EDIT:
I've been playing TF2 since 2009. I love this game with all my heart. It is worth playing if you go into it intentionally. The default settings are atrocious and outdated. I would recommend finding guides online about how to make them better. If you don't feel like doing this, at least change your FOV to 90 and play with mini viewmodels.

There are a lot of individual class settings that can impact gameplay significantly (don't have to hold left click to heal as medic, teammates auto calling medic when low HP, sniper charge sounds, fast weapon switch, play a sound when doing damage, etc). You can also customize the UI, sound effects, and even first person animations through mods.

In terms of gameplay, its a mixed bag. While the mass hacking bots are gone, you can occasionally run into a hacker. Your lobby will either have veteran players (like myself) or new players like you. There will be games where you just get steam rolled - it still happens to me, too. There is no penalty for leaving a match, so if you're not having fun, just requeue!

The community itself can be pretty toxic, but there is a lot of friendly people that play, too. Just need to find your type of people.

While the game is not "pay to win", the game offers a variety of weapon choices for each class that can drastically change how the class works. DO NOT BUY THEM FROM THE MANN CO STORE. There are trading websites where you can get these weapons for literal pennies. If you're having fun with the base game, it's worth it to throw $5 at it and get a bunch of different weapons.

Overall, the game is a timeless masterpiece that has survived the abandonment by its *billionaire company*, Valve. The community is truly what keeps it going. It is worth playing, but it will take a bit of time to figure out what is going on and how all the different interactions work.


OLD REVIEW:
I've been playing TF2 since 2009. I love this game with all my heart, but cannot recommend it to new players IF you're playing alone. There are major learning curves (or cliffs) that you will run into, hackers, and toxic players. This game is so utterly disregarded by Valve and is heart breaking to see where it is currently. While the 64 bit update was nice, it did not solve a lot of problems the community has with the game. I highly doubt we will ever see Valve put the energy into the game that is so greatly deserves.