- Joined
- Jul 26, 2008
- Messages
- 358
Be warned all ye who enter here, there be walls of text ahead, and they be long.
Greetings Edgegamers! I've decided that I wanna write up my own review for the latest update to TF2, the Classless Update. These ratings are of my own opinion and may not reflect your own. So let us begin!
-- Final Score is below for those too impatient to read.--
Many thanks to Calle for being my Guinea Pig for photos.
EDIT: August 14th Update! New/Changed information as follows:
Changed: KotH Overtime bug.
Changed: Added insight to critical visuals.
Removed: Minor Addidtions segment, they do not really carry enough weight to be involved in a rating assesment.
Removed: Inspection/Spectator weapons key. Too small of an addition to be involved in a rating assesment.
Removed: Colorblind Jarate Option. Too small of an addition to be involved in a rating assesment.
Changed: Added insight to spy immunity to on-hit effects.
Removed: Sticky-Jumping Tweak. This has been fixed.
Added: Broken Rocket-jumping.
Removed: Dead Ringer Nerf. This turned out to be a bug, not intentional, and has been fixed.
Added: Stickies and Control Points.
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NEW CONTENT
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King of the Hill: A nice re-imagining of the Arena setup, KotH takes place on a similar playing field, small sized and full of blood. This playmode promises to be a hectic one, so those that really want to get into a big mess will love this new style of play; However, chances are high for one team to simply roll the other for the entire three minutes, combined with the small mapsize could turn this into the largest collaboration spawn-camp in history. The OVERTIME bug has been removed, but kept as an option to those that would like it. 9 out of 10.
Losing Animations: I have never seen teams so excited about losing, though this will quickly fade as the update's WOW effect wares thin. The majority of these displays simply show a cowering or surrending pose, and funny walking animations depicting terror. Some however, like the Scout, Pyro, and Spy, evoke the inner-character, and make the game even more immersive than before. However, one bug to mention is that when you taunt, you show no weapon, and this leads to sometimes bizarre looking animation. 9 out of 10
New Hats: I will not lie about my somewhat bitter feelings. I have not a single hat, and never had one. I have played religiously since they have been added, even from the original set. I had a hope that the rate would increase with the update, however this was pretty much proven false, save a glitch where some players were getting multiple items; I expect valve to take these away like they did with the last glitch. The hats are pleasant to the eye, and tend to fit the character stereotype, however the sheer rarity almost makes this point moot, as you yourself have low chances of enjoying this perk. 4 out of 10.
Auto-Reload Option: This lets the player automatically reload any and all clip based weaponry when they are not being fired. I do not have to explain the benefit, it's self explanatory. The downsides however few, can be somewhat significant. The animation always tries to come up, even if you are holding down the firing key for specific weapons, the most obvious being the pump-action shotguns. This can be a distraction, and an annoying one at that. And it directly affects the Force-a-Nature, it will try to reload the weapon automatically after one shot, meaning the unused bullet will be discarded, the only way to stop this from happening is to fire the weapon, and in most cases where you are worried about losing the bullet enough to try and save it, this means no enemies. 8 out of 10.
CTF Critical Captures: This addition will likely rock the CTF world into a new breed of animal, but this could likely be for it's benefit. CTF maps generally become one of three things, A) A stalemate between two teams not focusing on the objective more than they are killing the other team, or B) a roll where only one team acts like A and the other is a unified team, or C) Where both teams are obsessed with the goal, leading to more stalemates due to the turtle(Calle) effect. The crit-charge encourages players to get the other team's intelligence, either for the overall victory, or for the chance to witness a full team crit killing spree. This adds drive, and a punishment for those that turtle, one capture means any who are still on the offensive could blow them out of their shells with relative ease. The one downside, is if the team you are playing on is below "mediocre", leading to a roll involving two assaults of criticals and the final loss, with little time to recover. However, this problem lies more within the core mechanics behind CTF and not the Critboost itself. 10 out of 10.
Critical Visuals: These make it VERY clear when someone is rolling out the kritz, got a kill with the KGB, or simply is about to punish you for your team's loss. This makes having a critical streak a bit more exciting, however some dislike the brightness of these weapons. However, this also messes with any custom skins for your weapons, removing the glow, or only showing part of it, and this can be both good or bad depending on how much you care. 7 out of 10.
