When comparing Team Fortress 2: Mann vs. Machine vs Crawl, the Slant community recommends Crawl for most people. In the question“What are the best 4-player local multiplayer games on Steam?” Crawl is ranked 19th while Team Fortress 2: Mann vs. Machine is ranked 40th. The most important reason people chose Crawl is:
Crawl has one lone hero enter a dungeon with objective to find the dungeon boss and strike it down. However, other players wish to take that glory as well, and will use all means possible to take the soul and spot in the story of the hero for themselves. Whoever players the hero, must struggle trough the dungeon, killing monsters and gaining money and experience to get new equipment and grow stronger. All the while other players will take control of monsters and traps to kill the hero. Monsters will make attempts cooperate to get the hero, but to get the soul one must strike the last blow and prepare defend themselves when roles change, one cannot be too cooperative with the temporary allies.
Specs
Ranked in these QuestionsQuestion Ranking
Pros
Pro The Mann vs. Machine co-op mode let’s players work together, a nice change of pace from the PvP modes
Mann vs. Machine is a co-op mode in Team Fortress 2 that places 6 players on a team with the objective of stopping robots from deploying a bomb. While not the central mode of the game, it allows for enjoyable cooperative play rather than competitive play.
Pro Free-to-play that does not require money to be at a competitive level
This game is mostly pay-to-gain, for example by unlocking new weapons, as opposed to pay-to-win. You can randomly earn or find things without having to purchase them, and some of those can be used to craft even more rare and powerful items.
Pro Free-to-play for everyone and anyone
Team Fortress 2 has been totally free-to-play since 2011. This means anyone can download and enjoy the title.
Pro Easily play with friends on different OSes
The game runs on Windows, macOS, and Linux machines, which makes it easy to enjoy the game with friends no matter what OS any of you use.
Pro Offline LAN support for those that do not wish to play online
You can play local multiplayer matches even without an internet connection as long as you follow the proper steps to set it up. This way people can set up LAN battles without worry of internet connections or ping times.
Pro Great humor breaks up the monotony of repeated gaming sessions
Valve is known for its sense of humor, and Team Fortress 2 does not disappoint. Unlike other popular first-person shooters, this is a game that does not take itself too seriously. This is great for those that may find the gameplay getting stale after repeated plays, as there is still something to enjoy.
Pro Unique gameplay, blend of cooperation and betrayal
Crawl has one lone hero enter a dungeon with objective to find the dungeon boss and strike it down. However, other players wish to take that glory as well, and will use all means possible to take the soul and spot in the story of the hero for themselves. Whoever players the hero, must struggle trough the dungeon, killing monsters and gaining money and experience to get new equipment and grow stronger. All the while other players will take control of monsters and traps to kill the hero. Monsters will make attempts cooperate to get the hero, but to get the soul one must strike the last blow and prepare defend themselves when roles change, one cannot be too cooperative with the temporary allies.
Pro Local (couch ) 2-4 asymmetric multiplayer
Crawl has built in support for local 2-4 player asymmetric multiplayer with 3 out of the 4 playing co-op against the main player.
Pro Replay value
As the game is played, different monsters are unlocked and dungeons change for each playthrough with different bosses making the game stay interesting as time goes on. Available items change each play-trough as well, players cannot choose same play-style each time as different weapons require different tactics.
Pro Retro graphics
The art style of Crawl is reminiscent of 8bit games of yore and yet are still detailed enough to have very different designs for the different monsters in the game.
Cons
Con Free accounts are slightly limited
Free accounts do not get the same rare and cosmetic items as paid accounts, nor do they have as many storage slots for items.
Con No online multiplayer
Obviously the game is designed around multiplayer play but sadly there is no online multiplayer included.