, the game itself is still pretty good, though it'll probably take a little getting used to for new players due to the amount of stuff it has. The variety of weapons allow you to switch up your playstyle, while rarely managing to be outright better or worse than the stock weapons you start with. Frivolous and numerous as they may be, the cosmetics allow you to do the same with your looks. The character designs of each class are still memorable to this day, and they absolutely bristle with personality compared to, say, Overwatch's heroes. There's still thousands of daily players on matchmaking and community servers, even after so much time has passed. While Valve's support of the competitive scene is arguably too little too late, at least there still [i]is[/i] a competitive scene, as well as official support for other community endeavors. It's a free-to-play game with no pay-to-win microtransactions. Most importantly, despite the usual beer-and-pretzels nature of casual play, the quality competitive shooter at the heart of TF2 still exists underneath everything else, and its pedigree commands respect no matter what: Team Fortress got its start as a Quake mod, and the first standalone game (Team Fortress Classic) was a Half-Life mod. I wish Valve would pay more attention to TF2 again so they can get the game in better shape, or at least get the long-promised Heavy update out; as of this review it's been literally several years since it was announced. But as it is, TF2 is still pretty fun and worth at least a bit of time, for new and old players alike. Only time will tell what happens to it next.