A Hatred of 2fort

Whew, haven’t been on the Daily SPUF in a long time! Let’s get straight into it, shall we?

I’m choosing to write about everyone’s favourite snoozefest, 2fort. I’m pretty sure 2fort was the first map created for the game (could be wrong, but similar maps are a staple in first person shooters. Just ask Quake.) and it’s statistically the most played map in the game at 16% (I believe).

I hate this map just as much as Aabicus loves orange chicken, which is a real shame, since I want to like 2fort and Aabicus really fucking loves chicken. I spent YEARS playing 2fort_classic, deathmatch mode, so how could I possibly hate this map? Well, I’ll tell you.

Because of how…large the classes are, I feel as though 2fort is too small and cramped for the gameplay mechanics. It’s all very bottlenecked, which doesn’t work very well for a ctf map; and let’s face it, nobody plays cp_2fort. I mean, the only direction you can go is forward, not left/right due to the fences, meaning you’re all fodder for the snipers – and Lord are there snipers.

You can always go in the sewers, but you still need to cross the narrow path under the bridge to get to the enemy base. The snipers and pyrosharks can still see you. Once inside, you’ll be annihilated by the camping stickybomb demos or obliterated into the 14th fucking dimension by a soldier because, as I said, the whole map is small and cramped. Splash damage reaches all corners of the world here.

This, coupled with the fact that it’s a ctf map, is one of the major issues revolving around this map. Ctf encourages/forces everyone to play super defensively, which stalls the game to a grinding halt. No one makes progress since everyone’s either a sniper or an engineer building in the intel room. This issue is present in every ctf map, but it’s present in 2fort so I’m bothering to mention it. Matches don’t usually last more than 4-12 minutes, depending on gamemode. However, on 2fort, the s̶l̶o̶g̶f̶e̶s̶t̶  FUN never ends. I mean, really. How are we supposed to escape with the intel when both exits are right beside their spawn door, and we have to climb a long-ass staircase to get out? One demo or pyro runs in there and you’re dead. No exceptions. Even if you’re übered.

It truly feels like the map doesn’t belong. TF2 needs more open maps, like Snowycoast or Kong_King. It’s always fun to fuck with the clueless snipers and it’s a spy’s heaven (if you can get behind enemy lines to begin with), but it’s just not balanced nor is it fun.