Team Fortress 2 is a free-to-play multiplayer first-person shooter designed and launched by Valve Corporation in 2007. As a successor to the 1996 mod Team Fortress for Quake and the 1999 version with the Half-Life engine, Team Fortress Classic, it brought back a popular multiplayer game to the masses. In short, it is a class-based team game with objectives.
Team Fortress 2 Premise
The essence of Team Fortress 2 revolves around players becoming members of one of two opposing teams (RED or BLU) and selecting from nine distinctive character classes. Each class possesses unique abilities, strengths, and weapon sets, setting the ground for strategic thinking and team synergy.
As a first-person shooter designed for multiplayer, the gameplay includes multiple game modes such as Capture the Flag, Payload, Control Points, and King of the Hill. Each game mode brings different objectives and challenges to the table. Above all, players must act as a team to accomplish objectives. Due to classes, each participant has advantages based on their selection. For instance, teams with specific character types can have better synergy than opposing teams and can potentially achieve victory faster.
While the original mod and its previous successors were going for a more authentic military look, Team Fortress 2 opted for a cartoon-like visual style. The game’s style is inspired by Norman Rockwell and other artists. The developers have described it as a game with a classic 1960s spy movie aesthetic.
Team Fortress 2 Character Classes
Like the original Team Fortress, Team Fortress 2 comes with a variety of character classes that provide different gameplay. Here are some characteristics of each class to consider when playing the game:
The Scout: A fast and agile character who is excellent for moving from one place to another, be it for capturing the flag or other purposes. Can do a double jump, and counts as two people when capturing control points and pushing Payloads. The Scout wields a scattergun, a pistol, and an aluminum baseball bat. Offensive.
The Soldier: A fighter with strong weaponry, including a rocket launcher, a shotgun, and a folding shovel. He is the second-slowest class with the second-highest health, only slightly edging over The Heavy Weapons Guy. Can do rocket jumps in Quake fashion by sacrificing some of his health, and thus advance faster or get to places inaccessible with a regular jump. Offensive.
The Pyro: Creates havoc among enemies by using his flamethrower and extinguishes fire on teammates. The blast of compressed air that extinguishes burning teammates can also repel enemies by pushing them back. The Pyro wields a shotgun and a fire axe, in addition to the flamethrower. Offensive.
The Demoman: A demolitions expert equipped with a time-fused grenade launcher and remotely detonated sticky bomb launcher. In close combat he can use his trusty frying pan. He is excellent for creating traps and defending a base or a location. Defensive.
The Heavy Weapons Guy: The heaviest, slowest, strongest, and most powerful of the character classes. His weapon of choice is a minigun he refers to as Sasha. In addition to Sasha, can equip a shotgun and his powerful fists. Defensive.
The Engineer: The engineer can build structures that help their team including a sentry gun, a health and ammunition dispenser, and a pair of teleporters. Armed with a shotgun, a pistol, and a wrench for both smacking enemies and repairing and upgrading buildings. Defensive.
The Medic: This class can heal team members with the help of the Medi Gun, shooting a beam that heals by pointing it at other characters. Also, using the Medi Gun builds the ÜberCharge meter. Players can activate temporary invulnerability when the meter is full. To deal damage, the Medic uses a syringe gun and a bone saw. Support.
The Sniper: This sharpshooter can drop enemies with one headshot, thanks to a laser-sighter sniper rifle. Excellent at defending locations from afar while other team members are fighting closer. For closer combat, this class carries a submachine gun and a kukri knife. Support.
The Spy: The covert assassin. Wears a cloaking device in the wristwatch and a disguise that can him look like a member of the enemy team. It also comes equipped with an electronic zapper, which can disable and destroy buildings and structures built by Engineers. Is equipped with a revolver and a butterfly knife for combat purposes. Support.
Team Fortress Video Games and Mods
There have been several video games and mods since the original. As the most recent version of the game, Team Fortress 2 is also the most popular of the titles.
- Team Fortress (1996): A mod developed for the multiplayer-focused version of the original Quake, QuakeWorld.
- Team Fortress Classic (1999): A version of the original mod, developed by the original developers and hired by Valve. The game was based on the Half-Life engine.
- Quake 3 Fortress (1999): A Team Fortress mod for Quake III: Arena, developed by id Software.
- Team Fortress 2 (2007): A standalone Team Fortress game developed and published by Valve.
Team Fortress 2 Cheats
Team Fortress 2 has a built-in cheat system. Firstly, the command line sv_cheats 1 enables this system on the server. Once this system is activated, another command, sv_cheats 0, can be used to disable the cheats if needed. Subsequently, there are a host of cheats available through the system, like adding special conditions to the player, spawning bots, enabling god modes, identifying models, and creating a variety of entities. Additionally, the cheats also allow actions like flying through walls and much more.