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NEW CONTENT SCORE - 7.8 New is new, but it brings things to the table that can be good or bad, depending on your perspective on the individual additions.
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CHANGED CONTENT
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Pistol Firing Rates: This is a superb change to the former pistol, which either needed to be fired by jamming your fingers on the mouse (with possible loss of accuracy as a result) or by getting a script, something not a lot of players know how to do. Now by holding down the firing key, you attack at the maximum speed. 10 out of 10.
Sappers and Teleporters: With the spy able to destroy both exit and entrance, he can effectively double the engineers workload in moving up his teammates. However, the engineer can counter this by repairing only one of them. While providing the engineer with a useful counter to spies sapping teleporter entrances, this cripples one of the spies Credit-2-Team moments, a useful tool for forcing the engineer to either abandon his sentry or leave his teammate's with blisters on their feet. 8 out of 10.
Spies immune to On-hit effect: This is a useful addition, making one of the spy's greatest weapons, paranoia, much more effective. Spychecking is now harder, but this is part of how it was meant to be, and makes pyros the better suited of the classes for spychecking since Ubersaws no longer give charge and blutsaugers no longer give health. However this also applies to disguising as a friendly player, which would be a giveaway to Dead Ringer spies. 9 out of 10.
Removed Self-inflicted mini-crits: I have sworn many times (not over the mic of course) over how many times I have killed myself attempting to rocket or sticky jump while coated in the stinky sniper's wastewater. This makes escape via jumping a now viable alternative. 10 out of 10.
Teammates and Radius Damage. I recall one time before becoming an admin, I was saddled with trying to sticky jump with a pyro purposefully getting in the way. It was greatly frustrating, and though this can happen on accident, I am greatful for this griefing tool to be gone. 10 out of 10.
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CHANGED CONTENT FINAL SCORE - 9.4 Many of these changes come to the benefit of everyone, and I am impressed. Very few will not like this, most of them of the anti-spy variety.
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WEAPON TWEAKS
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Force-a-Nature: This section is likely where I will receive a great deal of flak, but I will stick to my opinion. Some say the FaN was Overpowered before the update, some say it was even, some say Underpowered. I believe this current version is the best we can expect with what kind of weapon this is. This weapon was made to annoy, and it has done so. It now behaves more like the airblast, and will now launch players both fired upon and firee, in direction relative to the player. Instead of going straight up, you will now fly backwards, giving you some precious time to stop the scout before he comes in closer with another more lethal shot, or waste his shot on you at the increased range, lowering any further knockback and damage. This accents his role as a hit and run class. Any other additions that can be made will either topple it to being overpowered, or unused in favor of the original Scattergun. 9 out of 10.
Sandman: This weapon has undergone many many changes. With the return of the double-jump and the loss of a hefty 30 health, this turns the scout towards a more defensive role, shooting from the sidelines rather than getting into a crowd, and this is where the sandman does it's best. Stuns now can happen at a closer range, but this is immensely risky. To pay off this risk, 50% of incoming damage has been increased to 75%, making this a great weapon for setting up enemies for ally targets, mainly ally snipers. You can also conserve the ball now by using alternate fire for ball release and main fire for melee attacks. This weapon greatly hurt heavies upon release due to the spin up time, but now his gun remains spinning and ready to go, making getting close less of a smart idea and more of a quest for suicide. Ubercharged enemies can no longer be stunned, perhaps bringing a little more balance to this weapon as one of defensive annoyance rather than game-breaker. One smart scout (I have done this myself and have witnessed it as well) Can save up the sandman for incoming ubercharges, and effectively shut down an entire team's offense. Needless to say, that is far too much power with too little risk. However, this breaks "The Big Hurt", one of the scout's achivements, and until the effect is changed, or the achievment removed, this change will force those seeking to complete all achievemnts to be one step away. 8 out of 10.
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WEAPON TWEAKS SCORE - 8.5 Updates to the scout have brought it from Useless but Annoying, to King of Offense, to Balanced Offensive/Defensive Heckler, and I believe that he has hit his sweet-spot in terms of balance.
