Man, I Really Miss ‘Team Fortress 2’
Team Fortress 2 isn’t gone, technically. But it might as well have been. But, could there be hope rising over the horizon for good ol’ TF2?
Team Fortress 2 is perhaps one of the most iconic and recognizable game in all of video games. It was originally released in The Orange Box in 2007. And since then, it’s had a slew of memes, a frustratingly unfinished comic series, community built content, and some truly amazing short animated films.
What is Team Fortress 2?
The basic premise of the game is simple. Two teams, RED and BLU, are trying to kill each other, usually while standing on or near something important for as long as they can.
The dynamic part of the gameplay stems from the 9 separate classes, each wholly unique in terms of their strengths, weaknesses, and character design.
Team Fortress 2 is a team-based shooter. Rather than every player on the team being a guy with an assault rifle, TF2 requires a well balanced team. Some players are going on the offensive to push their front lines forward. Other players are providing them support through healing and ammo to keep them pushing. And other players are weakening their opponent’s backline in order to make the push more effective. A well coordinated team in Team Fortress 2 is a sight to behold.
For years, Valve, the development team behind behind Team Fortress 2 provided regular updates to the game. This would consist of updates adding new weapons, new maps, new game modes, but most importantly of all, new hats.
It was a great time to be a Team Fortress 2 player. But, over time, the updates got less and less exciting. They had fewer updates and new weapons. Then, they starting coming less and less frequently. Then, they starting skipping what had been regular annual updates that had been coming like clockwork for years on end. The fanbase was starting to get worried.
But then, the bots came.
Not So Electric Boogaloo
For far too long now, Team Fortress 2 servers have been filled to the brim with hacker bots. These bots will often play as the Sniper class and immediately headshot anyone who gets anywhere near them. It ruined the game and the game was nigh unplayable. The system by which players could vote to kick another player off the server was flimsy at best and did nothing to stop the mechanical mayhem.
For months, this was the state of TF2. Some players would just grin and bear it, while others would flock to private community servers. But since they were usually hosted by just a few avid fans of the game, they weren’t very many in number. And so those safe haven servers would fill up quickly.
Look to My Coming on the First Light of the Fifth Year
After years of essentially full radio silence, there was something. It wasn’t results. But it was acknowledgement of the problem. Since then, there have been a small handful of updates. These have been entirely bug fixes, but no new content. That’s not to say we aren’t happy with bug fixes. Some of the bugs they are addressing have been in the game for years.
And it seems like these updates are getting bigger and more robust. The bot problem is by no means fixed. But fans are latching onto any amount of hope they can scrounge up.
I’ve been playing Team Fortress 2 for a very, very long time. I admit I was taken by the allure of games like Overwatch. But even then, I would often come back to Ol’ Reliable.
But despite the fun moniker, TF2 isn’t very reliable nowadays. I want to play TF2. I love this game and its characters and absolutely insane story involving magic infused Austrailians and reanimated corpses fighting over worthless gravel in Hell. It’s been a very long time since the Jungle Inferno update, which was the most recent content update.
I miss Team Fortress 2 very much and I’m worried I’m setting myself up for disappointment again, just as I’ve done over and over. It’s almost at the point where I would rather Valve admit they will never update the game again. Then we would at least know what to expect.
But one way or another, I want to get off Mr. Newell’s Wild Ride.
