There is no I in Arena

August 20th, 2008 · 57 Comments · Gaming

But there is an I in pie.

I gave the new Arena Mode a run last night, not for very long, but long enough to determine it just wasn’t my cup of sandvich.

It’s like Sudden Death, and Sudden Death can be fun. Sometimes. After a hard-fought, half-hour long battle for a map, Sudden Death can be exciting and tense, even if you die early and have to watch the rest from heaven. Even with a major mismatch, say a lone engie versus two soldiers and a demo, it can enjoyable to watch the poor hardhat scramble to stay alive until time runs out, or even manage to win with a few lucky shots.

But that’s after the investment in an epic battle beforehand. With Arena Mode, it’s not nearly as much fun, or even any fun, to get wiped out and watch from the sidelines as a spy and medic take careful potshots at each other from opposite ends of the map, retreating every few seconds. In American football, most games come down to a field goal, a play that is endowed with excitement simply because it will determine the winner of the whole shebang. But you don’t want to watch a game where the teams kick a field goal every two minutes, because field goals are fucking boring unless the entire game is on the line.

Ultimately, Arena just doesn’t fit my playing style, which is to charge in and kill as many opponents as possible before getting blown into gooey chunks of limbs and internal organs. I operate on a no retreat, no surrender philosophy, much to the chagrin of whatever optimistic medic has chosen me to protect him. I die, a lot, and I don’t much care that my lifespan is usually pretty brief.

I also generally prefer large, bustling matches with twelve players on a side to smaller five-on-five skirmishes — I think it’s much more fun to play amid the constant chaos of a big match, where something is always happening somewhere on the map.

I plan to try Arena again, because these are just my initial thoughts and I’d like to give the mode a fair shake, and the new maps certainly look great. But, at first blush, I’m not really all that taken with the new mode.

Tags: tags are left as an exercise for the reader

57 responses so far ↓

1 ZomBuster // Aug 20, 2008 at 8:10 am

I think it’s quite fun actually. You really need to watch out more and kills are much more statisfying.
2 Soundwave // Aug 20, 2008 at 8:14 am

My exact same thoughts. I really hope that Valve makes more Alpine maps, because Lumberyard is one of the best looking maps I’ve seen in a very long time.
3 Krieg // Aug 20, 2008 at 8:18 am

So far I’ve noticed 3 ways to play it with the most success/fun.
1. Run wherever with the rest of your team, that way they’ll probably die before you. Or something.

2. Play with a “COME! KNOCK ME OFF IT!” mentality. With a medic or sandvich or buddy.

3. Pyro rush.
4 Jake // Aug 20, 2008 at 8:19 am

Amen Chris! I never liked CS and for that reason I don’t think I will ever learn to like Arena. And it is probably for the same reason as you. I will make sure and sacrifice everything to ensure that one kill (and a lot of times I don’t get it).

I think it is too easy to kill people quickly in TF2. Maybe I would like it better if you could make a mistake and not be immediately wiped out. Sure you would be hurting and easier to kill next time if you make a mistake but this kind of play style does not seem to work well when one crit explosive can take you from full health to dead.
5 Alexander // Aug 20, 2008 at 8:21 am

I totally agree with that playstyle of yours, and it’s probably why I suck so bad at Arena as well…

Pyro rush does work
6 Generic Username // Aug 20, 2008 at 8:26 am

I played it for an hour last night and enjoyed it.
7 Mr. Munchlax // Aug 20, 2008 at 8:26 am

On both the servers I was on, arena maps crashed them. I did get to play badwater though and I can safely say it’s probably the best valve map ever, soooooooooooo much better than Goldrush.
8 darthpugwash // Aug 20, 2008 at 8:29 am

Things I learned playing Arena last night:

-Whipping out the fire-axe and charging four enemies on the middle point while you are down to 23 health and the rest of your team is dead = HILARIOUS

-Stay close to the Medic if you want to live!!

