I think this sort of reveals the game's problem

The incredible depth and learning curve is obscured for newer players behind tricky mechanics/bad signposting, and its not instantly accessible and straightforward like games such as overwatch.

no, its obscured behind 100 lerp and poorly optimized graphical settings

Nah

If this is supposed to be written by a professional, shouldn't he have done some research outside of personal experience? I feel like a GOOD reviewer would have looked at the questions of "Why are people still playing this game despite my first impressions?"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uy5rz1cft5w

If the heavy update came out and it was just a massive pile of graphical optimizations and ui updates, i would be so happy

It really isn't though. You can learn dm, rocket jumping, air strafing / surfing and all that stuff without even knowing about the lerp settings, it would just put you at a slight disadvantage, and there have been many amazing players that stuck to default graphics settings and did excellently.

O_O what lerp settings

gaming (((journalism))) has always been a joke and most mainstream video game players would rather have instant gratification on their quarterly $60 purchase they play for sub 50 hours. the review is actually good for the vast majority of potential players as most people don't want to waste a couple hundred hours until the game is remotely fun as that is antithetical with the mainstream mindset for most games

Why is anyone surprised by this review at all? You are lying to yourself if you honestly think that TF2 ISNT an absolute shitfest when it comes to new player experience and understanding. Sure he missed a lot of what makes TF2 good, but to understand most of that it takes hundreds of hours of investment if not more and just ignoring these issues and saying "lol hes just bad" is smooth brain as all hell.

Does anyone know what or where this came from? OW and tf2 have only ever had 3 catagories...

This argument would be good IF the review was made by a random youtuber or something, NOT someone who is getting paid to write a review on a game. I still think the guy is an idiot with this review.

Overwatch used to have support, defense, tank and damage.

https://i.imgur.com/cRHoyXM.png

This game is borderline unplayable on a clean install and yall are surprised someones first impressions of it arent positive?

if i thought all tf2 had to offer was matchmaking id think its shit too

Somehow I dont think increasing the fov, enabling quickswitch, and and decreasing the interp are going to have a noticeable impact for this guy. I am genuinely unsure if the article is lashing out from total ignorance or the more cynical purposefully inflammatory clickbait route. Either way this is some highly concentrated games journalism.

"Comparing TF2 to Fortnite and Overwatch is not exactly fair, given the time gap between the releases of these titles"

Isn't that what he did tho

stupid article Although TF2 is free to play, the presence of microtransactions can also be overbearing.

What??? The only thing that really "encourages" you to buy anything in this game is when you get a crate drop.

nvm someone already posted about this

Somehow I dont think increasing the fov, enabling quickswitch, and and decreasing the interp is what mikemat was getting at. TF2 has more than those 3 systems and every single one of them doesn't work properly in the first place, or is so outdated it might as well be useless. This guy isn't lashing out at anything, rather he is bringing up valid problems with the game in its current state. The stock UI is garbage, the movement and aim does feel floaty and loose compared to any of the current gen games. The gfx and models look like garbage when compared to anything less than 5 or 6 years old. The micro transactions are an absolute fucking joke, especially when you are not told that you can trade for everything for like 0.30c and instead need to look at single weapons in the store for up to $7.50. There are so many fucking issues with TF2 the fact that he game it a passing grade is actually a surprise.

Now it is also very obvious that he just "doesn't get it", but the fact that you need to get "it" to even enjoy TF2 in this day and age is a massive part of the issues with the game, and players that don't understand that really need a reality check.

Install overwatch. Play tutorial, set graphics settings to recommended, queue casual, press f1 to see what your abilities are, see clear progression from casual to comp then up through the comp ladder.

Install tf2. Tutorial's broken, less fps than overwatch, only have stock guns and have to spend $$ for new ones because how would you know you can trade for them, much less understand tf2's 'economy', die to players using mechanics that aren't explained anywhere in the game, have to scrape together bits of game knowledge from loadscreen tips, "why do my rockets come out slower than everyone elses", end up just playing pyro because thats all you can do. If you can be bothered to keep playing, google 'how to make tf2 not shit', download and install graphics and net configs, download and install a hud, game finally works as well as overwatch did the day you installed it, read 9-year-old forum posts to learn about strafing and rocket jumping and shit like that. Try to play comp, sit in que for 3 years. Its a miracle anyone makes it to the 500 hours needed to play tf2center

Honestly weapons have no business being a part of the game's "economy" because that fundamentally makes the game pay to win at least from the perspective of new players. Hell i would be perfectly fine with a $20 one time purchase to get all the unlocks now and into the future as a sort of anti hacker paywall and a way for Valve to make money on the game but the current system is incredibly convoluted. I've been playing this game for YEARS and i couldn't be arsed to trade for the new weapons last few times we got new ones. Kind of tells you how stupid it is.

modern games journalism is a joke

>new player settings are unplayable
>no tutorial
>new players have no access to weapons
>random crits in casual
>random bullet spread in casual
>no class limits in casual
>countless stupid bugs
>aimbots or bots literally in almost every casual game
>devs literally non existant

DAMN WHY THESE PEOPLE HATING ON THIS AMAZING GAME??

