Here’s where I stand after playing Team Fortress 2 for three weeks.
There’s not much an improvement though I’ve been playing a lot. Probably too much. I’m no psychologist but I’m guessing it’s a bad sign when you can hear the Demoman’s anguished “Meeeeeh-deeeck!” cry when you’re sleeping.
I’ve played a little of all the classes but I still feel the most comfortable with the Medic. I’m not as familiar with the maps as I’d like to be and playing as the Medic gives me the opportunity to follow and observe while still making a contribution to the team effort. I generally latch on to the most accomplished player on the team and observe tactics employed on the battlefield.
The best differ from the mediocre in so many different ways. Even the way they move is different. The best tend to jump about like overcaffeinated kangaroos, making it very difficult to draw a bead on them, while new players tend to move in very predictable patterns, making them prime candidates for a headshot.
Ultimately, what separates the best from the rest is marksmanship and the ability to keep cool under pressure. That’s “and,” not “or.” Great marksmanship is useless if you get flustered under fire. As I do. I haven’t played that many FPS games in the past few years and my reflexes and WASD skills, never sterling to begin with, are pretty rusty. I still can’t get over the panic I feel whenever I come face to face with an opponent who doesn’t have the decency to stand still while I kill him.
RED versus BLU, vet versus new
The recent Steam sales have resulted in an influx of new TF2 players, like me, much to the chagrin of some veterans, much to the delight of others. When the Steam sales crowd is playing, fortresses in TF2 are less fortresses and more McDonald’s Drive-ins. Festive open houses, even. Just come on by and get what you want. Intelligence briefcase? Feel free. Hey, would you like a First Aid Kit with that? Tell all your teammates about us. Control Point? Sure, help yourself. Payload? Just roll that big boy right up here.
Matches can get pretty one-sided at times. In one painful session, I was in a BLU team apparently composed entirely of new players. We didn’t even manage to get out of the spawn point of Gold Rush Stage A. The REDs had brutally efficient Snipers, Demos and Soldiers, who not only kept us pinned in our base, they were actualy killing us before we could step out. It was a massacre, one of many during a session in which we lost round after round.
It’s worth plugging away during a dispiriting losing run because there might come a moment when long-suffering losers, all strangers to each other, pull together, pull for each other, work hand in hand and snatch an unlikely victory.
It’s one of those “Hell, yeah!” moments that make gaming such a great pasttime.
