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A year later, how does Overwatch compare to Team Fortress 2?

MrOogieBoogie

BioShock Infinite is like playing some homeless guy's vivid imagination
Overwatch has had such a large impact on the gaming scene that this is one of the rare reverse cases of me being surprised that it hasn't been out LONGER.

While Overwatch doesn't have a class that I love as much as Spy, which in my opinion is one of the most ingenious classes ever designed for competitive online shooters, it features a stronger selection of characters on the whole (IMO). I feel compelled to switch around between all sorts of classes and styles depending on the situation and don't mind it because every character is fun to play (some more than others, of course). I tend not to branch out if I gravitate to a class or weapon in online games, but Overwatch is a rare example of a game that features solid and compelling gameplay throughout, and I think it does a better job at this than TF2 ever did where I ONLY ever really wanted to play Spy.
 
nobody talks/thinks about TF2 anymore

tons of people talk and think about overwatch every day

so i'd say blizzard won, not that it was really a contest, because TF2 is like 10 years old at this point and it had to fade from the gamers' consciousnesses eventually
 

ponpo

( ≖‿≖)
Favorably I guess, but the pace of adding more non-loot content should be quickened a bit imo.
 
It doesn't. I thought it would scratch my TF2 itch, but they're two very different games. I still miss the big, less streamlined maps that we have in TF2 and classes that are more focused.

That being said I still like Overwatch, but for different reasons.
 

Layell

Member
It's just so much more focused. First of all the rampant custom weapons madness was a pain to keep track of. If I see an enemy Zarya, I know exactly what she is capable of and what I have to watch out for. With TF2 I could be fighting a Heavy only for him to pull out that gun that shoots flames around him while wearing a giant glowing hat.

Overwatch may never have the number of maps TF2 has, and that's all right because the asymmetrical gameplay and tight design are fantastic.
 

GamerJM

Banned
I've only played a few hours of Overwatch but what was there wasn't really as compelling as prime era TF2 to me. It seemed much more focused on things like class knowledge and team composition.
 
nobody talks/thinks about TF2 anymore

tons of people talk and think about overwatch every day

so i'd say blizzard won, not that it was really a contest, because TF2 is like 10 years old at this point and it had to fade from the gamers' consciousnesses eventually

It's still the third/fourth most played game on Steam on a daily basis.
 

Zia

Member
I've only played a few hours of Overwatch but what was there wasn't really as compelling as prime era TF2 to me. It seemed much more focused on things like class knowledge and team composition.

Yeah, I keep running my head into the OW wall expecting it to click but the skill ceiling is just so much lower than the other FPS I play. Had the same issue with Heroes of the Storm as a Dota player.
 

Crayolan

Member
According to Steam Spy TF2 still has an average concurrent player base of like 50~60k people.

Obviously Overwatch has taken its mindshare but in terms of actual players it's still going strong.
 

Jawmuncher

Member
Can't really think of any reason to bother with TF2 now and this is coming from someone who loved it back in the day. Overwatch offers more variety and not having to deal with random gun drops and hats is rather nice.

Still curious what a Team Fortress 3 would look like.
 

RedSwirl

Junior Member
It appears to have eaten TF2's lunch, at least in terms of headspace.

I wonder how much of this is just due to the circumstances of each game's release.

TF2 came out a little bit before social media got big, and throughout its life has stayed virtually entirely on PC. Consoles in 2007 weren't as supportive of TF2's content model. Maybe TF2 just wasn't designed for the masses as much as Overwatch appears to have been.
 

Yazzees

Member
It clearly wins in terms of having a place in the gaming public's consciousness.

I don't think they're as similar as casual observers would say nor as different as pedants try to make it sound.
So clearly I'm just better than everyone.
 

massoluk

Banned
It's just so much more focused. First of all the rampant custom weapons madness was a pain to keep track of. If I see an enemy Zarya, I know exactly what she is capable of and what I have to watch out for. With TF2 I could be fighting a Heavy only for him to pull out that gun that shoots flames around him while wearing a giant glowing hat.

Overwatch may never have the number of maps TF2 has, and that's all right because the asymmetrical gameplay and tight design are fantastic.

This right here. The classes in TF2 been kinda wacky for a while even before OW.
 
I still play TF2 for the map variety and game modes that support more than 12 simultaneous players.

Overwatch is exposing all of the out of date pieces of TF2 though, like its awful matchmaking
 

Iadien

Guarantee I'm going to screw up this post? Yeah.
I played Overwatch for about a month before going back to TF2. I have checked out Overwatch the day of a few of the patches, but immediately go right back to TF2. Overwatch just does not compare at all for me currently, and won't until it adds quite a bit of content.

The servers I play on are still full every single day.
 

Loxley

Member
TF2's heyday has long since passed. It's gameplay is still solid, but Overwatch feels like a great elaboration on TF2's formula, and imo, is just way more fun to play these days thanks to the hero variety.
 

Corsick

Member
TF2 still has more variety for me and a greater amount of content with their maps and community support. Overwatch is a great game, but TF2 was special in the team based FPS space for me personally.
 

Phu

Banned
TF2 never hooked me like Overwatch does. OW is easily my most played multiplayer game of all time and it's only been a year.

Despite all the jokes about people running off and dying or not getting on the point, it feels like OW overall keeps people more focused on the task at hand.
 

chixdiggit

Member
Honestly, I still have more fun with TF2. Overwatch has definitely aged it in some areas though and I can see why some would prefer it. To me there seems to be more depth in TF2 in terms of strategy.
It will be interesting to see if Overwatch can come any where close to pulling in TF2 numbers after a decade though.
 

