Team Fortress 2


Team Fortress 2 is a 2007 multiplayer first-person shooter game developed and published by Valve Corporation. It is the sequel to the 1996 Team Fortress mod for Quake and its 1999 remake, Team Fortress Classic. It was released in October 2007 as part of The Orange Box for Windows and the Xbox 360, and was ported to the PlayStation 3 in December 2007. It was released as a standalone game for Windows in April 2008, and updated to support macOS in June 2010 and Linux in February 2013. It was made free-to-play in June 2011, and is distributed online through Valve's digital retailer, Steam.
Players join one of two teams—RED and BLU—and choose one of nine character classes to play as in game modes such as capture the flag and king of the hill. Its development was led by John Cook and Robin Walker, the developers of the original Team Fortress mod. Team Fortress 2 was announced in 1998 under the name Team Fortress 2: Brotherhood of Arms. Initially, it had more realistic, militaristic visuals and gameplay, but this changed over the protracted nine years of development. After Valve released no information for six years, Team Fortress 2 regularly featured in Wired News's annual vaporware list. Finally released on Valve's game engine, Source, in 2007, Team Fortress 2 preserved much of the core class-based gameplay of its predecessors while featuring an overhauled, cartoonish visual style influenced by the works of J. C. Leyendecker, Dean Cornwell, and Norman Rockwell, alongside an increased focus on the visual and verbal characterization of its playable classes and what the developers have described as a 1960s spy film aesthetic.
Team Fortress 2 has received critical acclaim for its art direction, gameplay, humor, and use of character in a wholly multiplayer game, and since its release has been referred to as one of the greatest video games ever created. It has gained a dedicated online following, with fan-works featuring the characters being mostly uploaded to YouTube, in addition to being annually showcased in Valve's Saxxy Awards film contest. It is also considered the main forerunner to the now-highly popular hero shooter genre, having laid the groundwork for its formula and pioneered many of its staple features.
It continues to receive official Valve server support as of 2025, in addition to new content being released on a seasonal basis in the form of submissions made through the Steam Workshop. Since becoming free-to-play, its main source of revenue is microtransactions for in-game cosmetics. A "drop system" was also added and refined, allowing free-to-play users to periodically receive in-game equipment and items. Though it has had an unofficial competitive scene since its release, both support for official competitive play through ranked matchmaking and an overhauled casual experience were added in July 2016. From early 2020 to mid-2024, cheating bots overrunning Valve's official matchmaking servers led to fans holding several online protests, and eventually Valve adding new policies regarding game bans.

Gameplay

In most game modes, two teams, RED and BLU, compete for a combat-based objective. Players can choose to play as one of nine character classes in these teams, each with its own unique strengths, weaknesses, and weapon sets. In order to accomplish objectives efficiently, a balance of these classes is required due to how these strengths and weaknesses interact with each other in a team-based environment. Random critical hits cause some weapons' base damages to occasionally triple. Although the abilities of a number of classes changed from earlier Team Fortress incarnations, the basic elements of each class remained, those being one primary weapon, one secondary weapon, and one melee weapon. The game was released with six official maps, although over one hundred maps have since been included in subsequent updates, including community-created maps. When a player chooses a game-mode for the first time, an introductory video is played, showing how to complete its objectives. During matches, the Administrator, voiced by Ellen McLain, announces the teams' current objectives over loudspeakers. The player limit for one match is 16 on the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, and was initially 24 on the Windows edition. In 2008, the Windows edition was updated to include a server variable that allows for up to 32 players, and a 2023 update increased the server maximum to 100 players.
Team Fortress 2 is the first of Valve's multiplayer games to provide detailed statistics for individual players, such as the total amount of time spent playing as each class, most points obtained, and most objectives completed in a single life. Persistent statistics tell the player how they are performing in relation to these statistics, such as if a player comes close to their record for the damage inflicted in a single round. Team Fortress 2 also features numerous achievements for carrying out certain tasks, such as achieving a certain number of kills or completing a specific objective. Sets of class-specific achievements have been added in updates, which can award weapons to the player upon completion. This unlockable system has since been expanded into a random drop system, with which players can also obtain items simply by playing the game.

