Team Fortress 2

When Valve finally pulled off the covers to reveal the upcoming release of the Mann vs Machine Update, one of the biggest changes to the standard TF2 formula since it originally launched, I had high hopes that Valve could once again deliver awesome content to the loyal fan base. The idea of 6-player co-op action against the robotic hordes of Gray Mann as he seeks to bring Mann Co. to it's knees sounded downright awesome, and the prospects of not only new maps, enemies, and getting new items, but the fact that you could upgrade your arsenal to make it oh so much more devastating had me sold.

When the update launched, that is when the first issue I noticed with the new update occurred. Valve became so overwhelmed with demand on it's powerful servers that it stopped the downloads of many Steam users, leaving my download suspended at 27% for over 2 hours as the servers were "too busy" to handle my request of restarting the download. After signing off Steam for a hour or so, I went back and managed to get the download to resume. After 20 or so minutes, it was done downloading and I eagerly started TF2 up. Eager to start, I selected the Mann vs Machine Co-op tab, selected the new "Mann Up" mode, purchased two of the $0.99 tickets that allowed access to special campaigns for the co-op mode, and started searching for a server. Here is where the 2nd major issue popped up, mainly due to so many users overwhelming the servers that Valve had designated for the new mode. After searching for two minutes, the timer said that it would be over 2 hours before I would be able to join a match from the loaded queue list. Disappointed, I decided to put off playing the new co-op mode for the next two days, hoping that Valve would resolve the issue in that time. Two days later, I finally managed to get online with the new MvM mode, only having to wait a mere 9 minutes to get into a match.

My first experience would come on the new Mannworks map, teamed up with four other players as we faced the brutal onslaught of the Gray Horde. I joined the match after the 2nd of the 3 waves, so I selected the Heavy, upgraded the ammo capacity on the Tomislav, crafted a Mann Co. Canteen so I could buy three übercharge perks, and readied up for the match. We faced a near-unbeatable foe, loaded with Giants, tanks, several variations of snipers, sentry busters, and those darn spybots. Safe to say was that our team (two engineers, a demoman, a spy, and my heavy) was utterly outclassed by the robotic hordes, for once those giant heavy robots with 3 über medics tagging along behind each one showed up after we managed to destroy the twin tanks, it was all over. It took until the bomb had reached the drop zone at the spawn just to bring the first giant down, and with another one almost to the final platform with the spybots swarming in, we failed to stop the heavy and his medics from delivering the payload to the bomb hole. in every MvM match that I have played on Decoy, Coal Town, or Mannworks (16, to be exact), the final wave seems to be not only unbeatable, but just too lopsided difficulty-wise. Our team would be simply overrun and stomped on by the horde's heavy hitters, who marched on to the bomb hole almost uncontested, setting off the bomb and thus ending the wave in failure.

In conclusion, Mann vs Machine is a great add-on to the Team Fortress 2 game, bringing in new features, new maps, 35 new achievements unique to the MvM mode, a new robotic faction, and the promise of what could be truly awesome co-op maps being released in future updates. It is great fun to play, especially when you get teammates who truly understand and work together to help archive victory against the hordes. However, this is somewhat tarnished by the occasionally long wait times in the match queue, the uneven difficulty spikes that seem to occur in the final wave for each map, and horrible matchmaking issues that plagued the mode when it first launched. Valve has been working hard to remedy some of the issues, patching some of the update to further improve the experience for it's gaming community.

Final Score: 3.5 out of 5 Stars (Enjoyable, with minor flaws and issues)