Counter-Strike 2 Officially Launches: Review, Analysis And Impression

After being in limited testing for months, Counter-Strike 2 is now finally accessible on Steam. The successor to the first CS:GO, CS2, is available for download on the platform and is billed as the ‘biggest technical jump’ in the history of the enduring shooter. The successor, which uses the same Source 2 Engine as the acclaimed Half-Life: Alyx, has received technological improvements that improve the overall gunplay as well as a visually makeover with certain area redesigns. Though Valve never explicitly stated a release date, the official Counter-Strike Twitter account modified its header image with cryptic wording like “Dawn of the Final Day” to indicate that the game would soon be released.

For a variety of reasons, Counter-Strike 2’s release is confusing. For starters, this isn’t the second version of Counter-Strike. I started up playing Counter-Strike: Source, the forerunner to Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, in 2004. That was a remake of the original Counter-Strike, which was released in 2000 and used the Source engine from Valve. (In truth, much of my experience with this franchise was playing Source; I only returned to CS recently after a many-year layoff).

If we view Source as essentially a remake of the original, the improvement the game received with CS:GO is definitely deserving of being considered a “second” game. By all accounts, this was a chance for Valve to add a “3” to the end of one of their games, but that may never actually happen (sorry, fans of Half-Life and Left 4 Dead!).

With Valve’s latest version, there are additional peculiarities, though. The Source 2 engine was used to build the game, and it undoubtedly looks better than ever, though some fans might need to upgrade their PCs to take advantage of the visual enhancements. Smoke grenades are now more believable and useful from a strategic standpoint thanks to new smoke effects. A grid that is more crowded than Valorant’s buy wheel has also been included. Besides this, the significant modifications include:

Remastered CS:GO maps have some improvements, most of which are rather small, and look prettier.

A brand-new tick system has changed how guns are used, but it is too complex to go into depth in this post. Let’s just say that it causes a lot of conflict in the neighborhood.

But what is shocking is that there is not a single new map in Counter-Strike 2. Nothing new in terms of maps, weapons, or other content. There is only a cosmetic makeover, a new engine, smokes, and subtick. While this was going on, a number of the features, modes, and other content that were in Global Offensive were removed, as CS fans have vehemently argued.

Now, perhaps this wouldn’t be such a big problem if Valve hadn’t done something incredibly puzzling and, quite honestly, kind of horrific at the same time: completely kill CS:GO.

Valve didn’t get rid of Counter-Strike: Source when CS:GO arrived in 2012. In fact, you can still access and play that game right now on Steam, where recent reviews have praised it as being superior to CS2.

Contrarily, user reviews of Counter-Strike 2 appear to be very positive until you discover that, in addition to killing CS:GO, Valve simply replaced its retail page with Counter-Strike 2. As a result, all the positive comments from the game’s 11-year lifespan make it appear to be Very Positive indeed.

I become angrier the more I consider this. In addition to being rather dishonest on Valve’s behalf, simply erasing a video game from existence in this manner is a terrible thing to do. To take away a choice from players who have developed a community around this game for more than ten years and force them to play the new game in its place is also conceited and anti-consumer. Because the new version of the game plays and looks better and has additional stuff they want to test out, I much prefer letting users switch over spontaneously.

Imagine if every Call of Duty game was removed by Activision each year, forcing players to play the newest installment. Dropping support for an outdated game is just one aspect of this. In an effort to ensure that its follow-up will be a success, Valve has murdered the most played game on Steam.

And it will most likely. As it is updated, patched, and new content is released, people will probably come to accept this release. However, it still remains true that, at least initially, Counter-Strike 2 was released at a great expense and with little to show for it. And unlike Counter-Strike: Source, which we can still go back to in order to contrast and compare, we no longer even have CS:GO to go back to, even if just for nostalgic reasons. Global Offensive is no longer available, but the majority of your content will migrate over. It is also free to play, and you can still purchase pricey loot boxes.