-Go Medic if you want to be a points-whore

-I suck at Arena

-The Alpine enviroment looks great
9 Fleeka // Aug 20, 2008 at 8:29 am

There is also an I in Sandvich.
10 [nba] Sydonai // Aug 20, 2008 at 8:33 am

Hey, generic username! Pretty sure I saw you on a couple servers last night. You play a pretty mean soldier.
11 Pentadact // Aug 20, 2008 at 8:42 am

Yeah, a very good summary of my problems with it too. Spectating isn’t fun because the matches just aren’t very important. Winning isn’t a big deal because the whole thing was over in two minutes. And sitting out rounds is just outright unacceptable, as far as I’m concerned. I’ve only just about tolerated it for the sake of trying out the mode, but from now on that’s it. I’m leaving the server.

Fundamentally, two minutes is a very short time to play and a very long time to wait.
12 Dwight K. Schrute // Aug 20, 2008 at 8:45 am

I really like this new game mode! Valve did an awesome job with team balancing (Love the auto team sorting) I also like the “King of the hill” style team creation - the winning team continues playing while the losing team gets shuffled with the bench warmers. Very fun and well done. I haven’t seen any problems with turtling yet either since the point opens up so quickly. This game type really makes the heavy’s sandvich, pyros’s flare gun, and medic’s secondary syringe gun very valuable.
13 VenomKing666 // Aug 20, 2008 at 8:52 am

One thing is sure…

I want some payload and point capping or even intel stealing maps with the new mountain/forest terrain design.
14 rammingspeed42 // Aug 20, 2008 at 8:53 am

The rounds of Arena I played on were really annoying because there was no health at all on the map. I mean, yah, sudden death is not gonna have health, but you figure an arena deathmatch would. It would make things more interesting. You got a lone demoman, the last of his team, being chased by two soldiers, or something. And the demoman has taken a few hits already, and won’t survive another. But as the last rocket comes in, he jumps towards a medkit, turns around, and nades the two soldiers in the face.

Instead of the lone demoman being blown up with reckless abandon, which happened to me last night.

Obviously, if there were a million billion health things lying about, then the whole gameplay style would be ruined. This I realize. Everyone would get health all the time, and it would be infinitely prolonged, which is not the point. Just have one thing of health on the map at a time, and each time at a different location. And if someone picks up the health, then wait ten seconds before it comes back (in a different location). Or have more medics play or SOMETHING…..

I think the mode needs a bit of a re-think on Valve’s part. It is a shame that the new Alpine map is Arena only, cuz it is really nice looking,
15 MadTinkerer // Aug 20, 2008 at 9:00 am

What Valve needs to do is allow some servers to make two instances of each Arena map when they load. (Or make each Arena map twice as big with two distinct areas for two teams of red and blu to fight each other simultaneously.)

This way, when the server switches from a map that can handle (for example) 24 to an Arena map everyone can start playing right away instead of half of the players waiting in line and/or quitting in annoyance.

There still would be a little waiting if there’s just two players left in one of the Arenas, but not as much as what currently happens if the server goes from a big map to an Arena map.
16 MadTinkerer // Aug 20, 2008 at 9:01 am

rammingspeed: “Just have one thing of health on the map at a time, and each time at a different location. And if someone picks up the health, then wait ten seconds before it comes back (in a different location).”

Capture The Sandvich mode perhaps? :)
17 Pixel Knight // Aug 20, 2008 at 9:05 am

I enjoy playing arena for the most part, but the biggest problem I have is with crits. This mode absolutly fails when crits are involved. Running up a staircase and exploding is not fun and feels very cheap.

So far thats my only complaint, although I did see one issue: After changing maps, about 8 people had to sit around and watch a 1-on-1 match because the game jumped the gun on starting.
18 Pope Guilty // Aug 20, 2008 at 9:06 am

On the other hand, it was pretty cool to see zompist playing with us!

Also, CitrusFreak being the only dude left on our team, being set on fire, and instead of fighting just taunting as the flames killed him was pretty fucking great.
19 Rosti // Aug 20, 2008 at 9:12 am

I can understand the criticism here, but I have had a few epic rounds in Arena mode even as a Medic. Surviving to win from 2hp, keeping 3 heavies rolling forward and going mental when you run out of patients (killing three) are all a little bit more fun with one life.

