I don't think this was the best idea, but here we go...

So Overwatch came out recently, and it very quickly became a very popular game. I bought it a week ago and I'm loving it. But I'm also still loyal to TF2. In my opinion both TF2 and Overwatch are pretty different from each other. Overwatch has lots of varied, rigid characters TF2 has 9 classes that can be tweaked to suit your playstyle. Overwatch doesn't really have this. This is to make sure that all the characters are unique.

Funnily enough, Overwatch is more team-based than TF2. While you definitely need teamwork in higher levels of TF2, in pubs, the better team usually wins in TF2, unless the other team is extremely coordinated, but you don't find much coordination in pubs. However, TF2 has a much higher skill ceiling than Overwatch does. It takes an eternity to get really good with one character.

TF2's loadout system allows you to edit a class to suit your style. The demoman, who usually uses a grenade and sticky launcher, can be charging at you with a sword and shield. In Overwatch, each hero has two abilities that can be used to get out of a tough situation. Overwatch is more rigid, and TF2 is more customizable. But rigid playstyles are not a bad thing at all.

TF2 also has mod support. Some great community maps and game modes have been made with mods. I personally love Randomizer and x10.

What do you guys think of both these games? Leave your thoughts below. No hate comments or death threats please!

I like your analysis, and generally speaking I agree. I don't know if Overwatch and TF2 are all that inherently comparable, despite both being team-based first person shooters with classes. I think you brought up most of the major differences, and while Overwatch and TF2 are more immediately comparable than, say, Overwatch and Battleborn (two games that also often get compared), it's reductive for both games to try and put them in the same box.

As for answering your question, let me first outline my experiences with both: I've spent over a thousand hours playing TF2, so the fact that for years the game has been able to maintain my interest really speaks to the quality of the game. That being said, Overwatch has kind of taken the place of TF2 for me as far as the time I spend playing games goes, and it does manage to scratch a similar itch...

I prefer the cast of Overwatch to TF2, even though I like both. I think that's just personal preference, though; the cast of TF2 is also pretty strong, and has been well developed as a result of the comics and videos Valve has made to support them.

I don't really like picking one or the other, but if I'm speaking to what I'd prefer to play right now, it'd be Overwatch.

gamer29475 :

tf2

gamer29475 : Overwatch.
Like you said, its a lot more team oriented. TF2 always feels like a team deathmatch with a secondary objective...

Words cannot express how badly I want Overwatch. I am stuck with TF2. But from all I gather, if you want actual teamwork, you should go with Overwatch.

The obvious answer here is Hamtaro: Ham-Ham Heartbreak

Vanelan : I'd argue that higher level play in TF2 (such as 6v6 or Highlander) is actually more team oriented than Overwatch, since pretty much every class has to do their role in order for their team to be successful, and one player doing poorly can make the whole team fail. That doesn't necessarily speak for casual pub matches though, in which case I would probably agree with you and say that it can feel like just a deathmatch; however, it becomes clear after a little bit that the reason why, for example, your team has lost five times in a row isn't because any of the people on your team are necessarily bad, but because of simple team composition errors; the feeling of switching to Medic after your team has lost multiple times and then instantly switching the tides is second to none. And, no, a team doesn't need four spies and four snipers, even though that's among the most common team states.

If anything can be said for Overwatch, it's that it saw the problems with TF2's lack of emphasizing the importance of team structure and fixed them: it has made medic classes more fun to play, it has made it impossible to view your K/D in the middle of a match, and it gives hints when your team composition is way off. I think the lack of teamwork you see in TF2 isn't because of game balance or anything like that, but because the players at the casual level aren't particularly interested in building a solid team.

Nksor : There really is no competitive mode in TF2 (unless there is something I dunno about) like there is in Overwatch. That usually means that you have way too many of 1 class and no one willing to change.

I have tried Overwatch at a friends, and it just didn't click with me. Team Fortress 2 on the other hand I can spend hours on, I love playing the game with friends, plus it's free to play, and I never felt the need for paying for anything that the game offers through microtransactions.