Staff Fortress 2 stands alongside Half-Life and Portal as one of many foundational pillars of Steam itself. However maybe it might have regarded moderately completely different. Previously referred to as Staff Fortress 2 Traditional, a mod constructed by neighborhood group Eminoma is trying to seize Valve’s iconic FPS recreation based mostly on “its authentic inspirations and tone,” full with weapons impressed by the sport’s pre-release oferrings and a few all-new options of its personal. After seeing its Steam launch delayed because of considerations across the identify, it is now been rebranded as Staff Fortress 2 Categorized, and it is formally popping out in January.
“As most of you pieced collectively rapidly, Valve requested a couple of months in the past that we rename our mod, as a result of the identify Staff Fortress 2 Traditional was too much like their Staff Fortress Traditional,” Eminoma developer ‘Nito’ writes. They clarify that this coverage is definitely a latest change by the Steam maker resulting from a number of extra mods that had used the ‘basic’ time period “in ways in which unintentionally made them seem like official Valve merchandise.” Nito additionally notes that, resulting from one other new restriction round mods having demos, it could not have launched one anyway.
Given {that a} demo was off the desk, the group “as a substitute centered our time on making certain {that a} rebrand was carried out correctly.” In truth, it says that ‘Categorized’ was “not severely thought of” in its preliminary ideas, however that it “started to indisputably win out. Not solely is it remarkably related by way of phonetics, but it surely additionally serves as a double entendre, with ‘classify’ each evoking ‘to make one thing basic’ and its literal definition, leaning us additional into the spy movie theming that early TF2 had carried. Most significantly, it simply handed the vibe verify.”
Sadly, that similarity meant it fell into considerably of a “grey space” within the naming coverage, and with every evaluation taking “as much as a number of weeks every time,” the rebranding course of ended up working for a couple of months, which has pushed the discharge again. “Steamworks evaluation is an element that we can not management,” the developer notes.
“Communication might be sluggish and inconsistent, and we want padding in our timeline to make sure there are not any last-minute delays,” Nito remarks. “We wish this recreation to be out as a lot as you do, however we solely have one probability to make a primary impression, and we have to do it proper. Apart from, it would not be an genuine TF2 expertise with out a little bit of Valve time. Thanks for being affected person, and see you on January 30, 2026.”
In case you are undecided what to anticipate, Staff Fortress 2 Traditional features a vary of options impressed by the shooter’s authentic vibes and scrapped content material. There’s the Civilian, a particular class for VIP mode based mostly on the legacy Staff Fortress character that buffs close by teammates. You then’ve bought the Nail Gun, Dynamite Pack, and Tranquilizer Gun, all redesigned from their authentic incarnations within the TF2 pre-release. Multi-team maps add the GRN and YLW factions into the combination, ramping the chaos for a number of recreation varieties.
On prime of this, there are an entire vary of all-new options that Eminoma has launched within the spirit of TF2. That features recreation modes like Domination and VIP Race, full with their very own official maps, and numerous new in-house weapons and instruments corresponding to soar pads, flak cannons, bricks, chain-wrapped fists, and extra. Growth has been in progress since 2014, and it is solely going upwards from right here; the group says you possibly can “anticipate new weapons, modes, and characters as Staff Fortress 2 Categorized grows.”
The Staff Fortress 2 Categorized launch date is Friday January 30, 2026 on Steam. You possibly can add it to your wishlist now to be notified when it launches. Take into account that you may want a duplicate of Staff Fortress 2 in your account to play, however on condition that it has been free for a few years now that is extra of a formality than something.