Ganado

Member
TF2 is old and dead since before OW. While I dont like either of them, Valves handling of TF2 killed it off before it even had a chance, and it's a shame since TF2s artstyle is one of my favorites.
 

Iadien

Guarantee I'm going to screw up this post? Yeah.
TF2 is old and dead since before OW. While I dont like either of them, Valves handling of TF2 killed it off before it even had a chance, and it's a shame since TF2s artstyle is one of my favorites.

We have very different definitions of dead. lol

CURRENT PLAYERS PEAK TODAY GAME

335,115 858,389 Dota 2
211,841 578,063 Counter-Strike: Global Offensive
79,175 135,010 PLAYERUNKNOWN'S BATTLEGROUNDS
49,575 58,272 Team Fortress 2
 
One's a decade old and largely irrelevant except to those still entrenched in it, and the other is the new hotness because it's the FPS for people that don't play FPS games. Despite similarities in game modes and having classes, they really don't have much to compare to with how they end up playing.
 

finalflame

Gold Member
Favorably, IMO. Just way more fun and varied gameplay with heroes instead of classes. Also, it's newer, shinier, and still has so much to grow that it's exciting watch it go through its stages.

TF2 is still a fantastic game with a solid playerbase and good support from Valve, but Blizzard just kicked it out of the park with OW.
 

Kyari

Member
As much as I love the characters that are the TF2 classes, Valve's glacial pace at putting out comics to flesh out those characters/ that world is painful compared to Overwatch.
 
Tf2 was really cool and awalys felt more casual to me. Overwatch was sort of ruined for me on the eve of the competetive mode launch. I hate the ranking system and how it activley encourages you to stop playing. Those first few months before comp dropped were pure bliss for me and some of my finest gaming memories.
 

Ganado

Member
We have very different definitions of dead. lol

CURRENT PLAYERS PEAK TODAY GAME

335,115 858,389 Dota 2
211,841 578,063 Counter-Strike: Global Offensive
79,175 135,010 PLAYERUNKNOWN'S BATTLEGROUNDS
49,575 58,272 Team Fortress 2
That's actually kinda amazing. Didn't know its still top 4. When I last played it, it seemed that most people hung out on trade servers. My bad. I do think Valve could've done more to keep a bigger playerbase though.
 
Valve had the meet your match poll 9 months ago


and the pyro still hasnt gotten an update
I thought Pyro got an update years ago when they added those goggles that turn the maps into Candyland. It's been so long since I played it though so I might be misremembering.
 
Overwatch is kinda shit, and TF2 is one of the finest multiplayer shooters ever made.


Fucking hell. Recency bias is looming large in this thread. Overwatch is definitely more beginner friendly than most shooters. I'll give it that.
 

NotLiquid

Member
TF2 is always going to have a strong player base since it's free. It's also a very single player friendly game.

That said it's continued life is hardly on account of it's qualities as a competitive co-operative title. Valve completely shat the bed when it came to that, and any semblance of it being more than just a party title was lost a long time ago.
 

Kade

Member
For me personally, Overwatch doesn't hold a candle to Team Fortress 2. Team Fortress 2 became a comfort food game for me and having a server or two that I frequented regularly with people I still talk to and play games with today might be the deciding factor for me.

I'm also getting a bit bored of the moba-like flow and build up to ultimates being available and big teamfights. Waiting on a bar to fill for your character to hit their max capabilities in an FPS just feels off to me but its not game-ruining if I've been able to tolerate it for the 150 or so hours I've played (maybe a fifth of my TF2 playtime).

I wish I still loved Overwatch the way I did during the beta and the first few months.
 

HeatBoost

Member
Every time I've tried to play TF2 I've been baffled by baked in ye olde PC multiplayer sensibility and ended up on weird servers with ads playing before matches (which irritates the shit out of me considering I got the paid version of the game) and a bunch of goobers who don't seem to be quite playing the game as much as they're inventing their own ways of having fun, like I just joined a Minecraft server

so

I like Overwatch better.
 

Veelk

Banned
Get back to us in 10 years. Because that's the legacy that Overwatch needs to beat.

But for me personally, I tried to get into Team Fortress 2. I thought that it would be the first multiplayer game that I would get into. Nothing else managed to grab me. Not Halo, not Call of Duty. I didn't understand the appeal of just playing the same match, over and over again. But Team Fortress got all these memes and fun characters, I thought I'd buy into it. Didn't work out.

Meanwhile, I tried to ignore Overwatch for as long as I could before release. At that point, I just decided MP games just weren't for me. But I just kept hearing about it, and thought "Oh, fuck it, I'll just try it out." And I've been playing it ever since. It's pretty much a straight up lifestyle now, and I call it that because it sounds better than addiction.

If nothing else though, Overwatch would not exist in it's current form if not for Team Fortress 2, so it's always going to have it's place in history.
 

Fancolors

Member
I love OW but it still doesn't scratch the itch.

To be fair, I don't think TF2 does it anymore because Valve's matchmaking update killed the community servers I used to frequent.
 

bsp

Member
It's hard to compare as in my 2000 hours of TF2 I hardly just played straight payload matches or anything. TF2 filled the "hang around in modded servers and join a clan" void from Counterstrike and Overwatch is nothing of the sort. It feels less special to me because of it, and TF2 could never really be replaced in my headspace (similar to your first MMO or whatever, where the community and people shaped your experience primarily).
 
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