Mod Showcase: Project Ghost

Welcome back to Mod Showcase. Brickinator again, here to chat about Project Ghost, a fairly new mod gamemode that’s part of the TF2 Tightrope community. Project Ghost draws many parallels with ghost-hunting TV shows; there’s lots of people in a cramped area, constant screaming and a complete lack of ghosts. Why the hell they chose the name ‘Project Ghost’ is beyond me. In fact, I haven’t got a ghost of a clue why they chose it! Comedy gold.

Project Ghost is a plugin for Arena mode. Remember Arena mode? Me neither. At the start of each new round, the game randomly selects a predefined loadout which all players in the match are assigned. For example, I saw one match were every player received an instant-kill Boston Basher. It took only one swing to kill an enemy but if you missed, you instantly dropped dead. Each Scout was running back and forth, attempting to bait their opponent like an indecisive sheepdog.

On some occasions, one team will all be one loadout and the other team will all be a separate one. These are usually intended to clash with each other in some way; one match saw an army of Pyros with only flamethrowers pitched against a team of Spies with only Enforcers and Dead Ringers. They went together like seawater and the Fukashima nuclear plant.

There were a bunch of other memorable matches, like a Wild West shootout in the form of pistol-only Engis and a really weird one where everyone was a Scout with a Natascha. One round saw armies of Crusader’s Crossbow Medics constantly firing at each other across the point only to heal themselves to full health over and over.

As with all TF2 mods, there was one instance which I hated. You know how annoying mini-sentries are, right? Now imagine everyone in the match was an Engineer with only a Gunslinger and a Build Tool. The entire map turned into a writhing mass of the bastards, swivelling with those sirens on their heads like Daleks at a rave. The round turned into one big stalemate where nobody dared to cross into the enemy team’s side of the match for fear of being gunned down by the things.

I saw loads of different loadouts in the time I played the plugin and it’s incredible how much variety they’ve accomplished. As if that weren’t cr-aaaaazy enough, Project Ghost randomly picks an additional effect on all players, such as a speed boost, the yellow horror of Jarate or whatever the hell Mad Milk is made of. I can tell you from experience: there are few things more disturbing than a horde of piss-covered Russians in woollen mittens charging at you. Project Ghost was pretty scary too.

There were loads of other effects like low-gravity and a mode where everyone was shrunk down. Most excitingly of all, one of the effects made everyone semi-transparent, finally providing a ghostly excuse for the title. Nevertheless, hats were still fully visible so, as a wealthy gentleman, I stuck out like a shop mannequin in a place where there might be lots of ghosts. You know, like a haunted house or a Klan meeting.

Sometimes though, a very rare and special effect occurs. When the stars align and Lord Gaben’s beard sparkles majestically, the roller of the Dice of Fate says ‘screw it’ and flips a table and the glorious 777 Round emerges into the world like a calf being born with skin made of rainbows. With the777 effect, everyone becomes a super-fast, low-gravity ghost covered in milk and world goes crazy. I only got to witness the mode once and it was truly special; like observing an endangered species only for it to throw up delicious candy floss all over you. Or something. I’ve totally forgotten where I was going with this.

Anyway, Project Ghost developers, if you’re reading this, here’s an idea for a round: Scouts with Direct Hits and Atomizers. Make it happen.