On the other hand, I prefer Payload. A lot.
20 Pixel Knight // Aug 20, 2008 at 9:24 am

Highlight of spectating: A lone engie taking out 6 members of the other team before being shotgunned in the face.

Lowpoint: Being the odd man out and spectating alone :(
21 Dwight K. Schrute // Aug 20, 2008 at 9:25 am

Probably the most entertaining arena scenarios I’ve played have involved lone spies as the last players.

In one particularly funny case, the spy was the sole survivor of his team. He disguised as one of the last 3 enemies and ran straight towards them as they capped the point. Needless to say he got slaughtered.
22 Krieg // Aug 20, 2008 at 9:32 am

My favorite moment so far:

An arena team of 6 heavies got a perfect victory, then proceeded to stand in a circle eating sandwiches.
23 Mr. Brit // Aug 20, 2008 at 9:42 am

Capture the sandvich mode:
BLU is made up entirely of scouts, RED is made up entirely of heavies. A sandvich spawns in a random place on the map (which has a new theme: Kitchen). Both teams try to secure it. Scouts must hold it for a set time while heavies must prevent the scouts from doing so. The heavies get 30 seconds of set-up time before the scout rush. If BLU wins all the scouts produce sanviches and munch away. If RED wins, all the heavies punch out the scouts blood.
24 Pad See Ew // Aug 20, 2008 at 9:43 am

Sudden Death sucked because it always *interrupted* a good game. It would always be just when you were about to break free that everything would stop for damn SD.

Arena seems to move faster, I like that, until you have to go to your corner for a timeout. Then it’s time to `quit.
25 rammingspeed42 // Aug 20, 2008 at 9:47 am

@ Mr. Brit, it has to be ALL the Scout’s blood.
26 Don // Aug 20, 2008 at 9:50 am

With you on this one, though like you I didn’t play arena games much as I found the Badwater map more interesting. Also with every side having 6-8 heavies in it there was no better time to up my headshot (poor) best and go sniper.

Which perhaps gives an insight into why Arena may not work so well in its current format. When I got killed early in Arena games the first thing I did was check my favourite servers to see if there were empty slots and if there were off I went as hanging round doing nothing for several minutes doesn’t really appeal. After all how many people join a server just to spectate. Very few I’d say and yet this is what arena play is going to impose on a fair proportion of the team each round.
27 Austin Fox // Aug 20, 2008 at 9:53 am

yeah, I was pretty disappointed with arena. I wasted almost 10 minutes on the first server I joined before I realized that I was waiting for two engineers that were heavily entrenched on opposite ends of the map, waiting for each other.

The concept is good though. the whole concept reminds me of ender’s game.
28 Mike // Aug 20, 2008 at 9:53 am

I thoroughly enjoyed the ninety minutes I spent engrossed in Arena last night. Arena is like a TF2 Focus Group, the spectators add this little flourish to the game, and the smaller maps (Lumberjack seems the best so far) make the game… not tactical, but… less… rambling. It felt a bit more teamwork-y.

I think with time, this will get a lot better. Plus, it’s probably going to become one of the bars for Clan gaming. It should do, anyway.
29 Ro // Aug 20, 2008 at 9:54 am

I dunno–don’t knock it until you try it with a legitimate team. I’m like you–I like the big, long matches that actually have a POINT to them, but playing Arena last night I actually found that we were doing something resembling strategic planning. I started off as a scout, leaping over the heads of the other team to sneak around and gank their medics/snipers, then switched to medic later on, working with some heavies to catch the other team by surprise. It’s actually pretty fun for about six matches or so.
30 Jimmay // Aug 20, 2008 at 9:55 am

And there’s an I in meat pie. Anagram of meat is team… I don’t know what he was talking about.
31 Chris // Aug 20, 2008 at 10:07 am

I like Arena, personally, but I don’t expect to play it much. However, I’m REALLY glad they added it, as it gives you just that many more options and hopefully shuts some of the “deathmatch! deathmatch!” people up for a few extra minutes.
32 Smurfy // Aug 20, 2008 at 10:12 am

I’m really looking forward to some Alpine CP and CTF maps. Alpine looks great, but I’m not really a fan of Arena mode.
33 Smurfy // Aug 20, 2008 at 10:13 am

Also, the Alpine textures will open up new possibilities for custom maps.
34 Generic Username // Aug 20, 2008 at 10:16 am

“Hey, generic username! Pretty sure I saw you on a couple servers last night. You play a pretty mean soldier.”

