Team Fortress 2 is the most culturally influential game Valve has and possibly will ever release, period. All the playable characters have established themselves as household names in the gaming industry; and while the game may not be as big and cherished in the mainstream nowadays, it is most certainly super impressive how it has withstood with hardly any scratches for almost 13 years.

Although it is very popular and influential, this does not necessarily mean the game itself is as good as the legacy it set. It has a fair amount of issues that especially throw off new players, which doesn't help when a lot of the veterans are also jumping to other games. A lot of these are issues that could easily be solved if Valve cared enough about the game to properly update it and freshen it up.

One of a kind.

In a way, it's sad that it's only one of a kind--because this game is pretty mediocre. It'd be really nice to see a solid, optimized (sad that I can't even play this game with some of my friends 'cause it crashes for them most of the time) and, in a way, a more engaging game that's also specifically centered around doing heists with your friends. But hey, if your PC doesn't explode while you're playing this, then it atleast does the job.

I liked the game enough to play it for 260 hours, and even enough to buy the Ultimate Edition (when it was available... and on a discount). It can be fun at times, but I would seriously not be lying if I said the game feels like a chore to play like 70%-90% of the time. I don't even know if most of the fun I found in this game was actually healthy fun; I'm more inclined to believe it was moreso because clicking on cops' heads makes my brain produce tons of dopamine and it feels good. I also love customizing my weapons and, to be frank with you, I've made a lot of Steam money off of this game, just from the amount of safes I've unlocked at the end of heists.

You know what doesn't feel good, though? Spending 3/4th of the heists waiting for drills to finish, playing with bots that flat out ignore me when I'm downed (legit I prefer playing with level 0 players way more), being spotted through walls, etc. This is where the "chore" part of the game kicks in, where we're forced to spend most of the heist staring at things while swiftly taking out incoming cops every now and then.

(Extra: I haven't had the chance to try out the Virtual Reality addition, and from what I've seen it looks very exciting. So it probably is a good game for VR users.)

All in all, I think this game is only worth paying for when it's either free or when it's at a 90% discount, which is something that doesn't happen too rarely (it happens, with no doubt, on the Steam Summer/Winter sales). And if you'd like to give it a shot, I'd say go for it--but before you go in guns blazing, please do not forget to check out the mods for the game. Trust me, they will make your experience go from average to atleast somewhat enjoyable.

Looking forward towards Payday 3.