(1/1) A thread I guess?:
When people compare games to TF2 their main focus is always class based, special game modes etc. Though when I think about what makes TF2 so unique, it's not really any of that. Some of the charm doesn't even stem from gameplay or design at all, it's

(2/2) simply the community that shaped many of TF2's aspects throughout the years: Community made gamemodes and maps, trading, sfm videos and even content creators on Youtube.
This is something that is impossible to code or design when making a game. So I wanna talk about what

(3/3) makes TF2 so special just from a pure design and gameplay standpoint.
Like I said before, I don't think it's the class based system that makes TF2 so fun and unique in my eyes. It is the maps.
This might be a hot take but hear me out here.
The way the maps

(4/4) are designed (at least most of them) is so open and interesting. They have so many nooks and paths, and they are BIG. It's easy to get lost and find yourself doing a 1v1 with the same guy from the other team over and over again while your team pushes the cart on upward

(5/5) or trying to get behind enemy flanks on egypt, or exploring the back alleys on kong king. The maps in TF2 are like a sandbox, you don't have to follow the objective if you don't want to and it doesn't affect the flow of the game for the rest of the players

(6/6) Something else is the simplicity of the weapons. While some of the stats of especially newer weapons are really fun for a while, I, more often than not, use the basic weapons or the weapons that have simple mechanics. The variety in weapons and how you can mix and

(7/7) match is something else that I feel is truly unique to TF2 again. I think these are the most overlooked things when trying to compare a game to TF2 or vice versa. Thank you for coming to my TED talk, and if any of you are game developers please remember this thread.

And of course this guy