There are not many online computer games where you can play a psychotic Scottish explosives expert with one eye (and of African descent). However, it’s lucky for me that TF2 is such a game.
The demo man offers a unique playing experience of any first person shooter that I have come across. I’ve played my fair share of FPS, and the theme is always about being able to lob a grenade and shoot directly at the enemy. The demo man changes this older, proven, tried and tested approach. I honestly think that Valve had a stroke of genius when they introduced the weapons for the class. Let’s be clear: the demo man has no weapon that fires in a straight line (like the soldier or the sniper). You have to aim in a specific direction and adjust for the fact that the projectiles have a parabolic trajectory. At no time do you ever place the cross hair on a target and pull the trigger for a kill.
The nature of the demo man’s weapons means that he is a very difficult class to master. It takes time to adjust to the fact that you can’t just point and shoot. Given time you quickly learn how to aim ahead of targets to get pipes and sticky bombs to drop into the right place. It can be a very rewarding class once you know its strengths and weaknesses and how these play out on specific maps. To do the demo man and his weapons justice, I probably have to document the main points about the class (as well as the pros and cons).
1) He can sticky jump.
Master this and you can gain massive advantage in terms of covering distance and gaining access to some unique vantage points on a map. You can get to the enemy battlements easily in 2Fort and can jump from the defensive spawn point to the final capture point in Gravel pit. More practiced demo men can “glide” by moving the mouse and keys – allowing you to sail round corners (useful in stage one of Gold rush to take on some pesky snipers near their spawn). Most important of all, sticky jumping is real fun especially if you’re fool hardy enough to use more than one sticky bomb!
2) He’s great at area denial.
The demo man (for me) has his use as a holder of territory and a denier of ground. This can be achieved through careful placement of sticky bombs and attack with the pipes. Get a Kritzkreig and you’re really in business (counter to what some of people say I like to use pipes first with a kritz, they bounce round more especially with corners of maps).
3) He can also disrupt an enemy uber charge.
I note that most players assume that the Pyro is the only class for disrupting an enemy uber (i.e. using the Pyro air blast). Whilst I tend to agree that the Pyro is the best class for the disruption of enemy uber, I also find the demo man is also very good too. You need to shoot sticky bombs at the feet of the ubered enemy, and detonate to lift and separate the medic from his partner. This works a treat in high places and bridges, and if you time it right, it can lift an enemy in sight of a sentry gun (causing the target to fly up and backwards if hit square on by the SG).
4) He can perform one hit, mid air takedowns.
I love doing air detonations of sticky bombs when scouts are around. You aim the sticky where you think the enemy is going, and then you also have the option of when to detonate the bomb using the secondary mouse button. This is epic as if you get it right then you have a large explosion in mid air. The fun is multiplied when you fire a critical sticky bomb (for those not knowing it shines brighter) – the result is instant death for lighter classes like medic or scout. It also has to be said that pipe bombs are very effective too at mid air takedowns. Often scouts can disintegrate when they run into one (careful aim needed with those little buggers running around).
5) He’s better than a spy at sentry takedowns.
Get an uber and you can *really* destroy a nest of sentry guns if you do it right. With the help of a skilful medic I’ve sometimes been able to take as many as 3 sentry guns in an area (admittedly 2 is normally the max for me, but 3 is possible if engineers are careless in their placement next to other sentries). There you go budding engineers – don’t put all your eggs in one basket!!
6) He has unique weapons and aiming systems.
Put simply, it’s a refreshing change to pointing and shooting straight at everything. You can attack from round the corner and your weapons and ordinance bounce (I love this especially when taking a sniper position). Sticky bombs can be placed on walls as well as ceilings and floors. There are hundreds of options when creating sticky bomb traps. With sticky bombs, I love being able to chose the TIME of detonation as well - this is particularly rewarding if you fire a sticky bomb ahead of a target and detonate before it hits the ground (see “one hit, mid air takedowns” above).
7) He causes a serious amount of damage.
The demo man has one of the highest damage rates of any class in the game. Clustering sticky bombs can murder whole teams if they prove to be careless enough. Pipe bombs are devastating in enclosed areas – and detonate on impact if they touch an enemy before hitting the ground.
1) He has no real close defence.
It’s hard to defend yourself against enemies up close. If you find that you’re doing this often, then my opinion is that you’re playing demo man the wrong way. The class is very much about positioning, which for me makes it better suited for defence rather than offence. Controversial I know, there are plenty of people who make demo man work on offence as well as defence (but I am not that player sadly). The bottle is nice as a close range tool – but is only good on a damaged enemy or one that isn’t really paying attention (good for spies though).
