Before we start lets not start another "valve sucks because of HL2DM" thread like the many at the steam forums.
Here is my Breakdown:
1)I dont know what everyone is talking about with the ladders, they have worked fine for me.
2) The weapons you start off with is lame, mainly the AR rifle, starting with it depletes the piont to even have it in the game.
3) Tau cannon, although I wish to god that this weapon was in HLDM, I agree with Finger, the original HLDM players would dominate the playing field.
4) The crossbow, although the new one is great, I hope that in the future walve will make it an instant shot, to balance out game play as far as a sniper's nitch in the game.
All in all the game was a bummer for me, there were too little maps to play, but the ones that did come with it were nice (hopefully valve will release some nice ones)
2) You don't start with the AR rifle (assault rifle rifle?), you start with the SMG. There's a world of difference between the SMG and the Overwatch Rifle. You can get maybe one, two kills with the SMG before running out of ammo, so it's not exactly the best weapon. Also, you have to start with it in order to balance against the grav gun. If you only started with the grav gun and the pistol the grav gun would obviously be the weapon of choice and pistolers would be at a huge disadvantage. The SMG levels the starting field giving you two good options from the get go.
3) Why would the Tau be in DM when not in SP? Besides, you can put the buggy in the game and shoot that one 
. Also, the Tau sucked ass, and when combined with that goddamned LJ it made for lame DM. Why exactly would we want that again?
4) I didn't think the old crossbow was hitscan, just really really fast. It's not that hard to lead your shots with the new one, and I've found that I can be a surprisingly effective sniper with it after initial doubts of its usefulness.
My opinion of HL2DM is that it's great for what it is, a DM game using the SP weapons and movement. I think the physics add a whole new dimension to the game and make it unique, fun, and dynamic. The only big problem I have with it is that it's limited by the SP game. The movement speed is way to slow for DM and makes fancy dodging nearly impossible now. I'd rather have the aux speed removed and normal speed increased, but that's what DM mods are for I suppose. I also think that there are too few weapons in the game to provide variety. I don't miss the slot 5 explosive weapons too much, but the serious lack of slot 4 superweapons and the starting off with the SMG makes weapon placement boring. You can place like one RPG and one crossbow in a map, and then you're stuck with only the overwatch rifle, the magnum, and the underpowered shotgun to place everywhere else. In this sense I do miss the Tau and regret the starting off with the SMG, but again, that's for mods to change. As it stands HL2DM is fun and chaotic with plenty of uniqueness and variety that will keep it from getting boring.
Oh, and killing people with watermelons will never get old.
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