| Team Fortress 2 Classic | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Developer(s) | Eminoma |
| Composer(s) |
|
| Engine | Source |
| Platform(s) | Microsoft Windows |
| Release | December 31, 2014 |
| Genre(s) | First-person shooter |
| Mode(s) | Multiplayer |
Team Fortress 2 Classic is a 2014 modification of Team Fortress 2, initially developed by Danielmm8888 and various contributors, before later forming a team under the name Eminoma to continue work on the mod. Defining itself as a "re-imagining of the 2008-2009 era of the original Team Fortress 2", it restores the character shading of the game's beta, reimplements cut content, removes many later additions to the game’s content and lore, and adds new content intended to evoke the spirit of older updates to the game.
Notable content additions include two additional teams which can be used by mappers to modify existing game modes, and an escort game mode based on the scrapped "Civilian" class.
Development
Team Fortress 2 Classic was created on the Facepunch Forums in late 2014 by Danielmm8888, who ported leaked Team Fortress 2 code from 2007 to the publicly-available Source SDK, allowing himself and other community contributors to make changes to the game and add new features. It replaced earlier projects that used older builds of Team Fortress 2 directly, and couldn’t be modified to add new content.
An early addition was Deathmatch, a free-for-all game mode. In 2018, this mode was split off from Team Fortress 2 Classic into a standalone game, Team Deathmatch Classic, to be developed by Compucolor Pictures, as "it was too large, and felt like its own separate game. Any game mode that disables classes/weapons to function goes against some of the core principles of Team Fortress 2."
The remaining features were polished and released in July 2020 as a part of the Death & Taxes update, ending an extended period of silence that saw no public releases after 2016. The game was temporarily unavailable from September 2021 through June 2022, after a supposed arrangement with Valve fell through.
Gameplay
The core gameplay of Team Fortress 2 Classic is identical to Team Fortress 2 in most ways, described as "toning down TF2's less coherent elements in favor of gameplay-focused additions". Existing content (as existed in the game’s original 2007 release) goes largely untouched, in favor of augmenting the game play with new weapons and game modes. Compared to Team Fortress 2, the new game modes include:
- VIP – Modeled after the "Hunted" map from Team Fortress Classic, which featured a unique Civilian class that lacked any ranged weapon and had to be escorted by a team of bodyguards to an objective. Team Fortress 2 Classic amends this by letting the Civilian buff his nearby teammates, removing the class restrictions of the original mode, and adding different types of objectives across the various VIP maps for him to capture.
- Domination – A symmetrical game mode where each team accumulates points by owning objectives, up to a limit where the team with the most points wins.
- Territorial Domination – A spin on the Territorial Control mode from the base game, removing the multiple rounds and separate stages, and instead dynamically changing team spawnpoints based on which objectives you own. Starting positions are randomly assigned at the start of each round, and each round is won by owning every objective simultaneously.
Reception
PC Gamer’s Jonathan Bolding described it as "a remarkably well-produced mod that covers a lot of ground". GamingOnLinux’s Liam Dawe said " a fun mod and well made. Especially interesting timing now that Valve rarely do anything with TF2, so this could help bring back some of its former glory perhaps".
References
- "TF2 Classic - History". tf2classic.com. Archived from the original on 2023-04-26. Retrieved 2023-04-26.
- "Patch 1.0.0 - Released December 31st 2014 - Team Fortress 2 Classic Wiki". tf2classic.com. Archived from the original on 2016-07-03.
- "Team Fortress 2 Classic - A Source SDK 2013 mod of TF2 with help from the community!". Facepunch Forums. January 9, 2015. Archived from the original on August 29, 2016.
- "Death & Taxes: Day 4". TF2 Classic.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - "Back Online". June 1, 2022.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - Grayson, Nathan (April 8, 2015). "Team Fortress 2 Fans Are Making A Whole New Version Of The Game". Kotaku.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - O'Connor, Alice. "Team Fortress 2 Classic mod brings back VIP and 4-team mode". Rock Paper Shotgun.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - Bolding, Jonathan (2020-07-04). "The Team Fortress 2 Classic mod is a skillful homage to '08-era TF2". PC Gamer. Archived from the original on 2020-10-26. Retrieved 2020-07-24.
- Dawe, Liam (18 August 2020). "Team Fortress 2 Classic should now work better on Linux". GamingOnLinux.
External links
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