If you can find a server with empty slots, you let me know.

One of the best Team Fortress 2 mods around has been formally embraced by Steam. RED and BLU, meet GRN and YLW.

Team Fortress 2 Classified (formerly called TF2 Classic) has relaunched as an official Steam mod with its own store page and everything. The revamped TF2 Classified, now running on the official TF2 SDK that Valve released last year, is both throwback (hence its old “Classic” moniker) and additive: paring down the 19-year-old shooter to its pre-hats era while adding a select few new weapons, modes, and a whole new class.

Here’s the elevator pitch, as pulled from the TF2 Classified Steam page:

  • Meet the Civilian, a brand-new special class based on the legacy Team Fortress character, and deliver him mostly-unharmed to the objective in VIP mode.
  • Use TF2 pre-release inspired weapons like the Nail Gun, the Dynamite Pack, and the Tranquilizer Gun, all redesigned from the ground up to feel right at home with what’s already there.
  • Go on a rampage in Multi-Team maps, where GRN and YLW bring their unique (yet strangely identical) brand of violence to Arena, King of the Hill, and more.
  • Exclusive new gamemodes, including Domination and VIP Race—all playable on professional-quality official maps, with more yet to come.
  • Jump pads, flak cannons, bricks, chains wrapped around your fists; made-in-house weapons that go beyond mere sidegrades, and dramatically change how you play the game.
  • Extensive modding support, allowing players to customize the look of their game, and allowing servers to host advanced custom weapon packs and maps.
  • A whole host of visual enhancements, including improved textures, models, mapping features, and restored toon-style shading that was mostly absent in the retail release.

Think of TF2 Classified as a fresh start, assuming you haven’t already been playing it since its public debut since 2020 (or its earlier releases since 2014). It’s a cleaner, simpler version of TF2 with some quality-of-life upgrades and new toys to play with. That’s a fun proposition for someone like me who enjoys TF2, but was never dedicated enough to grasp all of its wild post-launch weapons.