Team Fortress 2

I did not grow up with TF2, though I'd be doing it a disservice by not at least including this in my top 10. I had spent hundreds of hours in it, regardless of the thousand+ that most other players I knew had done. I can't pretend that I was ever in the business of custom servers or trading. Though in the hours that I've accumulated, Team Fortress 2 has unquestionably earned a place in my heart as a staple of fun gameplay and an endearing style that no other game series has come close to touching since.

In a world of gritty shooters like Call of Duty and Gears of War, TF2 stayed alive as a sort of refuge for those looking for something more engaging. No matter what trends passed the world by, Team Fortress 2 was a powerhouse of attractive new updates. Even at the baseline, TF2 has an absurd amount of content to digest, ranging from multiple classes to various weapons, a handful of different game modes, and a ton of levels. It's a lot to learn, though nothing that couldn't be picked up and played right away, either. Deathmatch is not on the menu here, instead having actual team focused gameplay that requires a machine full of moving parts to get somewhere. The objectives are simple. Sometimes you push a cart around, and sometimes you stand on a point, but the strategies get surprisingly complicated when accounting for every playstyle.

Not only is every class in the game important in one way or another, but they each have their own personality to match with it. This was a great way to spread the word of TF2, it turns out, as younger players are attracted to memorable characters. Even if you didn't care about the soldier's thick-headed dialogue, you would grow closer to it the more hours you sunk in. Chances are, if all you wanted was fast paced gameplay, the bratty Scout character would fit that role perfectly. Or if you just want to soak up damage and steamroll enemies, the Heavy would be a better choice as a gameplay style, with a ruthless amount of brawn to go with it. The Medic is more of an oddball choice, taking the concept of healing and fusing it into a madman scientist who was turned the battlefield into his own cruel experiment.

The weapons are insane. You need to figure out how to trade to acquire them quickly, but you'll have more options than you can handle once you have them. Not only can you pick one unique main weapon, but also a couple perks to go with it. Each class has their own set of perks. Some of these include ways for each class to get more versatile with their specific niche, like the Engineer's Wrangler, which lets him control his own sentry. Or on the flipside, the secondary weapon might try to fill a missing gap, like the Heavy's sandvich that restores health. Even the main weapons by themselves can change up a character's gameplay entirely. The Soldier's Rocket Jumper doesn't even inflict damage on anyone! Or how about the Sniper's Huntsman bow that shifts the style away from scoped headshots entirely? Even the levels themselves have proven to stand the test of time, with stages like Coldfront and Upwards being burned into my brain just as hard as any great Tony Hawk level. Despite the online focus, players are rewarded for exploring the levels and coming up with their own ways to get behind enemy lines. The game's music is also iconic, with a loud brass backing that fits the vivid colors of the visuals.

With all this variety, it's no wonder how so many people can get hooked on it for thousands of hours! And even with its current online botting problems, players can't help but see it as an online experience that's worth saving, as no modern games have been able to properly fill the void. Promising new games have come and gone, though not one of them have been able to match the amount of pure joy and memorability that can be gotten from TF2's style alone. TF2's memorability doesn't even stop at its own game. The fascination spread to the youtube format, using the characters for various goofy fanmade videos that have become staples of internet history on their own! Even compared to games of its own era and games of the current era, this package cannot be replicated. It's not like I can blame the current state of video games for not being able to match this level of captivation, because it takes more than creativity to produce something like this. It takes LOVE.