Later this year, the Team Fortress 2 Classic mod will arrive on Steam to let you step back in time to the early days of Valve’s class-based shooter, when it was more game than hat collection simulator. The mod has been available since 2020 (with consistent updates to boot), but this will be the first time it’s officially available on Steam.
The announcement follows last week’s release of the TF2 source code. Valve has a history of supporting the modding community, but the company’s full release of the source code came as a surprise. Now players and modders alike are taking full advantage of the opportunity to breathe new life into the 18-year-old game.
The Team Fortress 2 Classic mod adds modern quality-of-life features while maintaining the feel of the game in the immediate post-launch years. It also adds in the Civilian, a new class that pays homage to the original Team Fortress Classic, as well as plenty of thematically-correct weapons that up the silliness.
Developer Eminoma breaks the changes down into two categories: “new-0ld” features and “new-new” features. The “new-old” features include throwbacks, like the Civilian class or any of the prerelease weapons like the Nailgun or Tranquilizer Gun. Eminoma has also added in a Four-Team mode, where yellow and green teams can join the fray alongside red and blue.
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The “new-new” features are never-before-seen additions like new modes. Domination, Territorial Domination, and VIP Race are all available if you tire of Capture the Flag. You can also look forward to a ton of graphical enhancements, custom weapons, and custom maps. Also a chicken, though we aren’t sure the relevance.
By launching on Steam, Team Fortress 2 Classic will be available to more players than ever. Eminoma says they aren’t done yet, either. “Anticipate new weapons, modes, and characters as Team Fortress 2 Classic grows,” they write at the bottom of its Steam page.
