Spy Update Implications
Posted in Team Fortress 2 News, Team Fortress News
In the most perfectly-suited delivery since the Rascal Scooters came in chocolate-flavored crates, the Spy backstabbed the Sniper Update mid-week - before his own “Meet The Spy” intel was stolen and leaked over the internet. Okay, it was accidentally released by Valve - but stolen sounds so much Spy-ier, doesn’t it?
What does the Spy Update mean for players? Every update has created a temporary ecology on TF2 servers, a surge in the updated class and new predators designed to hunt them. The medic update was a feast for backstabbers, while the Scout update gave every Engineer ever about a million kills. While the Sniper update will do nothing but increase the average TF2 server from “Too many Snipers” to “Far too many bloody Snipers,” the Spy’s new toys have the potential to permanently alter the game.
1. The Dead Ringer
This cloak-alternate does what Valve do best, taking half-broken ideas from Team Fortress Classic and making them playable. The original “feign death” option was useless, only ensuring that everyone wasted time shooting corpses like there was a Zombie uprising scheduled that evening. This timepiece instead creates an corpse, as well as proving you can get away with puns this terrible if you’re awesome enough at everything else. (For more terrible pun proof, see: “Every TF2 Achievement List.”)
Expect a temporary massive increase in speculative fire, as seeing a Spy drop dead - previously the most satisfying sight in the game - is no longer a guarantee. Pyros will be more useful than ever (assuming Valve don’t do anything idiotic like creating a fully ghost-like immune cloak). The corpsewatch might need some tuning: they say it creates a clone on your first non-lethal hit, but everyone needs at least a few strikes to bring down a spy. As it is people will learn to distinguish between a Dead Ringer and a Dead Real-one.
2. The Cloak & Dagger
An excellent alternate. The Dead Ringer might be a gimmick, but between this and the classic cloak there are two very different styles of play. Recharging your shield by standing still means every moment is espionage action, the skill staying in the right spot while your cloak comes back - masterful missions all the way to the enemy spawn are now possible.
The standard cloak can still compete with it’s metal collection - every good spy has at least one incredible run through a warzone, scooping up enemy weapons to burst through to the objective. This route will be faster than the C & D’s, but riskier, as the ammunition crates you need to keep cloaked are high-traffic areas. While backstabbing someone then using their weapon is priceless.
3. The Sliding Sap?
If that just looks like a low-resolution cap, you aren’t an Engineer. That’s the moment every hard-hatter online screamed, seeing the Spy slide a sapper to destroy a Sentry Gun remotely: otherwise known as “One More Reason Engineers Are Boned.” It may just be a slick cinema trick, but Valve have shown off incoming upgrades in videos before (the Flare Gun in the “Meet The Sniper” video, and watch the “Meet The Spy” video again - you’ll notice some different looking hats and helmets around the place).
Even standing by the building, Spys are an even match against a single Engy. If they can remotely sap the hardware before getting close the repairing Engy will be a sitting duck for the mother of all backstabs - and when the long-suffering constructor goes down, his buildings will follow him to Engineering Valhalla moments afterwards.
Update anticipation is a much more exciting sport since the Scout Update, when Valve proved that yes, they can get things totally wrong. But they’re still awesome, they always fix things, and we’ll be waiting with bated breath to see what really happens.
Well, bated breath and a butterfly knife.
Gentlemen.