Pre-Fortress 2, a mod that bridges the gap between Team Fortress Classic and TF2, is coming to Steam with a whole lotta grenades

The heavy gibs an enemy with his minigun while the medic heals him in Pre-Fortress 2.

Team Fortress 2 modders love nothing more than imagining alternate histories for Valve's long-running multiplayer shooter, and this year has seen several of these nostalgia-tinged conversions migrate from the rolling pastures of the web into Steam's smog-belching metropolis. In March, Team Fortress 2 Classic revealed it would be launching on Valve's platform sometime in 2025, while Team Fortress 2 Legacy—which reverts TF2's core systems to their 2008 standard—also plans to infiltrate Steam's base before the year is out.

Now, another revisionist TF2 mod has announced it is joining this merry throng. Pre-Fortress 2 positions itself as the evolutionary missing-link between the original Half-Life mod and Valve's hat-tastic sequel, reintroducing several ideas present in Team Fortress but deemed vestigial for TF2, while embellishing them with the sequel's quirky, cartoonish character.