I would not be a PC gamer without Team Fortress 2. Valve launched the game in 2007 after years of tortured development, and overnight, this cartoonish class-based shooter became one of the most popular multiplayer games ever made. I played TF2 religiously as a teen, even though my family’s laptop couldn’t handle the game. Our Gateway’s integrated GPU was so underpowered that the game incorrectly rendered everything way too bright — and at a framerate in the teens, no less.
Nevertheless, I played TF2 for years. Before the advent of first-person shooters relying solely on skill-based matchmaking, TF2 was the Webfishing of FPS games. Yes, you played the game, you tried your best to win, but half the fun was just hanging out with people while gaming. Text chat, voice chat, spamming music over the mic, there were all sorts of ways to chill in TF2. I’d consider it the last third-space, server-based multiplayer shooter ever made. The last popular iteration of the concept, anyway.
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Up until 2023, Team Fortress 2 was my most-played game ever, with over 1,000 hours plugged in. And that’s not including all my time spent in my favorite contemporary iteration of TF2, a community mod that chucks out all the hats and restores the game to its late 2000s-era gameplay. In 31 years, there’s only one game I’ve played more than Valve’s class shooter, and that’s Valorant (at over 1,230 hours, to be specific).
So today, I come to you with a humble request, Valve Software. Oh, Gaben. Enough time has passed. Please, just put Team Fortress 2 on Source 2 already.
‘Team Fortress 2’ On Source 2 Would Be Incredible
TF2 on Source 2? Yes. The idea started living rent-free in my head after Counter-Strike 2 was announced. I was amazed by all the changes introduced to the game at the time. Map reworks. Improved particle and blood effects. Superior smoke physics. Updated netcode, enhanced audio, and a sleeker UI. But most of all, those graphics. Down to shaders simulating fluid inside the molotov cocktails! Good Lord, Counter-Strike 2 looks so much better than CS:GO in every single way. And that’s all thanks to Source 2.
Imagine what would be possible if Team Fortress 2 took the jump to Source 2. In theory, we already know. Facepunch Studios’ S&box received a Team Fortress 2 Source 2 mod, and while initial builds looked similar to standard TF2, a side-by-side comparison reveals the enhanced lighting and shading capabilities Source 2 would have provided. The TF2S2 mod team really brought out TF2‘s stylistic charm. The in-game menus for choosing your class? They look incredible with Source 2’s enhancements.
Unfortunately, TF2S2 received a DMCA request from Valve and is no longer in development (nor publicly available). But Valve could still swoop in and port Team Fortress 2 to Source 2, bringing over all the best parts of CS2. Updated models. Improved textures. Superior lighting, shading, and blood effects. Map reworks that bring out the best of the classic TF2 experience. And enhanced physics and ragdoll coding to make all those bizarre deaths look even funnier on the deathcam.
‘Team Fortress 2’ is an opportunity for redemption, valve
CS2 shows the best of Valve and what’s possible with the Source 2 engine. Unfortunately, it also shows Valve at its worst.
Valve has struggled with supporting CS2 post-release. Yes, updates have continued to hit the game, like November’s Train map update. But in terms of overall health? One popular YouTube documentary stresses that Counter-Strike 2‘s anticheat system cannot keep up with the sheer number of cheaters playing the game, a sentiment shared across the CS community for the past year. Anecdotally, Redditors claim lower-rank NA competitive matches are less likely to have cheaters than higher-rank matches and EU games. Some suggest players should move over to the FACEIT competitive matchmaking system instead for superior anticheat measures.
It’s hard to say whether the cheating circumstances in CS2 are overstated without further statistical analysis. But demanding hard numbers is missing the forest for the trees. Valve needs CS2 players to feel confident in the company’s anticheat measures, and by and large, the community feels Valve just doesn’t care to improve things. CS2‘s reputation as a cheaters’ paradise is a PR nightmare for the game.
Cheating aside, CS2 is an imperfect Source 2 port. Several maps still aren’t added to the game a year and a half after release, such as Cache, Assault, Militia, Cobblestone, and Tuscan. Then there are all the neat, non-competitive aspects of Counter-Strike: Global Offensive missing from CS2. The map-specific terrorists and counter-terrorists? Gone. Official Demolition, Retake, and Danger Zone modes? Out. Not to mention, many CS fans are still salty that the game doesn’t have 128-tick servers yet. While I personally find CS2 incredibly fun, I also side with my fellow CS players on the game’s current state. To be blunt, I suspect Valve released CS2 a little too early because the company was afraid of losing players to Valorant. Replacing CS:GO with a half-finished Source 2 port was a terrible idea.
Now, Valve has the perfect opportunity to learn from its CS2 mistakes and make good with the TF2 community. If I may, Valve? Release a “classic” iteration of TF2 on Source 2. Gameplay based on the 2007-to-2010 era of the game, everything before the WAR! Update (so sorry, no Demoknight). Offer this as an optional, parallel multiplayer demo showcasing what Source 2 can offer for a highly stylized PvP game like Team Fortress 2. Let TF2 players enjoy TF2: Source 2 as well as the original Source 1 iteration of Team Fortress 2.
This would be the best of both worlds. It would provide a massive content update to the TF2 community by offering a brand new game. Most importantly of all, it would show the TF2 community that Valve gives a shit. Remember #FixTF2, Valve? It takes a lot of love, care, and passion to stand behind a game that feels abandoned by its developer. Valve, it’s time to return the favor and show some love. Bring on the Team Fortress 2 Source 2 port.
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