Uh… You probably didn’t, since I’m still adjusting to the PC version from the 360 one. <_< I’m Lapbunny on Steam and still pretty n00by.
35 Nonomu198 // Aug 20, 2008 at 10:30 am

Yah. Valve really went on the secure known stuff in this update instead of trying new cool things. CS modes, alt weapons similar to other desings, the Alpine desing is ripped off the desert one (but I must admit it looks great)….

I was hoping for something creative for a mode, weapons like a shield minigun, and damnit, they gave pictures of rockets in the blog post about the new desing!
36 rammingspeed42 // Aug 20, 2008 at 10:35 am

Yah, it seems to me that the rockets would have a really nice game mode. Let’s say RED has a missile silo, and they are about to launch an attack on BLU. BLU has to infiltrate the base and successfully stop the countdown. If BLU is successful, then they win the match. If they fail, and the counter runs out, then RED wins. That would be GREAT.
37 rammingspeed42 // Aug 20, 2008 at 10:36 am

And we could have a nice image of launching missiles if RED wins!!!!! Kinda like payload, but million times cooler!!!!
38 Pope Guilty // Aug 20, 2008 at 11:23 am

rammingspeed42, that’s just a cp map with special theming rather than a game mode.
39 Dwight K. Schrute // Aug 20, 2008 at 11:47 am

@35: Yea, a consumable weapon replacement isn’t creative. Nor is the dense team-oriented arena mode.

People keep whining that arena is exactly like sudden death and that they can’t stand sitting out - blah blah. IMO Valve did an amazing job reducing the sit out time in arena mode and abolished stacked teams. Kudos Valve for another sweet update.
40 Sam // Aug 20, 2008 at 12:19 pm

Arena sucks, but heavy mania is amazing!
So much more fun to see loads of fattys fighting than being lit on fire all the time or having medics charging in with bonesaws.
41 Sam // Aug 20, 2008 at 12:26 pm

Oh and you gotta love the sound natascha makes.
42 Turyx // Aug 20, 2008 at 12:32 pm

A friend told me every team is mostly Heavies, with snipers killing the heavies, spies killing the snipers, heavies killing the spies, spies killing the heavies, and snipers killing the spies.

So yeah, servers are full of people trying to kill each other, Valve ruined the game
43 Nonomu198 // Aug 20, 2008 at 12:42 pm

@39

Actually, it’s infinite thus can not be consumed. And I’m not saying this is a bad update, I’m only saying that I would like to see more crazy and much differenet than the tings we already have in tf2 and other games.

@42

You are right, the game is about turtelling, not some meaningless… killing! I mean, there is no fun in that. is there. just no fun.
44 Jesse // Aug 20, 2008 at 1:29 pm

Being a kamikaze Scout (meaning I drop from above while firing my Scattergun wildly, then die from fall damage before anyone can kill me), Arena isn’t for me. I’d have to actually find a different strategy and I’m far too lazy for that. But Lumberyard does look awfully new and shiny… Hmm.

If you’ll excuse me, I’ll be looking for my copy of ‘How to Survive in an Alpine Environment Full of Angry People with Guns’.
45 Bandito // Aug 20, 2008 at 1:53 pm

Turyx, I saw a slightly different class makeup. Lots of heavies = lots of snipers = lots of spies = lots of pyros. Several medics who occasionally just gave up and became heavies. No soldiers, no scouts, a couple engies and demomen.
46 trapped // Aug 20, 2008 at 3:21 pm

I have the exact same thoughts, it’s not bad but it’s just not my playing style to be as aggressive as possible. I die rapidly but I take several with me, and that’s just not as rewarding in Arena mode.
47 FrohmanForPrez // Aug 20, 2008 at 3:51 pm

