Why is TF 2 better than other FPS's?

[heyheysg]

snip

I'm responding both to this post and the one above it with this quote, so bear with me. The three games you mentioned, Battlefield, CoD, and TF2, all have very different sorts of teamwork. In CoD, teamwork is really unnecessary, and is in fact discouraged by the mechanics; grouping together is a bad thing when K/D is the main indicator of victory, and a single grenade can take out the entire team. None of the classes are a specific counter to much of anything; people generally make the best class they can with the weapons available, and try to get as many kills as possible.

In the Battlefield games, at least Battlefield 2, teamwork is absolutely necessary, but the form it takes is squads of six people, five of whom answer to the squad leader, and the sixth of whom answers to the commander. Orders trickle down from the commander, and the squads scramble to capture flags. A good squad leader can get his squad in and out of the spawn points, capturing them quickly and with minimal losses. The different classes can be used to counter specific things -- for example, every squad needs at least a couple player of the Anti Tank class, as well as a medic or two -- but they aren't quite as hard of a counter as the ones in TF2. The real power in the game is in the vehicles, and any class can use those.

As for TF2, my other post pretty much explained it. There's only so much any single class can do; a good team not only needs a decent spread of classes, it also needs members who recognize when to switch classes to counter something on the other team, as in the examples I mentioned. Unless both teams are full of rambos, team work is an absolute must; if one team is working togther, and the other isn't, the team that doesn't work together will be steamrolled. The same can be said for Battlefield, but not so much CoD.

As for the Overtime thing you mentioned, Overtime kicks in when the objective is partially captured by the team that would otherwise lose. For example, in a CP map, if the blue team has part of the final point captured, the game will go into overtime until they either cap it, or the meter runs out, and it goes completely back to red/uncapped. In a payload map, overtime lasts as long as there is someone from the attacking team on the cart. It's kind of an acknowledgment by the game that sometimes the the defending team has lost, even if the timer says they won.

To answer the last question, why the strategy in other games isn't as obvious as it is in TF2, I'm not sure. TF2 is almost RTS like in the way each unit counters another. In most FPS games, the differences in the overall abilities of the different classes -- if there even are different classes -- are minimal beyond what weapons they happen to be carrying. I can think of very few games that have classes as specific as the ones in TF2, and most of those are F2P games that came out after TF2.

I think you're right that it is almost like an FPS where each player is a unit. Maybe the ultimate difference would be the K/D thing. Where points are rewarded for good teamwork. But other FPS' do give points (Killzone eg) for doing non killing stuff.

I'm going to go with Hard Counters as the reason for game balance

 

[Bags159]

Why is it that all of the people who like it can give long, thought out posts on why they like it, but everyone who hates it pretty much says, "no, it sucks". Hrmm?

I agree with what most people say in support of TF2. Anyhow, before the item shop I really liked to play TF2 because of its simplicity, the humor, artstyle, and balance. It still has the humor and artstyle but I really don't like the number of new items they've added, plus I've found other games to play and most of my friends don't play anymore.

It was a fun $20 game for three years though.

 

[Vern5]

TF2 is better because of my fists; they are made of steel.

 

[TerribleAssassin]

Balanced. No Famas' in sight..

Unrelaistic. No gun metal grey.

and, the community isn't gargaling 5 year old racists. Put that together with good Dev Support and continous change that doesn't debalance the experience, and you are sorted.

 

[PurplePlatypus]

You can instantly tell who?s on what team and what class they are playing from any distance. You used to be able to easily tell what weapon they were using to but it?s getting a bit more difficult with everything that has been added. So basically good informative iconography.

It?s fairly well balanced.


Humour.


Free updates.


The marketing.


Hat sim.