TF2 doesnt explain fucking anything, and it should at least have a functional 9 class tutorial, I dont disagree at all. However a reviewer being payed to inform readers about a game making broad conclusions about things like movement and microtransactions from thier own lack of knowledge about the systems seems a whole lot like ignorantly lashing out.

The Mann Co Store is archaic at best and actively predatory at worst but the first thing anyone who knows shit about TF2 will say is dont buy anything except a key to go premium. Trading for weapons is a hurdle especially with the excessive steam trade restrictions now but ultimately financially trivial. Reasonable to expect the average player to ask in chat or google any kind of information about spending money on the game before doing so? Probably not. This is however someone writing an article at a reasonably respectable pc gaming outlet. Moreover they are clearly comfortable googling TF2 based on their ability to sum up its esports scene by its total earning rankings. Part of the reason players arent just given every weapon off the get-go is because valve is afraid of overwhelming them. Yes contracts created the perfect system to introduce players to weapons at their desired pace that they have failed to capitalize on completely.

I dont think having acceleration makes TF2's movement unapproachably slippery and I have no idea what makes its aim feel floaty. I think accel is more player friendly than this, just look at the crouch jitter complaints for sniper. To characterize TF2's movement as bad because you suck at it is as absurd as installing Quake Champions and saying strafe jumping and cpma movement are trash because its hard as fuck if you havent been doing it for the last 20 years. Everyone sucks without putting serious effort into it. That game does a pretty shit of explaining its complexities too. That doesnt mean it shouldnt try but explaining how simple looking actions, reliant on minute variable changes in player input interacting with the arcane physics of some game engine, can be used in a complex fashion is a lot harder than press key, poof, have 100% consistently performing ability. The flexibility and depth is what makes the games interesting.

I dont get the ui/graphics complaint, they seem fine from a basic usability standpoint. TF2s cartoony aesthetic still looks nice to me albeit with gaudy cosmetics shitting it up everywhere now. The game is old as fuck, what do you really expect from that department. The matchmaking/play menu itself blows but the default hud seems clear enough and the game is better about not filling your screen with unnecessary crap than a lot of modern titles. TF2 generally doesnt communicate anything to the player beyond the most absolute basic information but I consider that a bigger issue than just ui, I dont see the problem with what is there. Thankfully so much of the lackluster design can be changed or tweaked to taste by the end user, if this was a more modern game you wouldnt be able to customize shit.

TF2 is fucking filled with issues, which arent adressed in any meaningful manner in the article. TF2 needing a working tutorial, better default settings, and way to explicitly convey obscure mechanics like strafing and ramp up arent breaking news to anyone on any tf2 related forum. The only thing of value you can glean from reading the article is how befuddled a close minded new player is left after trying to play it based on their wildly stupid impressions/attempts to push other shooters mid-review.

Lashing out at who and at what? You are implying that there is some beef to be had and there is something that he is trying to get back at the game for, what in gods name is it and where did it come from? Nothing in his statement is "lashing out" at anything.

And that's literally all that matters. Him being able to or not isn't the problem, the fact that it has to be done in the first place is. The review is for random people who have never looked at the game before, not for people who want to fiend the internet for obscure mechanics and ways of obtaining in game items that you have zero idea if they are even worth it at the end of the day.

It is, the mechanics of TF2 are super complex and super hard to grasp, the fact that you think OW is somehow MORE complex than TF2 is an absolute joke.

I bolded the problematic statement for you. Movement shooters have been gone for close to a decade already and to say they just need to "get good" is a absolutely useless comment.

Yet again the fact that you have to put hundreds of hours in to "get it" is one of TF2's biggest issues currently.

Because they dont need to be, he is 100% right when he says any sane person in this day and age should pas on TF2 if they have never played it before. The game is from a different era and people need to understand that.

Welcome to 95% of players today.

When I see unsubstantiated drek used to criticize a game in one breath followed a litany of alternatives in the other that "players owe it to themselves to spend time with [because of their] higher production quality" that comes off as lashing out at the product to me personally. As a someone writing a review I'd consider their fundamental lack of understanding regarding the item system and other facets of the game to be pretty relevant to their ability to give a review worth the time spent reading it, rather than just a case study of a new player exposed to TF2's obtuse bullshit. Its not as if the game doesnt have plenty flaws to support legitimate criticism.

I didnt say OW is more complex, I just dont feel adding movement acceleration or deceleration would suddenly make OW impenetrable or something. I think theyre pretty intuitive concepts as far as movement goes beyond just fps. I agree TF2 mechanics are complex but not that its completely impossible to grasp and have fun at a basic new player 2fort/dustbowl level. Stuff like engi, medic, and spamming enemies/sentries helped me feel good about my minor impact while getting into the game as a noob. I think TF2, despite making near zero effort to inform new players, manages to have depth without as sharp of a barrier to entry as games like quake, CS, tekken etc. The ability to be annihilated as a new player is there but thats pretty much all competitive games. Movement shooters or other genres having so much depth that they lead to a huge potential skill-gap that makes it more insular the longer it exists isnt inherently a bad to me. Its a tradeoff that is ideally mitigated as much as possible by showing/teaching players which TF2 obviously fails by virtue of not even making an effort.