Game modes

Core game modes

Team Fortress 2 contains five core game modes.
  • Attack/Defend is a timed game mode in which the BLU team's goal is to capture RED's control points. The number of control points varies between maps, and the points must be captured by the BLU team, usually in sequence. To capture a control point, a player must stand on it for a certain amount of time, with more players increasing the speed it is being captured at. RED, who cannot capture points, must prevent BLU from capturing all the control points before the time-limit expires. Once a point is captured, the time-limit will be extended by several minutes.
  • Capture the Flag is a mode in which RED and BLU must steal the opposing team's flag and prevent their own intelligence from being stolen. When the intelligence is dropped by the carrier, it will stay on the ground for 1 minute before returning to its original location if it is not picked up again. A team's intelligence can be carried only by the opposing team. The first team to capture the enemy's intelligence three times wins.
  • Control Points is a timed game mode where there are several control points placed around the map, with three or five control points in total depending on the map. The game will start off with only the middle control point being available for capture, with the other control points split equally among both teams. Once this middle control point is captured, a team can begin capturing the enemy team's points in respective order. The time limit is extended on the capture of a control point by either team. For a team to win, they must capture all the control points within the time limit.
  • King of the Hill is a timed game mode that contains a single control point at the middle of the map that can be captured by both RED and BLU. Should the opposing team capture the point from the team that had it before, their timer will stop and the opposing team's timer will begin or resume. The point can be recaptured by each team as many times as is possible. The first team to control the point for 180 seconds wins.
  • Payload is a timed game mode where BLU must push an explosive cart along a track, while RED must prevent the cart from reaching their base. To push the cart, at least one BLU player must be in range of the cart, with more players increasing the push speed. Maps have multiple 'checkpoints' along the track; each checkpoint reached by the cart awards the BLU team with additional time. If the cart is not pushed by BLU for some time, it will begin to roll back to the last achieved checkpoint. RED players can obstruct the cart from being pushed by being within range of it.

    Alternative game modes

There are several alternative game modes in Team Fortress 2. These modes consist of a small number of maps and detach from the core game modes in some way.
  • Arena is a special game mode in which players do not respawn upon death. A team can win either by eliminating all opposing players, or by claiming a single capture point that opens after a certain time has elapsed. This mode is currently unavailable through matchmaking, but is still accessible through community servers.
  • Mannpower is a mode in which players have access to a grappling hook and assorted power-ups laid around the map that grant unique abilities. While not bound to any specific mode, all current official Mannpower maps use a variation of Capture the Flag. In Mannpower's variation of Capture the Flag, both teams have an intelligence flag, and the first team to capture the enemy's intelligence ten times wins. The mode is based on the Quake mod 'Threewave CTF' created by former Valve employee David Kirsch.
  • Medieval Mode is a mode in which players are restricted to using melee and support weapons, with certain exceptions for medieval-themed projectile weapons. While not bound to any specific mode, the official Medieval Mode maps use variations of Attack/Defend. If Medieval Mode is enabled on a map, select phrases spoken by players in the in-game text chat will be replaced with more thematic variants, such as "hello" being replaced with "well meteth".
  • PASS Time is a unique timed game mode inspired by rugby, developed by Valve, Bad Robot Interactive, and Escalation Studios. Three unique goals are placed on each team's side of the map. A single ball called the JACK will spawn at the center of the map, and players must pick it up and carry it to the opposing team's side. While holding the JACK, players cannot fire their weapons, but passive effects are still applied. Players can score a goal by either carrying the JACK to a Run-In Goal or by throwing the JACK through the Throw-In Goal. Three goals can be scored by throwing the JACK through the Bonus Goal, which is much more difficult to score. To win, a team must either score five goals, or have the most goals when the timer runs out.
  • Payload Race is similar to Payload, but both the RED and BLU teams have a cart that they must push, while preventing the opposing team from doing the same. There are multiple checkpoints along the track, and there is no time limit. The team to reach the end of their track first wins a point. The game lasts until one team gets two points.
  • Player Destruction is a community-made game mode in which a player's death causes a pickup to appear. The first team to collect a set number of pickups and deliver them to a drop-off point wins the game. The players on each team with the most pickups are highlighted for everyone to see, and gain a passive healing effect for themselves and any nearby teammates.
  • Special Delivery is a mode similar to Capture the Flag, but there is only one neutral briefcase that can be picked up both the RED and BLU teams. Upon a team picking up the briefcase, the opposing team will be unable to pick up the briefcase until it has been dropped for 45 seconds and respawns as a neutral briefcase. A team wins by carrying the briefcase onto a loading platform, which will gradually rise until the platform reaches its peak.
  • Territorial Control consists of several control points spread out across a single map. Like Control Points, each point can be captured by either the RED or BLU teams. Unlike Control Points, only two points are accessible at a single time. Upon a team's successful capture of a point, the "stage" ends and the accessible capture points change. When a team only has control of a single control point, they are blocked from capturing the opposing team's control point and the team must wait until the time limit is up and the accessible capture points change. A team wins by capturing all the control points.
  • Versus Saxton Hale is a juggernaut game mode that originated as a mod for the Arena mode developed by LizardOfOz, which was then popularized on community servers. It puts one player as Saxton Hale against up to 31 other players. Saxton Hale is restricted to melee attacks, but he can perform a Brave Jump, a charge attack that allows him to fly in any direction, a body slam that creates a damaging shockwave upon landing, and a super punch, which deals more damage than a regular punch. Like in Arena, Saxton or RED can win by eliminating the opposing player, or by capturing a single control point after enough time elapses.