EDIT: REST IN PEACE, RICK MAY, 1940-2020.

This game was the pinnacle of my gaming experience. It is the most reliable, most unique, and definetely the most important game of the last 13 years. This game brings up so many memories, I can not even come across this games logo without having flashbacks of all the fun I've had. This game has embedded it's natura within my mind so deep, nothing can ever replace it. The music, the cinematics, the community creations, everything about this game, I love, unconditionally. It is the most unique masterpiece that has a capability of making you lose yourself in an alternate world.

The story of the characters are conveyed masterfully in the "Meet the" videos, and every map you play on, every game mode you try out, every single hour you spend gives you an irreplaceable experience.

I've played this game on multiple accounts, culminating to about 3.5 thousand hours of gameplay combined. And after all this, I still come back looking for reasons to convince myself to download and hop in. The game is just that great.

This game made up most of my childhood and early teens, so I have an undisputed bias for it, naturally.

THE MUSIC IS THE BEST. This is a serious note. The music created by Valve for this game is just ingenious to put it mildly. It is the best you'll ever find, ever. The music is what defines this game. Everything about every single musical piece of this game is so full of emotion and so romantic, words can not describe it. And the fact that the music is a third source media for this game, is just beyond comprehension. I am listening to it as I write this. You can find an extensive compilation here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ZdnG60BiI8

The theme of the game, the unique late 1960's feel into it, makes the whole experience all the more memorable. You can feel the theme throughout the masterfully created maps, and in character design. Everything adds up beautifully. The way BLU is always this industrialised multi-national conlgomerate, and RED is this unique, lawfully American firm, gives the game a very unique sense of belonging as you play it. The official maps are consistently thematic, as BLU's side is usually cold, industrialised and minimalistic, while RED is always has this American countryside feel with a lot of woodwork and warm colours.

It goes without saying, that every single map has a feel of isolation from society. It may be in a mountain range, a desert, the steppe, the canyons, any place in this world this god wicked war between the two companies that rule the world would take place.

There is always a map here and there, of all the places the companies have control of. They rule entire countries, and you can feel it. You don't feel like a mercenary, you feel like a cog in a war machine that is out of a James Bond movie.

Playing this game makes you dream of another era completely. The game design on top of the extensive media input makes the game a complete culture package to unravel. And the communities own input of SFM's and other such media posts create this extensive universe of a lovely world.

The Gamemodes you can play in are all awesome. You can pretty much conceptualise almost anything that is bound within the source engine, and it will be a gamemode. Want to play Slenderman? There is the Glubables server for that. Want to rocket jump? A server for that. Want to race blimps? You guessed it, a gamemode for that. Want to play mariokart? Here you go, an entire range of maps at your disposal. Want to trade in game? Just tell me your price margin.

Every class feels incredibly unique, with each having very big appeals to very differnt player groups. All 9 clases are always relevant, and could be played endlessly without getting bored. The item variations make this game almost impossible to ever truly fully experience everything, which is poetically beautiful in its own right.

Mind you, I have not even talked about cosmetics, and all the astonishingly crazy things you can do in this game yet. TF2 revolutionized the industry with its cosmetics, trading system, and its lootbox system. It fundamentally changed how videogame studios view the market, and arguably created the modern, capitalist, cut throat competition between big budget publishers and niche studios alike.

The way the cosmetics were used in this game, as both a part of the community, and the game itself, has brought an incredible amount of variation to both the players options as to how they wish to spend their money, and the way they could get hooked onto the game. I remember spending countless hours in trade servers, checking on backpack.tf on the prices of the miscs I wanted.

The early 2010's were amazing. Through 2011 to 2013 many player groups formed, either to trade, or play the game as a collective. Regardless of the intention of the players, the way they formed into well-knit communities sparked the essence of what brought and kept Steam's high profile in the gaming industry among players. Directly, or indirectly, TF2 helped Steam become more or less what it is today. I myself were brought onto this platform after through web page ads for the game.

Short story is, the game designers were complete masters with this one. They created the most nostalgic game of my generation without question, with incredible ease. I've never failed to fall in love with it over and over again, and never encountered anything that would turn me off.

The events are just WILD. I've never encountered any other game that did events THIS GOOD THIS CONSISTENTLY.

This game, from release to present, never failed to secure a sweet spot on the Steam charts. It always endures new waves of popular games and market changes. The game is still in top 5 every day with almost 70 thousand players playing constantly. This just goes to show you how this 13 year old game is a undebatable masterpiece of the last decade.

Unfortunately, even though the community does not know to let go of this masterpiece, it has now reached its peak burnout at 13 years strong. I believe the game will stay around for a long while with a serious base of players who are commited. But, a 13 year old game will not be much of a tourists spot, and eventually its failure to attract new players at a constant rate, will result in a collapse. But not to worry, for it has been a WILD ride.

This game will always be my favourite. Jump in, experience it for yourself.

After spending half a year worth of my life, spread over a course of 7-8 years, singlehandedly on this game and this game alone, I now can verify, 10/10, would commit my life to it again.

I'm out.