Round based permadeath and snowballing difficulty consistently make for high and low tension moments even after a long playtime.

Voice communication and teamwork are intrinsic to the game experience and fun, If you've never played a game where you have to relay information don't be intimidated to try this, it's easy to pick up.

Active modding community, but don't fall into the trap of "solving" the game by making it easier and robbing you of all fun in the process

First person shooter with a heavy emphasis on movement, positioning and gamesense with unique, hard to master mobility mechanics.

Edit at 6khours in 2024:

There are some flaws and mismanagement but It's still playable and holds up as one of the best
The MeetyourMatch update was a failure and was never fixed/reverted to quickplay.
The content that has been added in the last few years is mostly community made but so poorly chosen/vetted by valve and actively makes the player experience worse. I'm talking about seasonal maps cosmetics unusual effects and warpaints.
They also removed my favorite gamemode Arena
Make a quickplay que without sniper please, the game is better without him