free to play done right!

korriken

I was digging around free to play games and I ended up discovering a game I had played a long time ago is now free, and done RIGHT!

the game I'm talking about of course is Team Fortress 2. Its not an mmorpg, and it is of course pvp. However, I've played many many "free to play" games that are also "pay to win" and to be quite frank it annoys the everliving hell out of me.

TF2 can be downloaded and played for free, and with ANY purchase from the game's store (even a tiny little 50 cent purchase) you are automatically upgraded to the FULL game with ALL the perks FOREVER!

Many games on the steam network give you a promotional item if you preorder, but that doesn't mean you can't obtain the item if you don't... well, sort of, you can get the item, but you get the "genuine" version of the item for preorder. what's the difference? it has genuine in the name, nothing more, nothing less.

you "find" items simply by playing the game and you can trade these items with other people to get what you want, or if you get your hands on something no one wants, you can turn those items into metal to use in making other items.  Most common weapons are traded fairly easily.

what trades for more are hats, which most have no use except for the class to wear on its head. some complete item sets, but you can play and dominate others using only what you start with. every item in the game has its benefits, but also drawbacks. The Wrangler lets an engineer take manual control of their sentry gun, at the cost of not having a pistol (and therefore forfeiting any medium to long range damage if something happens to your sentry)

Crates drop, and you have to buy or trade for a key to open it, yes, but there's nothing in the crate you can't find normally, well sort of, you can find "strange" weapons that keep a kill count. If you like that kind of thing go for it. Personally I trade my crates off to people looking for the strange weapons.