2) He is vulnerable to pyro, scout and heavy.
Especially if you’re caught unawares. If you’re out in the open then a heavy can make mincemeat of you. A pyro can set fire and rush you (but sticky the floor as you run back and you can sometimes make it). Scouts are even trickier if they get the drop on you – pipe bombs or mid air detonations can help but the odds are mostly against it without help from your team mates.
3) He’s often accused of being a simple spam class.
This is true one some maps where the demo man’s role is reduced to launching as much ordinance in a specific direction without actually seeing an enemy or the enemy team. On some maps it is hard not to do it (a map sort of cries out for the air to be filled with pipes). Don’t confuse spam with a lack of skill though – and most other classes can spam if they want to (heavy and soldier come to mind).
4) He’s a much overpowered class.
This old argument - where do I start? This debate has been raging since way before I first played the class. I can see some part of the argument but I don’t think he is overpowered. Lots of demo men can make a map difficult to play. The result is that the opposition team needs to think “out of the box” a bit more to deal with it. I would point out that I personally believe the demo to be the most “nerfed” (or “adjusted”) class in TF2. We had a drop in ammo, changes to the power and detonation time, allowing stickies to be shot and destroyed. I agree that too much ammunition led to total spam play by most players. I didn’t agree at the time, but I do now. I also don’t see the new adjustments causing me *that* much pain when I play the class. I also agree that sticky bombs can be shot – it’s wrong to have a weapon that could be seen and not destroyed (although you could previously air blast or roll the stickies away with the heavy’s machine gun or the soldier’s spade / rockets). There is proof about the demo being overpowered though. I have (in all honesty) to point out that competitive 6 v 6 matches limit the demo man to 1 per team. This is obviously for the reason that he packs too much punch and the matches could be very negative with lots of sticky bomb coverage.
- Teatime: Did I miss a nerf somewhere along the way?
5) He’s very frustrating for new players.
The class is difficult to learn and master given the requirement for positional play and awareness. This is primarily because new players put the demo into positions he shouldn’t be in. In my opinion, you can’t rush around the map playing the demo like a heavy or a soldier. The most successful demo men will come forward when the time is right, with support from their team if possible. Putting a demo man in front of a direct enemy charge often doesn’t work, but it is a mistake that lots of new players make. They also don’t have a fall back plan – but this is often due to poor map knowledge than anything else. This now leads me onto my next point...
6) He requires decent map knowledge.
Good demo men know the ground, where they can go and where the best places are to be able to fire on the enemy team with the least risk. As with all classes, it’s about risk and reward – the demo man has to be doubly careful not to get caught in a 1 on 1 situation particularly when he has low ammunition or has low health.
7) He requires a little more planning than other classes.
It is often necessary to prepare “fall back” zones for yourself if you suspect that you’re going to be pushed back by the enemy. Whilst I don’t do this all the time, I will lay a carpet of sticky bombs down in an area behind me if I think there is a chance I’ll need to fall back in a hurry. You can then retreat over the stickies and force the enemy to either halt their pursuit or go over the carpet of bombs to get you. Obviously bombs don’t have to be on the floor only. You also have to balance the potential requirements of the team over your own personal protection. Sometimes the wall of (self protective) stickies are not as important as covering a capture point (particularly if it is nearly taken or a cart that is close to its next capture point).
8 ) He takes ages to reload.
The demo man has to make time to keep his weapons loaded and has to work out where his next ammo supply is coming from.
9) It takes time to become a good offensive demo man.
This is so true. My advice is start off playing the class in a more defensive role. Once you master his weapons and his movements, you can consider being more Rambo (if ever Scotland and Rambo should be mentioned in the same paragraph). Defensive demo men support their team, use cover and take down enemies without trying to put themselves in the front line. Offensive demo men (and these players are simply awesome) can switch between team support and direct offensive attacks in the front line. It is truly a skill I admire and aspire to.
So, there we have it, a brain dump of all that is good and bad about the demo man. The fact is that the demo takes time and investment to get good at. Well, most classes in TF2 do, but I think that the demo takes longer to reward you than other classes. He will reward you though, and once you master him he’ll stay near the top of your preferred class list. What more can I say. The class is unique and it rocks [1].
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Additional Information:
TF2 Wiki entry detailing the Demoman
TF2 Blog entry about the development of the Demoman
The Demo is a class whose (potential) complexity is not revealing itself at first glance and which is quickly associated with spam. And the article offers some insight even for people with more experience in TF2 but who haven’t played much Demo themselves.
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