After over a hundred updates and four years, it is now free to play!
It never gets old- getting kills just feel so satisfying. The pride when you save your entire team by spreading Ubercharge between them; the joy when you fire a crocket, killing a clumped up bunch of enemies; the satisfaction you receive, as the machine in front of you transforms itself into a level 3 sentry. But I digress.
tf2 is a very fun squad-based first-person shooter. (RED vs BLU) Every class is balanced, except when certain items come out that break the game for awhile (Tomislav, for one). Being multiplayer only, the server and the players make or break the experience. It's frustrating when the teams are stacked, but most servers have autobalance and it works pretty well in ensuring that there's a fair amount of challenge. However, losing makes not much difference, at least to me, as just playing is fun.
The graphics are showing its age but they are still pretty. This is no Crysis, mind you. In fact, the Source Engine is pretty old already. tf2's cartoony art style works well here. I have to say though, the giant amounts of new items that are unoptimized do put a lot more strain on the system- by optimization i mean polygon count.
Sounds are there. Critical shots have the satisfying PING!.
tf2 is what you would expect from Valve: quality.
Since the game is now free to play, get it! There's no harm trying! Who knows, you might even LOVE it!