Why not put your hats down sometime and come give us a go?
Fortress Forever is a 2007 Team Fortress game created by a small team of developers known collectively as the "Fortress Forever Development Team" in the early 2000s, during the long time period when it seemed that Team Fortress 2 was never going to be released. Intending to please fans of Team Fortress Classic while also providing a product enjoyable enough to players new to Team Fortress-styled games, it was already in a planning phase before the Source engine's SDK was released in 2004, and development began from there. Classes were balanced, tons of new assets were designed, and code was written from the ground up, all based around Half-Life 2 and its gameplay. It was highly anticipated, and when it was finally released in 2007, it received a lot of positive attention from the Team Fortress community. It was all set in stone, and Fortress Forever was set to become the new standard for Team Fortress games.There was just one problem - and that was Team Fortress 2 actually coming out, less than a month after Fortress Forever was completed. Pretty much dead on arrival, Fortress Forever managed to hang onto some of its playerbase for a while before ultimately becoming abandoned, as though nobody had ever played it. Nowadays, it's still playable, and you can download the game for free on Steam
or from ModDB, and see what it's about and what could have been.
THEY GOT OUR TROPES!:
- Abandoned Area: Every single map.
- Adaptational Badass: All of the classes.
- The Scout, while still a weak Fragile Speedster, actually has some teeth this time around, with his Single-Barrel Shotgun firing almost-instantly and being more accurate, his Concussion Jumps letting him travel further, and his Caltrops replaced by an Engineer-like building, the Jump Pad, which when built enables him and his allies to jump incredible distances. On top of retaining his abilities to Cut the Fuse of a Detpack and turn off a Spy's disguise, he even has a minor resistance to fall damage. This is what changes him from the flag-running Non-Action Guy in earlier games into a more high-speed hit-and-run first-line-of-offense type of character.
- The Sniper has a increased ease with using grenades and a massively enhanced Automatic Rifle that is faster, does more damage, has a slower rate of ammo consumption and has a longer range, as well as still being able to use the Sniper Rifle to take down specific targets from a ridiculous range. While he's still mainly a support class, he can be a very effective defender when the need arises.
- The Soldier can immediately switch between his Rocket Launcher and Double-Barrel Shotgun via the right mouse button, his Rocket Launcher does more damage and reloads faster, his Double-Barrel Shotgun does more damage, his Single-Barrel Shotgun has almost instant fire and is more accurate and his Laser Grenades sacrifice range in exchange for a constant, heavy stream of damage.
- The Demoman has a faster and more accurate Single-Barrel Shotgun, stronger Grenades and Pipebombs, a easier time using the Detpack and a better area control ability, since he has more ease aiming a Pipebomb precisely and can detonate his traps faster. He can also bounce grenades off walls better and can even set his Detpack to go off at a exact moment via the left click key and time selection.
- The Medic's health regeneration is buffed, his Concussion Jumps are stronger and easier to pull off, his Double-Barrel Shotgun does more damage and he finally has a long-range healing ability via the right click, which, regardless of weapon he has equipped, uses a limited but self-regenerating ammo supply to toss a Medkit onto the ground, which sticks around for a while until someone picks it up and gets a 50% heal.
- The Heavy has a unique secondary grenade in the form of the Slowfield Grenade, which slows anyone who enters its path to a crawl, has the power to momentarily stop all movement near him via the Overpressure ability, has a faster and stronger Minigun with better tracking of enemies and increased accuracy over distances, and even a stronger Double-Barrel Shotgun for instances where he needs mobility.
- The Pyro has a new afterburn mechanic that enables him to maximize the amount of damage he does depending on how much fire he throws out (it stacks up to three times), an actually functional Flamethrower, a faster and more accurate Single-Barrel Shotgun, an upgraded Molotov Cocktail that causes a noticeble explosion, and even a Difficult, but Awesome motion-based jetpack ability that lets him double-jump, glide and if used properly even fly short distances.
- The Spy disguises faster, doesn't make footstep sounds, and can "sabotage" enemy Sentries and Dispensors to make them work for him and his team. In addition to this, his useless Feign Death ability is replaced by an actually practical Smart Cloak ability (and if used at the right time, he'll automatically drop a fake body anyway), his Double-Barrel Shotgun does more damage and his Tranquiliser Gun has more ammo and is more useful, inducing Interface Screw on anyone it manages to hit and pratically blinding them for a backstab.
- The Engineer can regenerate his armour in the same way a Medic regenerates health, naturally create all types of ammo through tossing a backpack, his Railgun does more damage, fires faster, is more accurate and has a charged shot that he can even use as a pseudo-Rocket Jump, his Double-Barrel Shotgun does more damage, and while he can't build teleporters, his Dispensor generates ammo and metal faster and his Sentry does more damage and even has a subtle Spy-checking mechanic where you can detect a nearby cloaked or disguised Spy by your Sentry's beeping.
