Counter-Strike 2 review: the same CS:GO, but with more updates.

After a bunch of years, Valve has announced the transition of CS to Source 2. In the summer of 2023, there will be a release, and CS:GO will become Counter-Strike 2. In the meantime, the developers handed out invites to the closed beta to some players – and I was one of them. What is the good and bad of CS 2? Let’s find out.

Most importantly, Counter-Strike 2 is not another game

Valve is reminding us of this everywhere: CS 2 is a free update to CS:GO. Not a standalone game, not something completely new or a reimagining of a great one (hello, Overwatch 2 PR). Inventory, achievements, and ranks all move with you into CS 2.

In Counter-Strike 2 Limited Test, you see familiar menus, native skins and modes. And native Dust 2 – at the start of the beta you can play only on one map in 5×5 and Deathmatch modes. And practice with bots, of course.

And here you can see the first pleasant things: now you don’t need to specify parameters for training of spreading and shooting in the console, everything can be adjusted before starting the server. And for practicing spreads, the developers will obligingly show you the screen with the place where the grenade lands.

However, there are also minuses: the screen disappears after landing a smock, and jumpthrow trajectory does not perceive. By the way, there is no bind itself now: Valve assures that it is not needed in CS 2.

The matches themselves haven’t changed globally.

With the exception of regularly flying out players and random dash-3 cybersportsmen, which fell to me – kalash with wreaths. Gameplay has become a little slower and smoother: as if with the appearance of the models’ legs on them hung small weights. Streifs are now not sharp at all, but more like ballet pas, and the bannichop is a tool of geniuses.

Weapons and their physics haven’t changed, but Glock and AK-47 have got other sounds – it seems that you are shooting from pneumatics. At the same time, neither the spray nor the rate of fire have been touched.

Sniper rifles have received minor but important changes: right-click will not enable double zoom, and the shot has a bright and distinct tracer. It disappears in less than a second, but detecting a sniper became a bit easier.

The old tikreit system has been changed. It used to be like this: the server requested information once every certain amount of time – these were called ticks. On tickrate 64 it made a request 64 times per second, on 128 – twice as often. During the period between ticks the information was not sent to the server, so that shots, strikes and jumps could be calculated with a delay.

Now tikreit has become zero. That is, the CS 2 client sends data to the server itself when you have done something, and all actions are instantaneous. Shots and hits are supposedly processed correctly.

Personally for me in Counter-Strike 2 the changes are almost imperceptible – but the general randomness of matchmaking and technical problems of the beta have an impact here.

The main problem is the Valorant and Call of Duty vibes. But is it a problem?

I haven’t come up with a logical explanation for this feeling, but the gameplay and graphics started to feel different. As if it’s not the good old CS:GO, but another shooter. One where the developers are more invested in the concept of “user-friendliness” and graphics with lighting. Valorant, Call of Duty (that Modern Warfare from the noughties), Standoff 2, Crossfire or Point Blank – take your pick.
And so it is: the graphics have tightened up, gameplay has become slower and more visceral, and the interface has almost caught up with the fashion of other online shooters. But the main thing has not changed, cor-mechanics in place: the same shooting, the same maps and their device, the same TTC. All the main differences between CS and other shooters are in place.

We’ve long lived in the “CS is Valve’s unloved child” paradigm, happy with minimal updates and happy with old-school maps from the noughties. Twenty years ago, in early March 2023, CS was rather inferior to its competitors in terms of graphics, sound, and interface. And now it has caught up with everyone without losing its key advantages. And that’s good to see.