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MAP ADDITIONS AND CHANGES
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Pipeline This map has been of particular dislike for me due to it's design, turning it into the 2fort of the payload world, where players focus more on aimless slaughter more than they do the objective. This usually leads to major rolls from one team to another, and I feel the increase of the 3rd round's benefit only increases this, which will turn many players off to it because of repeated losses. 5 out of 10
Offblast Offblast is an arena map with tight spaces, a drop of death in many locations, and relatively pleasing visuals. But the map uses the well-overused desert theme, and is an arena map, something that has littered updates since the Heavy Update, and it is becoming tiresome. 7 out of 10
Yukon: The map plays well, similar to other mainstream 5CP maps like Granary, Fastlane, or Badlands. However, the layout may be somewhat more confusing to newcomers than the others. Visually, the map is superb, and truly unique to me, even with it's use of alpine theming. 9 out of 10.
Arena Sawmill Changes: Simple fixes, and a great fix involving the missing models, something which destroyed the map for some. This is nothing but improvement. 10 out of 10.
Granary Changes: Very few may actually notice these changes, but they are ones that improve balance, letting both teams be able to perform an action previously restricted due to prop placement or brush flaws. Again, nothing but improvement. 10 out of 10.
Viaduct: We haven't seen another change in theme since Lumberyard (Egypt is not official) and it's about damn time. The map plays well for its gamemode and is a solid first in the world of KotH. Also snow makes me giggle. 10 out of 10.
Koth_Nucleus: It's just nucleus with a different mode, not much to say here, I am not very impressed. 4 out of 10.
Koth_Sawmill: See above.
CTF_Sawmill: This map's design is not that great. People avoid the middle with the saws, making it moot, and blocked off areas reduce traffic in these zones to a great deal, them not existing at all would probably have little impact on the map. The intelligence is very close to spawn, and the area it is kept in wreaks with the stench of turtles. I do not expect great things from this map. 5 out of 10.
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MAP ADDITIONS AND CHANGES SCORE - 7.1 There are plenty of new maps and old maps with new flavor, however the only official Valvemade maps in the bunch are Koth or Arena, and I feel Valve has been taking a real backseat in regards to making big, well-balanced maps like the ones made for release and some of the more recent ones like Badwater.
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UNLISTED CHANGES AND EXTRAS
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Stickies and Control Points: Stickies have been made to no longer stick to saws. As a result however, they no longer stick to control points either, they just bounce off. This really changes how the demoman is played relating to defense of a control point and possibly offense depending on the area. I view this as slightly unnecessary, and a bit of a cripple to the demoman. 3 out of 10.
Broken Rocket-jumping: Why it happened, not so sure, how, same answer. But in the end, the fact still remains that something has happened to the rocket-jumping mechanism of the Soldier. Before the update, rocket-jumping had a room for a slight margin of error, still allowing you to get great air-time. Now however, you must not only be very precise, but be stationary to get close to the height you used to. And distance jumping? Forget about it, all you will get is a 2 foot bunnyhop and a 30-40 crunch to your health. This is a very important mechanic in TF2, and this change has done nothing to benefit, so hopefully they fix it soon. 1 out of 10.
Cloak And Dagger Buff: Yep, I said buff. CND's regeneration rate has been increased, meaning times that you have to stop-n-start have been decreased. Distance covered only trails behind the regular invisability watch to an objective by about 30 seconds, and this is without having to run for metal or cross your fingers that your disguise is not discovered. In all, the invisability watch doesn't compare to this one for the safety it brings compared to the other, making it an upgrade, though not as drastic as the lacking of the dead ringer watch. 5 out of 10.
The Soldier Medals This was a reward given to the first 11,111 to verify your steam account and claim one. The thing is, most people during the update didn't notice this, because they were playing the game. Most only found out afterwords through friends or forum links after they had finished playing. And they found the box empty. The majority of those that got medals were those on the Steam Forum, the people not playing the game. So in a way, those that owned the game and played it eagerly, were punished for their dedication, and this is a really foolish thing. 2 out of 10.
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UNLISTED TWEAKS AND EXTRAS SCORE - 2.8 Most of these changes do more harm than good, some of them just plain bad.
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--FINAL SCORE-- 7.1 I feel a lot of things were added, but quite a few things were also changed drastically from what people are used to and will take plenty of time for people to adjust. Some things added are somewhat false hopes, such as the hats or medals, where some are great additions which will probably live well in Team Fortress, such as Yukon, or the CTF Crit-buff. I hope you enjoyed reading what took me 2-3 hours to write and assess.
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-15% Damage would be nice.
