The Sword is lovelier than the Sandvich

So a German told people to write articles about what classes they love and hate in honor of valentine’s day. I think many SPUF regulars should already know what my favorite “class” is, and the strangest part is it’s not even its own class. The Demoknight is my current favorite class in TF2, or at least was before it was over nerfed into oblivion. Anyway Demoknight is more than strapping on any old shield, and to be honest I don’t even consider the Charge ‘n’ Targe actual Demoknight, mainly because while the Tide Turner encouraged getting in for awesome sword picks, making the most of your mobility, and making every charge count, the Targe just encourages tanking damage, spamming pipes, and charging away when you’re in danger.  Do not get me started on how pointless the booties are.

But Demoknight has a lot of fun and exciting elements other classes have. Imagine playing a Soldier, Scout, and Sniper, and Spy but all rolled into a fast paced close quarters combat class and you have Demoknight. Landing grenades has always been more satisfying to me than shooting rockets and going for easy splash damage. Shooting heads and stabbing backs is great and all but nothing matches the excitement that comes from charging up to an enemy and managing to get that crit swing just right and see their head fly clean off, or, if you are a caber enthusiast, get massive crit explosions that can clear even the most crowded of payload carts. Trimping and grenade jumping also add to the Demoknight package, landing grenades on good Scouts, soaring behind enemies with a will executed trimp, and let’s not forget the Loose Cannon’s incredibly rewarding double donks, and exciting cannon jumps.  Also your primary weapon can kill a mini sentry in one shot, allowing you to kill the Engineer with another shot or your melee and move on with your life.

Now I would not say I hate this class, but I don’t really enjoy him either, and that class is the Heavy. When considering contenders I thought a while, Engineer has a lot of fun playstyles and strategy, Sniper is kind of campy and cheap but headshots are satisfactory, also despite how bad it is, instagibbing people with a charged classic shot is hilarious. But I have truly never felt like I have had a great deal of fun as Heavy. The poor Russian just has no depth or fun. You point and click in the general direction of people to kill them, and you keep track of your position and health, that’s all that Heavy has going for him. Nothing against those who enjoy Heavy, I commend you, but I just don’t like playing the big slow fat man that everyone likes to use for target practice.

When other classes let you go fast, fly around the map,  be invisible, punch your mini, knock people off cliffs, headshot, or superbuff your team mates, the Heavy just seems lackluster. That’s not really Heavy’s fault when he only has 3 good unlocks at his disposal, the Sandvich helps him maintain his health, the GRU lets him keep up with other classes, and the Fists of Steel come in handy for a bit of tanking. Overall, Heavy has nothing that lets him do anything, well, fun. A lot of the fun that comes from video games in general, at least for myself is the rewarding feeling you get when you succeed. All other classes have really cool tools and tricks that let you learn new and exciting ways to use the class, and Heavy really doesn’t have much of that.

Don’t get me wrong I love the big guy, but I would much rather play any of the other eight classes if I’m looking for a good time.