You said it. It reminds me too much of CounterStrike, and I don’t play CounterStrike for good reason. It’s boring…

… and I suck at it.
48 Joe Glenn // Aug 20, 2008 at 4:08 pm

I absolutely hate Counter-Strike and I love arena. Requiring survival in addition to great killing skills adds more emphasis on player skill. Anyone can charge in, get a kill or two and die but its even harder to do the same and come out unscathed. I still love other game-modes but arena is definitly a favorite. Of course, its easy to see why those who usually die quickly dont like it!
49 Blackout62 // Aug 20, 2008 at 8:36 pm

“As in meat pie and meat is an anagram for team… yeah I don’t know what he was saying”

Why am I the first one to finish that quote?
50 Dwight K. Schrute // Aug 20, 2008 at 8:56 pm

http://www.oswald.us/wp-content/uploads/2007/05/bunny-pancake.jpg
51 Koth // Aug 20, 2008 at 9:13 pm

Y’see, the reasons you hate Arena are the reasons I love them. In Arena, I can actually be the Cowardly Medic and not get yelled at through the Internet.
52 AR // Aug 21, 2008 at 3:22 am

It’s better than nothing. But it really doesn’t compare to the other game types. And the class balance doesn’t seem as polished, either.
53 Jimmay // Aug 21, 2008 at 9:39 am

@ Blackout62:

You weren’t. :)
54 DoctorDisaster // Aug 21, 2008 at 10:25 am

I completely agree with this post. I understand that this mode is fun for some people, but it runs completely contrary to everything I enjoy about TF2.
55 IdleHands // Aug 21, 2008 at 4:49 pm

I’ve given Arena a good try and my opinion is the same from when I heard about it; Meh.

The first night I played it I had a bit of fun playing as a medic, the most crucial class for this mode. I actually got to legitimately uber a spy in trouble. But overall the rounds were too short to feel any short of accomplishement, unlike Basin, even if you win. I never felt the need to press on and keep playing, I just longed for a nice long siege at Steel or Dustbowl.

It also attracts a certain type of player, which can be summed up by a chat I saw while playing arena; “I love it, it’s like CS”. Yes, ‘pro’ players, you know the players that don’t help the team, only care really about their score, the people that can suck the fun out of a game. Admitdly not all are ‘pro’ players but still CS and TF2 are completely different and should remain that way, they cater to two different playing styles. Arena’s play style grates against TF2 whole easy fun aspects that has made it so well loved, making it more about winning, rather than trying your best but having a laugh.

I’ve been trying to think of a better mode they could of implamented. The only thing I can think of is a new 1 flag ctf, by having a round map with intel in the middle and three small bases round the sides, yes three teams (a yellow team). This would create smaller teams, without comprimising by forcing players to become spectators, and create the deathmatch chaos that we love from TF2. Respawn would be allowed dammit, and possibly instant respawn due to the large amount of dying that would happen. The bases would be very simple basic bases, one room for captures with respawn and resupply just off it.

If you extended the Lumberyard map a bit to accomodate the bases in a triangular format, you still get the feel of deathmatch in the centre of the map, also allowing inventive players to use new tactics. Using the Alpine set you could have the intel at the top of a hill and the bases at the bottom, built into the mountain. Rocks and trees can create a bit of cover. The third team sort of goes against the whole red vs blu, but it’s nice to have only one mode where a third team is available, a one off treat. Also there could be a problem with stalemates, but the manic fun is there and I’m sure a sudden death on that sort of map would be interesting.

Ok that was quite a long one I sort of got into the idea of that small 3 way 1 flag ctf.
56 Nibwoddle // Aug 22, 2008 at 6:30 am

Bah. Arena is brilliant. It’s very fun seeing as no one wants to die. Easily my favourite mode yet. (and I am not a huge fan of Counter Strike)
57 Spliter // Aug 23, 2008 at 11:46 pm

Initially I thought arena would be too counterstrike-ish but it seems I could count on Valve to make it worthwhile, and hey! It’s my second fav game mode, right after payload, (both are great for spies :D )

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