TLDR - game is unplayable because of cheat-bots. #FixTF2

Valve seems to have kept up with their tackling of the issue with cheat bots. I have struck-through my old review's negative parts as a form of cautious optimism. I recommend playing this game whilst you can, because we don't know how long this peaceful period will be for.

I love this game. My thousands of hours playing and making content for the game (primarily mods) shouldn't need to say otherwise. This game got me into PC gaming, has pretty much been a staple of my adolesence and young adulthood, and probably also saved my life.

Without TF2, I wouldn't be as nearly as into art and game dev as I am now (and I'm making money from it in the form of commissions). Without hopping onto the LazyPurple silly server when I was particularly lonely in my university apartment during my first year of uni, I probably would've been in a worse mental state during that time than I was after just screwing about forgetting about my feelings.

This game and its community have touched my heart in a way I can't really fully describe with words. I hope that it one days touches the heart of someone new to the game in the same way.

But I can't, in good faith, recommend the game to someone completely new who is only reading the Steam reviews and not having been brought to the game by someone who can help them find the right places to play.

This game has essentially been abandoned by its multi-billionaire creators, with its official form of play being flooded by automated accounts (or "bots") that do nothing but play loud noises over the mic, aimbot cheat, and attempt to kick other players. If you don't have the ability to chat (which, if you're a new player, will be the case), players will probably mindlessly vote "yes" because you can't defend yourself verbally. Cheaters are going to happen in video games, that's a given, but I don't think I've seen a cheater issue at all like Team Fortress's. I've seen servers where both teams are full of bots until they decide to leave, leaving me the only player in the server. Valve does nothing to improve the situation, either, as all they have done is tweet "Hey we're going to fix this" two years ago and have since only applied superficial band-aid fixes, which get quickly circumvented.

Team Fortress 2 is a great game. It is a game I cherish so dearly to my heart. But if you're looking to get into it and don't have friends to tag along, the likelihood you'll stick around is low in this game's current state. I want to recommend this game so badly, but it just feels wrong to recommend a game where you have to requeue for a game multiple times just to have a server that ISN'T bot-filled.

[strike]TLDR - game is unplayable because of cheat-bots. #FixTF2[/strike] [b]Valve seems to have kept up with their tackling of the issue with cheat bots. I have struck-through my old review's negative parts as a form of cautious optimism. I recommend playing this game whilst you can, because we don't know how long this peaceful period will be for.[/b] I love this game. My thousands of hours playing and making content for the game (primarily mods) shouldn't need to say otherwise. This game got me into PC gaming, has pretty much been a staple of my adolesence and young adulthood, and probably also saved my life. Without TF2, I wouldn't be as nearly as into art and game dev as I am now (and I'm making money from it in the form of commissions). Without hopping onto the LazyPurple silly server when I was particularly lonely in my university apartment during my first year of uni, I probably would've been in a worse mental state during that time than I was after just screwing about forgetting about my feelings. This game and its community have touched my heart in a way I can't really fully describe with words. I hope that it one days touches the heart of someone new to the game in the same way. [strike]But I can't, in good faith, recommend the game to someone completely new who is only reading the Steam reviews and not having been brought to the game by someone who can help them find the right places to play. This game has essentially been abandoned by its multi-billionaire creators, with its official form of play being flooded by automated accounts (or "bots") that do nothing but play loud noises over the mic, aimbot cheat, and attempt to kick other players. If you don't have the ability to chat (which, if you're a new player, will be the case), players will probably mindlessly vote "yes" because you can't defend yourself verbally. Cheaters are going to happen in video games, that's a given, but I don't think I've seen a cheater issue at all like Team Fortress's. I've seen servers where both teams are full of bots until they decide to leave, leaving me the only player in the server. Valve does nothing to improve the situation, either, as all they have done is tweet "Hey we're going to fix this" two years ago and have since only applied superficial band-aid fixes, which get quickly circumvented. Team Fortress 2 is a great game. It is a game I cherish so dearly to my heart. But if you're looking to get into it and don't have friends to tag along, the likelihood you'll stick around is low in this game's current state. I [i]want[/i] to recommend this game so badly, but it just feels wrong to recommend a game where you have to requeue for a game multiple times just to have a server that ISN'T bot-filled.[/strike]