- addcond [variables]:
The addcond command applies a player condition to the user. Also, you must follow the addcond command with a variable, determined by the effect’s ID. You can add another variable to set the condition’s duration in seconds. Therefore, the command addcond 5 20 would add a condition by the ID of 5 for 20 seconds. Additionally, the command removecond [variable] can usually remove the condition. Below are some examples of the commands available.
- 2: Disguise smoke.
- 4: Cloak effect. Applies cloaking to a Spy without corresponding sound. For other classes, also immediately uncloaks.
- 5: Medi Gun invulnerability effect.
- 6: Teleporter dust.
- 37: First blood crit boost.
- 54: The player can’t move and hears the Ghost Fort dancing music. Any taunts performed are the Thriller taunt.
- 67: Bullet damage immunity.
- 80: The player gains a parachute if airborne, which is removed upon landing.
- 86: The player can swim in the air. Also gains vision effects as if underwater.
- 118: The healing debuff added by the Pyro’s Flamethrower.
- bot:
The players can spawn and control bots.
- buddha:
Prevents lethal damage to the user. While the player takes damage, it doesn’t go to zero. However, there are still rare cases where the player might die. Toggle on/off.
- firstperson:
Changes the player view to first person.
- hurtme [x]:
Deals damage to the player using the command. The hurtme command must be followed by a number, such as hurtme 50. Players can use negative values to raise their health to a maximum of 16383. Health that is raised above the normal limit wears off as a normal overheal. If used multiple times, the dropping of the overheal may result in the player dying.
- impulse [x]:
With the impulse command, players can invoke special abilities, both cheats and non-cheats. The impulse command must be followed by a number. Listed below are the effects of the corresponding numbers.
- 101: Refills all weapons and health.
- 102: Spawns a human skull.
- 106: Identifies the model being aimed at.
- 200: Plays holster/draws animations.
- 107: Identifies texture being aimed at.
- 201: Sprays your selected spray.
- 202: Plays a custom sound to players who have set cl_customsounds 1. The sound is configured using cl_soundfile filename.wav.
- 203: Removes the object being aimed at.
- 221-239: If the player is a Spy, start the disguise process. A different number is a different disguise.
- noclip:
Lets the player fly around and go through walls as if they were a free-roam spectator. Players can still take damage, such as from environmental hazards. Toggle on/off.
- thirdperson:
Changes your view to the third person. Can be undone with firstperson or by taunting.
- currency_give [x]:
Gives the number of credits in Mann vs. Machine specified with x. The maximum is 30,000 and an excess amount of credits may cause instability to the server. Negative values will remove credits.
- ent_create [variables]:
This command can create, or spawn, all kinds of entities. Also, it requires added variables. Below are some of the variables that spawn things:
- entity_soldier_statue: Spawn a Soldier statue.
- merasmus: Spawns Merasmus.
- eyeball_boss: Spawns a BLU team-colored Monoculus.
- headless_hatman: Spawns Horseless Headless Horsemann
- obj_sentrygun: Spawns a level 1 Sentry Gun, with the player aiming
- obj_dispenser: Spawns a level 1 Dispenser, with the player aiming
- obj_teleporter: Spawns a level 1 Teleporter, with the player aiming
- ghost: Spawns a Ghost. It usually disappears or falls through the map, depending on
- the location.
- item_powerup_rune: Spawns a Strength powerup.
- npc_handgrenade: Spawns a grenade that explodes instantly, dealing
- splash damage.
- ent_remove: Removes the entity that is being pointed at.
- ent_remove_all [variables]: Removes all entities of a specific type. Example: ent_remove_all merasmus would remove all Merasmus entities.
- con_dump_on [variable]: This toggles the so-called Power Play cheat on. Valve designed this command for its employees to work even when sv_cheats isn’t set to 1. Adding a variable to this command will extend the cheat to the entire team, not just the player. The command con_dump_off toggles it off.
Debugging commands:
These cheats are used to test game mechanics. Includes the following:
- tf_debug_damage: Performs a console print every time anyone takes damage, giving information about damage variables such as the distance of the attack and health left of the target.
- tf_debug_flamethrower: You can view the hitboxes of fire particles and get visual information about targets hit by the fire with this command.
Team Fortress 2 FAQ
Is cheating allowed in Team Fortress 2?
There’s a distinction between cheating and using in-game cheats. With this in mind, Valve enforces a very strict policy against cheating with third-party programs. The game employs a system called Valve Anti-Cheat, known also as VAC. This will enforce the rule by banning detected cheaters. However, the game allows the use of the cheat commands mentioned above, where applicable.
Will using sv_cheats result in a VAC ban?
Absolutely not. Valve considers the cheat commands as part of the game. Some servers might not have them enabled,
How do I enable cheat on my Team Fortress 2 server?
You first need to log in to the server’s control panel. Then select Files from the left and Config Files. Open the Team Fortress 2 Server Settings and change the cheats option to 1. Save the file and restart your server. This should have enabled the cheats.