Thread: First Impressions

Since all the other threads talk about the beta coming out, it's time for first impressions. I managed to play with Syrringe and Pun yesterday, and Bueller last night. As everyone has said, this game is awesome. It'll be interesting to see if it has the staying power of some other games.

I haven't played many of the levels, but the ones I have played are fairly linear. Some very obvious choke points and battlegrounds.

The beauty of the game is its simplicity. Every class has *A* weapon. Sure, the Heavy has a shotgun, but chances are, if you get to it, it's only because Sasha is out of bullets. The classes are boiled down to exactly what you need to accomplish the goal of that class. Medics are not going to do well in a firefight. But a medic juicing up a soldier will get all kinds of jobs done. I think TTP has a stake in this, because you *need* your team to survive. When Bueller and I were playing, we were getting hosed. Once He and I started using our mics, people started listening, and we managed to kick some ass.

So, a few brief observations:

Spies should try to coordinate their attacks with the group. Usually, engineers stay close to their sentry guns and knock off any sappers. But, if the engineer happens to be getting shot at, he can't really do it for long. One or two good rockets will take out a turret, you just have to live long enough to do it.

If you really need to break through a choke point, get a pyro. They're decently fast, and like to get very personal with the torch. Even better, they can take a beating. So run past your team and light up. You will manage to draw almost all the fire. Keep moving and torching until you die. My record for "time alive in a round" as a pyro is 48 seconds...

Medics: These guys rock. That is all. On one map (don't remember which), there is a little shack with the control point in it. We tried a few times to take it, but there were enough soldiers and demos that the doorway was insta-gib for anyone. So I tell all 3 medics we had at the time to get on *one* heavy. We did, he strolled in and shredded the place. I healed something like 1500 damage in a minute's gaming. As long as the medics stay alive (and heal each other from time to time), you can't go wrong. Especially with "ubercharge," a 10ish second invuln field for you and your medigun target.

I'd like to see us with a beta server, but only because I want to play this with a group of solid players. If we have to wait a month, hopefully we'll have admin mods and such running by then.

Anyone else with an essay about the first night?

No but I will say that I'm very pleased with the final product they've finally released here. I never played the other team fortress but I really enjoyed the hour or so I was able to put in on this one.

Originally Posted by ...bigdog...

huh?

huh what? who are you "huh" ing?

well overall, its definitely a high quality, polished product, which is to be expected from valve (imo), as they just about always set the bar up a notch with their games

its definitely fun and entertaining to play, especially with all the little art and programming nuances. haven't yet played on a full, wide-open server so i don't have an essay's worth to say :P haven't even gotten a chance to play hydro, the flagship new map

though having a strong background in tfc, i'll play the other side of the fence for a sec, as i did feel a hair let down especially after waiting for this for so long :'( i guess my main grievance would be the nerfed player speed and movement. felt like i was walking through tar, especially with the slower classes, which dropped the pace of the game considerably...especially when you add in the extended respawn time. then of course, theres the removal of nades, especially the secondary nades...speed, concs and caltrops were what helped keep the wee ole scout alive at times :P plus even in one of the first trailers, the demo has his little dynamite bundled mirv grenade...so that was just dirtiness taking that out after showcasing it and the scout could definitely use a nailgun in addition to and/or in place of that shotgun.

yes, while part of its beauty is its simplicity, i also think they over simplified it a bit, probably for the sake of the console, if nothing else as, with the limited movement/speed and the slimmed down weapon selection, there initially doesn't seem or feel like there would be many new skills or attributes to learn down the road

so overall, fun to play and a nice product.

(though i personally would like a bit faster pace with more explosions (TFC forever, controlled chaos ))

coming from 2142 and CS, it didn't feel terribly slow to me. I do think the respawns are a bit long, but they're shortened by teleporters some. Dropping them to 15 seconds might be good, but I don't know how that would affect the pacing.

I played TFF the other night and about the same amount of time in TF2. I may have been unlucky/lucky, but it seemed like more teamwork was to be had in TF2. People were more willing to switch around and juggle classes, it seemed. I hope that will stay the case.

I think it's going to boil down to a simple divide: TFF for purists and followers, TF2 for the populus.

I am having a ton of fun with TF2 and I can't wait to play this on TTP. You can pull off some really badass stuff working as a team, and most servers there's not a lot of voice chat going on at the moment. The pace of the game is fine for me, and faster than most other gaming I've done for quite a while.

If you're looking at TF2 and hoping for a newer TF/TFC then you will probably be disappointed. I've been waiting for this for 10 years, and I'm really happy with it though honestly I never got into either of the formerly mentioned all that much. I played them and had fun, but not so much for the game but the teamwork. For one thing, I like that there are no grenades. The acrobatics were fun but the spam wasn't.

I've seen a few complaints about TF2 "being dumbed down for the console." The UI is very streamlined and I am sure the console port is responsible here but it doesn't detract from the game as it does in others such as Oblivion. I'm sure the core gameplay could be more involved as well but that's not necessarily an improvement. The beauty of the game is in the simplicity of the mechanics. It's incredibly easy to get into and fun. I don't see why this isn't good for PC games too. Games are supposed to be fun. I'm sure many people will have a few criticisms with the gameplay or the classes and other things, but the game is pure, simple fun. It's a blast!

I've gotten a fair amount of time in with most of the classes, which you can see in my TF2 stats. The stats and achievements tracking is pretty neat. I favor support classes in all of the class based games and so I have logged most of my time with the engineer and the medic. I really enjoy playing the heavy too if there's a medic around.

Every time I've tried playing through campaign mode to get this achievement, a witch spawns in a doorway/saferoom/directly at the bottom/top of a ladder. Is there anyway of avoiding this, or is it just bad luck? Can you cr0wn all the witches and still get the achievement?

Any advice would be much-appreciated.