Recent reviews by Dr. Milker

Let me start by saying that this mod still has the ability to be worth your time with some tweaks. It’s hard to recommend in its current state; it might be better to not sour your appetite for a classic 2010’s TF2 experience by waiting for some updates to this mod. The concept is good and it has good aspects, but it fails to deliver for many reasons.

1. Achievement weapon unlock system
In order to use any weapons other than stock, you have to unlock them from Achievement milestones; despite this game having the ability to look at your LiveTF2 inventory, owning the weapon in LiveTF2 does not give you access to the weapon. It does for a very small pool of hats, but not weapons. Considering this game’s target audience is experienced TF2 players, it makes little sense to make them grind just to experience a large part of the appeal of this mod (old versions of weapons).

2. Unlocks are only sometimes reverted to previous designs
One of the main appeals of a 2010’s TF2 experience is getting to use older versions of weapons that have been lost to time, such as the stunning Sandman and the two-pipe high-damage Loch-n-Load. Imagine my reaction after playing Demoman exclusively for 4 hours to finally get to use a non-stock weapon, only to find out that it is not its original design like I remembered, but instead an even worse version of it. (in this example, 2010’s LnL had a 20% damage bonus, for this mod it’s only 10%, making it worse than both the 2010’s LnL and the modern day 3-piped LnL).
The amount of time you will have to dedicate to TF2GR just to be able to try out every single unlock is asking for a lot of the player, and for many milestones you reach your reward will only be something that functions identical to LiveTF2 anyways. Something that you (likely an experienced TF2 player) have been using in LiveTF2 for years.

3. Not a time period accurate mod, not a highly customized mod
This game is not an accurate time capsule of a specific date in TF2 history, nor is it a carefully balanced and thought-out custom version of TF2. As previously mentioned, weapon stats in TF2GR are sometimes completely unique to any period in TF2 history, and many weapons that were added in LiveTF2 long before weapons that are featured in TF2GR are completely absent.
It would make sense from an “ideal version of TF2” vision to make choices such as strictly one unlock per slot per class, but this isn’t true either. Some classes have only 2 unlocks (Engineer) while some have 4 (Soldier). There is a lack of an intentional design philosophy for game balance, other than what the devs personally liked and disliked.

4. Missing classic weapons
There are many weapons that seem to be no-brainers for this mod that are missing. You would think this is because they don’t want to include weapons that significantly alter how the entire game is played, yet they allow things like the Sandman (completely stuns players who cannot fight back) and the Dead Ringer (Spy kills are never guaranteed and every Spy kill needs to be doubted).
Many weapons included in TF2GR are pre-dated by several LiveTF2 weapons, yet those weapons are omitted. If the weapon pool is truly completely arbitrary, then I have issues with the following weapons being absent from TF2GR:
- Mad Milk (released at the same time as YER. Jarate is allowed.)
- Boston Basher (released at the same time as Loch-n-Load/Caber)
- Original (Quake predates TF2)
- Market Gardner (it’s just fun)
- Degreaser (released at the same time as YER)
- Eyelander (predates Loch-n-Load/Caber)
- Chargin’ Targe (predates Loch-n-Load/Caber)
- Gunslinger (released at the same time as Wrangler)
- Southern Hospitality (released at the same time as Wrangler)
- Crusader’s Crossbow (released at the same time as Loch-n-Load/Caber)
- Tribalman’s Shiv (currently no Sniper Melee unlocks)

5. Extra negatives
A few miscellaneous gripes to add.
- Still has a lot of bugs
- Bluescreened my PC more than once
- No access to good LiveTF2 item systems such as Strange weapons
- Arbitrary hat selection
- Inconsistent hat selection (some classes get one, some get three)
- The game has attracted some negative people; half of my games had extreme levels of racism, homophobia, transphobia, and general hatred towards others
- Some people treat the game as a safe space to be awful and say awful things with no repercussions

6. Extra positives
To end on a high note, I wanted to highlight some of the things I do enjoy about the game.
- Reverted lighting to early TF2 looks great
- First model animation features restored (such as pipes showing in the Grenade Launcher clip and shell case ejection on the Minigun)
- All servers are community style; 45 min timer on a map and doesn’t change map til the time is up or the map is RTV’d
- All talk is on by default
- Every player has access to the vote menu
- Pre Meet-your-Match game settings while still having a “casual vanilla” TF2 experience
- Some(?) vanilla maps are reverted to older versions (such as cp_steel)
- Game isn’t bloated by particular bad cosmetics, skins, and unusual effects from LiveTF2

7. Final thoughts
I worry that the developer’s intention was to release the game as-is and never change it, based on the website’s writing. Hopefully this is not the case. With some changes, this can be a great long-lasting mod. I would like to see better LiveTF2 inventory integration, slightly larger hat pool, larger/more varied weapon pool, removal of TF2GR-unique item rebalances, QOL options (auto-reload), and some minor moderation.
This mod could be what TF2Classic was originally going to be before TF2C started going in their own direction. Excited for that game as well, but this game can appeal to many people if it can find a better balance of classic 2010’s TF2 and some minor adjustments.

UPDATED 2024 REVIEW:

Man, I love this game, but the bot problem has gotten out of hand. I can't keep my review positive while the state of the game has been like this for YEARS.

TF2's official casual mode, the mode they want you to play, is filled to the brim with cheater's and bots. Queuing for a match gives you between a 60% chance and a 10% chance to get a normal botless game, depending on the time of day.
For a West Coast late night player like myself, Casual has become near unusable as a means to enjoy the game. Odds for a botless game during these hours is so low that I have given up on ever queueing for casual past 9pm PST.

The game has become inaccessible for new players, thus killing the growth and longevity of the game. New players cannot message, they cannot speak, and the game mode they are encouraged to play for a "casual" experience is completely ruined by an endless army of aimbots and cheaters.

I feel embarrassed when I get the rare chance to show new friends this game. They are always interested in the world and mechanics, but inevitably their experience is ruined by the huge chunk of time we have to waste to even try to get a normal game, and when we do, we have to actively vote kick cheaters the entire match.

Community servers live on, and that's great, but this only seems to help the current veteran players escape from the nightmare and enjoy the game like the used to. The dumbest part of it all is that these community servers, ran by people who aren't even getting paid to do so, manage to keep bots out. Why can't Valve do it? They have way more money and resources than these community members. There is no excuse.

And lastly, throughout all of these years, Valve has still been implementing new cosmetics and skins, encouraging existing players to keep spending money on the game. They won't spend the time to improve the game, but they will spend the time to add community-made content to keep making money off the game and it's players. It is unexcusable.

If the problem is fixed, I will revert my review. Fingers crossed.

#FixTF2 #SaveTF2

2013 Review: "Ess gud game I lik da hets in it" *proceeds to acquire 5000+ hours over the next 11 years