Two popular mods for Team Fortress 2, TF2 Classic and Open Fortress, have re-released to the public after temporarily shutting down on Sept 10 of 2021 at Valve’s request. According to a blog post made on the TF2 Classic website today, Valve requested the takedown because both mods were built on the 2008 source code that was leaked in 2020, but expressed interest in working with their developers to get them officially released on Steam. Since then, however, both dev teams have received no further word from the company and ultimately decided to re-open downloads for their mods until they hear back.

We don’t want to push any blame onto Valve. We mean Valve no ill will, and we’d appreciate if the TF2 mod community would do the same. As stated before, we do plan to take our downloads back down, if and when Valve replies back to us with anything concrete.

Valve’s lack of a response is nothing new for members of the TF2 community. The base game has not received a major update since 2017, and its hacker bot infestation was only addressed recently after two years in response to considerable pressure. As a blog post made by the Open Fortress team today indicated, players of Valve’s original game were not the only ones suffering as a result of the company’s perceived indifference.

Ever since the day we got the first email from Valve asking us to take down the game, it has take a toll on not only us, but you, the community.

Team Fortress 2 Classic aims to re-create the original 2007 TF2 experience by removing hats and the majority of the game’s unlockable weapons, and re-implementing weapons originally shown off in TF2‘s original trailers. The mod also includes two new game modes, one involving four teams competing for an objective, and the other involving a player-controlled VIP that other players must either kill or escort to an objective.

Open Fortress takes TF2 even further back to its roots than TF2 Classic, implementing a deathmatch game mode akin to arena shooters like Quake (which Valve originally built games like Half-Life and Team Fortress Classic off of). The mod also introduces a new tenth class for the deathmatch game mode, the Mercenary, and several new weapons and maps to better suit its fast-paced gameplay.

Team Fortress 2 Classic and Open Fortress are both available to download on their respective sites, tf2classic.com and openfortress.fun.