It’s actually quite difficult to write a review about a game which is on the market for more than 18 months and which during that time already underwent some significant changes, including class updates, 2½ new game modes and several new (official or custom-made-official) maps.
Trying to remember what my first impressions were of TF2 when I started playing it is not an easy thing to start with.
Since I played TFC quite extensively for a few years it was inevitable that I would compare TF2 to its predecessor. I remember that odd sensation of a game feeling familiar and different at the same time. Some maps resembled quite closely their TFC counterparts (2Fort, Dustbowl) while others were quite different (Well).
Design-wise it TF2 was a revelation, a unique style which was cartoonish and somewhat artificial, establishing a great harmony between models, the attitudes of the characters through voices and taunts and the design and texturing of the maps, which in its tongue-in-cheek approach fitted well the game style of TF.
Just like the maps some of the classes were very similar to what I was used to in TFC, while some had been changed drastically. The most dramatic change was the redesign of the medic. Gone was the über-scout which served as a primary attack class on TFC’s CTF-maps, now replaced by a definitive support class whose übercharge capability provided completely new possibilities to the game.
But also the Pyro had become a stronger class than in TFC, and the spy’s new cloaking capability offered a clear improvement over the weak feinting option in TFC.
A change I expected to be more prominently felt was the removal of grenades. Yet for the most part I didn’t miss them (In the early days though, while playing offense on a CTF map I did miss the occasional handy grenade when encountering a sentry. And to this day I still miss the Engy’s EMP grenades 
).
There are some smaller features of TFC which were also dropped for TF2 which I think would have been useful:
In TFC players could discard unused metal which other players could pick up. An Engy could use that metal to build/upgrade his buildings. So other players could help an engy to erect his buildings by bringing him metal. IMO that was always a nice element of teamwork and teammates helping each other.
And, as an engineer, I miss a few options of the TFC dispenser. In TFC the engy received a message when an enemy used/passed his dispenser. Building it in narrow passages offered a nice method to register incoming enemies. Additionally the engineer could remotely detonate the dispenser, which was similarly powerful as a hand-grenade and quite handy to cover certain routes or blind spots of sentries.
Well, perhaps a future update sees some of that returning in one form or another ...
One thing I really liked about TF2 was the small improvements done to the GUI. Class and Team selection were presented in a concise and intuitive way (including team balance), but also the in-game HUD offered more information in a non-intrusive and – again - intuitive way (like indicating the position of both team’s intelligence or the current disguise when playing spy). The tutorial films for each map were also quite helpful and innovative.
The game didn’t take long to feel familiar again, though it took a lot longer to adapt to the subtle changes which inevitably came with a new game.
An interesting change was the dominance of CP maps. TFC featured primarily CTF maps (with variations), along with VIP-maps like „Hunted“. CP maps were introduced later and – at least during my active play-time – never became as popular as CTF. It might be interesting to note that TFC-players had a bit of trouble to adapt to the different style required for CP.
TF2 shipped with 4 CP maps (Dustbowl, Well, Granary, Gravel Pit), one TC map (Hydro, with TC gameplay-wise being pretty much a variation of CP) and one CTF maps (2Fort), and the ratio hasn’t really changed much. The introduction of the – instantly hugely popular - payload game mode in 2008 can interestingly enough be interpreted as a revised version of the VIP-Concept, which very elegantly steered clear of all the problems present in the previous VIP game mode.
While I embraced most of the game a few element left me cold or even deprecatory. Sudden Death felt unsatisfying since it abandoned the concept of map goals to enforce a definitive outcome with the option to play it like deathmatch (something which felt far too much like CS).
The closing stage of humiliation was something which I loathed immediately!
I would have been indifferent about achievements, but for a very long time I didn’t even realized that there was something like „achievements“ in the game (which actually says a lot about me).
I discovered that 2Fort was still a shitty map, that Hydro didn’t deliver the gameplay its concept promised, Well wasn’t nearly as much fun as a CTF map (which was added a few months after the initial release) than its TFC-counterpart and that TF2 players struggled (and often failed) to understand the concept of CTF and the different gameplay it required (which is quite an irony given of what I’ve said about TFC and CP maps earlier).
But in its core I was positively surprised how well the game played, how well the class-balance had been established and even improved, how great an addition the medigun proved to be, how much fun the design and models (and their characters) injected and how quickly I had fallen in love with the game again.
The fact that – with some occasional time-off – I still enjoy this game more than 1½ years later is testament to the quality of the game. Some people will probably agree reluctantly, adding that they do so despite all the ongoing changes and updates. I, quite honestly, enjoy the process of witnessing a game evolving, even if that involves a few complications and failures
But let’s face it: The quality of an online multiplayer game is valued only in part of its technical proficiency, but in the long run it also depends heavily on the opportunity to play with good people. For competitive people that might be servers with a high level of gameplay to sharpen and prove their skills, for example.
In my case it always comes down to a good mix of some serious and skilled teamplay within a laidback, more recreational atmosphere. As much as I love this game I’m not sure I would be still playing it if I hadn’t found a great group of people who I can have exactly that kind of gaming experience with every day (which would be Clan WDG and the great group of regulars orbiting this clan’s servers).
With that, let’s see where this game is heading in the future. It will be many things, but never boring
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