TF2 Halloween Update adds hats, maps and an evil boss monster

Team Fortress 2's new Halloween update has landed, adding new maps, a Saxton Hale mask, Halloween hats, and the Horseless Headless Horsemann - an axe wielding boss monster.

Team Fortress 2's new Halloween update has landed, adding new maps, a Saxton Hale mask, Halloween hats, and the Horseless Headless Horsemann - an axe wielding boss monster. Full details below.

The pumpkin headed maniac will be guarding Mann's Manor, one of two new maps decorated by the winners of the Art Pass competition. He's a new game mode unto himself: stray to close to him and you're 'It' - his primary target. He kills in one hit and has at least 3000 hitpoints (more on busy servers). But you can hit other players with a melee attack to make them 'It' and get him off your back.

Apparentlyif you hit the Horsemann himself with a melee weapon and survive until he dies, and you'll be rewarded with some Unusual Haunted Metal Scrap. You can use that to craft some of the new hats, or the Horsemann's enormous axe for the Demoman - see herefor the recipes. It looks amazing, but doesn't seemto have any positive bonuses over the Eyelander.

Fight for long enough on the new map and you might just find a Haunted Halloween Gift: a box that can include any of 9 new Halloween masks, one for each class. To craft the coveted Saxton Hale mask, for which there's an achievement, you have to combine all 9 class masks.

The other new map is Mountain Lab - not very Halloweeny but beautifully made. Some shots of both:

The Mann Co store now sells Noise Makers: devices that will let you blast spooky sounds to the server you're on. The noises on offer include "banshee", "crazy laugh" and a bunch more. They wear out after 25 uses, though, so you won't be able to forever fill the map you're on with the sounds of "stabby".

The new hats include a Frankenstein's monster style forehead for the Heavy called the Cadaver's Cranium, and a meat cleaver that sticks out of your head as though you've been involved in a horrible cooking accident. Those two are in for good, but The Spine-Chilling Skull mask and the Voodoo Juju hat will only be available to buy during this Halloween event - but you can wear them all year round. At £7 each, that's an expensive temptation.

See Valve's own Scream Fortress pagefor more - and click on the gravestone for a slice of Mann family history. And let us know what you think of the update in the comments. Is it evil to sell hats for a limited time only?