Team Fortress 2‘s Mann Vs. Machine update will pit both teams against a common enemy.
Last weekend, Team Fortress 2 fans became aware of an incredibly detailed ARG which ultimately revealed the first attack of Gray Mann against the Red and Blu Teams. The most popular theory regarding the ARG was that it hinted at a new gameplay mode allowing Red and Blu to unite against a common enemy. Some fans may have been skeptical, since it wouldn’t be the first ARG that had fans hoping for Half-Life 3 or for a Team Fortress 2 TV series only to leave us with hats. But not this time. Valve has revealed that on August 15th, Team Fortress 2 will gain a horde co-op mode called Mann Vs. Machine, in which Red and Blu joins forces against the onslaught of Gray’s seemingly endless robot army.
“Mann vs. Machine is a new co-operative game for Team Fortress 2 that lets you and five friends wage a desperate battle to stop a lethal horde of robots from deploying a bomb in one of Mann Co.’s many strongholds,” reads the Team Fortress 2 website. “Take advantage of breaks between waves to upgrade your abilities and weapons. Survive all the waves in any of a variety of missions to earn incredible loot.”
As with any Team Fortress update, Mann Vs Machine features will be revealed sparingly in the days leading up to its launch. The first includes the Mann Vs Machine trailer above, profiles of Machine Army classes, details on the Mann Co. map, and a second webcomic in which Saxton Hale orders Red and Blu Teams into action while simultaneously fighting a Yeti. And that’s just day one; today’s information update will likely feature the new weapons, gear, and of course hats that players will be able to obtain by successfully holding back robot forces.
Valve is already well-experienced in horde gameplay, having designed two entire co-op games around the concept, so adapting the format to Team Fortress 2 is not something the developers are approaching blindly. Combined with that fact that Team Fortress 2 is already free-to-play, I expect there will be absolutely no shortage of players willing to join the fight against the assembled robotic forces.
Source: TeamFortress.com via Kotaku
