My opinion on unusual taunts

They’re rather pointless.

I was actually tempted to just leave it at that, with that one single line, but I chose not to. No, I’m better than that, I’m more dedicated. I had to write a full article. And a full article is what you’re getting. Small problem, I can’t get the taunts to work in GMod, so you’ll have to put up with crappy pictures.

Anyway, why do I think this form of new unusual is pointless? Multiple reasons. Let’s go through them, shall we? Alternatively, you could go read another, probably more interesting article. If you hadn’t already noticed, I’m not in a great mood.

Reason the first: They only seem to come from the taunt crates. That’s it. That’s the only place you can get them outside of trading and the Steam Market. They’re like robo effects except a tad more common. And with weird effects on them. Let’s not forget that the chance of getting an unusual anything is so amazingly small in the first place, and it’s restricted even more by uncommon crates.

Reason the second: The effects are weird. A lot of them, like the tornado and the money effects, clip through the player and rather badly. Some just seem to, well, do nothing. The disco ball effect, ’72, just sort of sits there doing nothing. The heart effect feels pretty much ripped from the various heart hat unusual effects. The Mega Strike effect is pretty boring and only briefly visible unless you pause at just the right moment and ironically is the least flashy of the lot. The only one that looks REALLY nice (and I would use 24/7) is the Show Stopper effect, which has fancy fireworks everywhere.

Reason the third: They’re new items and they’re priced really weirdly. But already tiers and all that have formed and it’s not because of the effects, it’s mostly because of the taunts. With all the TF2 hats, you’ll surely be able to find something you like for a reasonable price, but with taunts, you’ll struggle.

Reason the fourth: If you can spam an unusual taunt, it is infinitely superior. A lot of the class-based taunts are simple. They play the animation then resume normal stances. But the partner taunts, the conga taunt and Engineer’s taunt can all be held down and left like that, so they are much more spammable. You unbox one of these, it’s worth way more than a more regular taunt.

Reason the fifth: There’s not enough taunts or effects yet and no one knows if we’ll ever even get any more. I’ll be honest, I dislike the Medic’s new taunt. The Meet the Medic taunt is way superior. But at least I have a choice for Medic. Heavy? I ain’t got nothing. Heavy misses out completely. It’s sad actually.

Reason the sixth: This is the obvious reason: You can only see unusual taunts when you, well, taunt. And outside messing around servers or trading servers, there’s not a lot of time to taunt. Especially if you’re an in-the-fray combat class. All it does is add more insult to injury for Snipers. Or maybe Engineers. An unusual hat will be seen while you fight, but an unusual taunt can only be seen for a brief moment.

Like I said, pointless.