I’ve seen at least three other people mention preferring an older TFC class in the TF2 class thread. Sure, the TF2 characters were given a little bit more personality to help with marketing, but the classes played very differently back in the day. They deserve their own thread.
I’m a Pyro fan, of course. The player models both look perfect for the job of handling fire, and the weapons are easy to use but extremely difficult to master. A good enough pyro will begin to upset enemies by endlessly setting them on fire, obstructing their views. An upset enemy is an irrational enemy (if you can dig Zeno).
He’s also usually the least selfish of classes, able to wound many enemies but having a harder time when it comes to killing. When somebody plays pyro, you know they’re of noble character. (Or maybe just bat-shit insane.)
Finally, it’s a very liberating class to play, because pyros don’t get involved in a whole lot of ethics.* While medics are scorned for infecting-and-running, it’s an accepted strategy as a pyro to ignite-and-flee.
- Demomen are bastards when they camp resupply rooms, but a naplm grenade is supposed to sit outside of the enemy spawn.
- Heavy weapons guys are always whores, but when a pyro sets you on fire, it’s your own damn fault no matter how much he was spamming his rockets.
- Scouts and medics who are constantly bunnyhopping+concing don’t deserve any respect, but IC-jumps are perfectly balanced, and 2Fort, I’mma let you finish your round, but Badlands was one of the best CTF maps of all time thanks to IC-jumping into the flag room.