Playing this game in 2024 as a new player just isn't worth all the hassle. You can't talk or even use the in-game voice commands unless you buy something from overpriced in-game store. Even if you did, you'd have to deal with..

1. Cheating aimbot bots that flood servers, effectively making it near impossible to play matchmaking during certain times of the day. Bot waves come and go but at the time of editing this review, it's been especially awful.

2. Just plain old cheaters that are blatant with their cheats since they know Valve won't do anything about them. Some cheaters party up with their goons, effectively making them immune to the vote kick system.

3. Racists and bigots. I'm personally not particularly sensitive to a slur being said or an offensive phrase being used on someone but for whatever reason, TF2 attracts an overwhelming amount of these people. In-game, you can rename weapons and items that you have and add decals to signs and certain cosmetics and... well, you can probably guess the creative names these people give to their items.

EDIT: As of August of 2024, Valve seems to have implanted an anti-bot system in the game. It's been about 3 weeks since I've last seen a bot in Casual. My other 2 points still stand but the game is at least mostly playable now.

Playing this game in 2024 as a new player just isn't worth all the hassle. You can't talk or even use the in-game voice commands unless you buy something from overpriced in-game store. Even if you did, you'd have to deal with.. 1. Cheating aimbot bots that flood servers, effectively making it near impossible to play matchmaking during certain times of the day. Bot waves come and go but at the time of editing this review, it's been especially awful. 2. Just plain old cheaters that are blatant with their cheats since they know Valve won't do anything about them. Some cheaters party up with their goons, effectively making them immune to the vote kick system. 3. Racists and bigots. I'm personally not particularly sensitive to a slur being said or an offensive phrase being used on someone but for whatever reason, TF2 attracts an overwhelming amount of these people. In-game, you can rename weapons and items that you have and add decals to signs and certain cosmetics and... well, you can probably guess the creative names these people give to their items. EDIT: As of August of 2024, Valve seems to have implanted an anti-bot system in the game. It's been about 3 weeks since I've last seen a bot in Casual. My other 2 points still stand but the game is at least mostly playable now.