"Hat" Fortress 2: Stupid Iz Gud

Before I begin, I have to make it very clear that Team Fortress 2 is a stupid game. I say that as a fan of the game. I say that as someone who thinks that Team Fortress 2 is one of the best first-person shooter games on the market. And yet, it remains remarkably stupid.

For those of you who don't know, Team Fortress 2 (or TF2) is a first-person multiplayer shooter game made by Valve, a game development studio responsible for some of the greatest games of our generation (such as Portal and Half-Life) and running the online game market Steam, which now sees near-ubiquitous use among PC gamers. These facts only serve to make the sheer absurdity of TF2 all the more surprising.

This stupidity is perhaps best expressed by the promotional videos Valve made for Team Fortress 2. For each of the 9 classes of the game (and, as an additional joke, a sandwich)  Valve created a video animated in the game engine entitled "Meet the [class]", showcasing the abilities and general attitudes of the class in question. Here's one of my personal favorites (and probably the weirdest of all of them), "Meet the Pyro".




Note the absolute insanity of this video. (In case you weren't able to watch it, it's about the Pyro, the class that wields a flamethrower, seeing him(her?)self as running happily through a field of flowers as he(she?) immolates the opposing team. It's absurd, it's hilarious (at least I think so), and it really sums up the spirit of TF2.

(As a further note to the absurdity of TF2, the Hat Fortress 2 allusion I made in the title refers to the time period in which purchasable cosmetic hats were common and important as status symbols, leading to an unofficial renaming of the game).

Contrast this with a recently popular competitor to TF2 in the multiplayer animated first person shooter arena, Overwatch. Overwatch is a great example of a game that does everything theoretically right. It has a diverse cast of characters encompassing many of the world's major nations and regions and with a near-even distribution of gender among its cast. Each of its over 20 characters has a different playstyle and varying level of difficulty and its maps are well-crafted to allow these characters moments to shine.

And yet I personally find TF2 to be a more enjoyable game on many levels than Overwatch. Part of this has to do with the fact that I only play first person shooters casually, and Overwatch has a far steeper learning curve than TF2 does. Still more, however, comes from the fact that more value can sometimes be derived from TF2 than Overwatch. If I were to play Overwatch, I would be able to gain all of the value out of the experience that I would from a standard first-person shooter: the adrenaline rush of simulated danger, the thrill of winning a game, etc. However, TF2 can provide each of these experiences and more. It permits me to feel all of those feelings with the added touch of comedy that TF2's absurdity provides. This is why TF2 survives (although a little worse for wear) in spite of the formidable challenge posed by Overwatch.

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