- While still a Joke Character on most maps, the Civillian can be a Lethal Joke Character on certain soccer-themed maps, where he's assigned the role of goalie. So long as he stays in the goal area, he moves as fast as Scout, is invulnerable to damage and CAN KILL ANYONE IN A SINGLE HIT FROM HIS UMBRELLA! (If he leaves the goal area, though, he'll die in one hit to anything)
- Absurdly Spacious Sewer: One appears in 2Fort, predating the Team Fortress 2 incarnation by some time.
- Adapted Out: The Teleporter, Caltrops and Hallucination Grenades don't reappear in Fortress Forever. Experiments into the game's code reveals unused code for the Hallucination Grenade, but there's nothing for the Teleporter and Caltrops.
- Awesome, but Impractical:
- The Sniper Rifle, just like in the original game, can't fire unless charged and has such a slow charge rate and firing speed that it usually isn't worth it to fire a insta-kill shot at a enemy that will likely dodge it or just kill you before you can fire. It really says something when you realise that the Automatic Rifle, meant to be a Ranged Emergency Weapon, is ironically much more viable when fighting at all but extreme ranges.
- The Spy's Tranquilizer Gun makes backstabbing players much, much easier and if not will render them near-helpless against your teammates, but the dart is so slow and it takes so long to reload that it's only really useful when dealing with a single high-priority target at point-blank range.
- Back Stab: The Spy's Knife can do this, as if to be expected.
- BFG: The Soldier's trademark Rocket Launcher.
- British Accents: The classes all speak with the same Cockney accent.
- Bottomless Magazines: Generally averted, unlike in the original Team Fortress Classic - the only guns that play this straight are the Nailgun, Automatic Rifle, Assault Cannon, Flamethrower and Railgun.
- Charged Attack: The Sniper's Sniper Rifle and the Engineer's Railgun have this.
- Cigar Chomper: The Civilian.
- Crowbar Combatant: The standard-issue Crowbar used by the Scout, Sniper, Soldier, Demoman, Heavy and Pyro.
- Energy Weapon: The Soldier's Laser Grenades.
- Fire-Breathing Weapon: The Pyro's Flamethrower, which is VASTLY improved compared to in Team Fortress Classic.
- Fragile Speedster: The Scout - while he's a bit more combat-orientated than in Team Fortress or Team Fortress Classic, he's still not a major fighter and is more focused on grabbing flags or capturing control points.
- Gatling Good: The Heavy's Assault Cannon.
- Grenade Launcher: The Demoman's main weapon, which also has a Pipebomb mode. The Pyro's Incendiary Cannon is also sort of like a grenade launcher in this game.
- Glass Cannon:
- The Sniper is tied with the Scout for the lowest armour in the game, has only a little more health than him, and can't dodge like a Scout can, but compensates for this with the Sniper Rifle's One-Hit Kill ability and his ability with grenades.
- The Demoman is a lot more robust than the Sniper, and is armed with multiple powerful Grenades, Pipebombs, MIRV Grenades and Detpacks. However, he's only a little more durable than the Medic and Spy, and if a enemy can dodge his explosives they'll be able to make short work of him.
- The Medic is considered the main offensive class in the game, and is a lot more durable and powerful than the Scout. That being said, he's still not that durable, and a enemy defence will be able to take him down with ease if they can react fast enough.
- The Spy has the same health and armour as the Medic and a less effective Nailgun, but is able to stun enemies and backstab them for a instant kill. He can also turn invisible and disguise, which can help his survivability, but enemies will often overpower him if he's exposed.
- More Dakka: The Sniper's Auto Rifle.
- Nail 'Em: The Nailgun for the Scout and Spy and the Super Nailgun for the Medic.
- New Work, Recycled Graphics: Noticeably downplayed. Even though the game is a total conversion mod for Half-Life 2, all of the assets and models in the game are entirely original aside from a few props and textures.
- Ray Gun: The Railgun used by the Engineer.
- Short-Range Shotgun: Played straight with the Shotgun, averted with the Pelletgun.
- Shotguns Are Just Better: The Pelletgun used by the Scout, Soldier, Demoman and Pyro, and the Shotgun used by the Soldier, Medic, Heavy, Spy and Engineer.
- Tranquilizer Dart: The Spy's Tranquilizer Gun.
- Video Game Flamethrowers Suck: Averted with the Pyro's Flamethrower - it has a short range, but if you catch a enemy in it, they'll suffer both heavy damage and strong afterburn.
