Counter-Strike 2 is now here. It was released on September 27, 2023. The closed beta was running for quite some time now but right now it replaced CS:GO in the steam shop and the CS:GO servers have been shut down. CS:GO is considered to be the best tactical shooters of all time. The crisp aim registry and the fluid movement made it the quintessential shooter in the world for 12 years. From its humble beginnings as a Half-life mod to a million-dollar franchise with millions of players worldwide. It’s sad to say goodbye to this beloved franchise but we need to move forward.

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Counter-Strike 2 Review

Shooting

The shooting is not quite there yet. The spray pattern is kind of all over the place at some times and there are times where your bullets don’t hit things you would have hit in CS:GO. The spray patterns for each gun have not changed so it’s quite unusual to see someone who was good in CS:GO miss a lot of sprays in CS2. But when it hits, it’s very satisfying. The sound effects for headshots are still there and there is now a series of cards appearing on the screen every time you kill someone.

Utilities

This is probably the biggest change from CS:GO. The smokes are now dynamic objects that adapt to the environment. It expands to fill the space where you throw it. When you shoot through the smoke, it carves a space in the smoke and lastly, it disappears momentarily if you throw an H.E. grenade into it. Because of the changes in the smokes, there are no longer any one-way smokes in CS2. H.E. grenades and flashbangs are pretty much the same and Molotovs no longer obstruct vision. All in all, Valve made a really good decision when it comes to changes in utilities in CS2.

Movement

The movement is a bit off when compared to CS:GO. It’s clunky and the player feels really heavy when jumping. There are a lot of things to improve on when it comes to this department.

Graphics

The game looks a lot better now. This is the biggest update since they moved to the source 2 engine. It’s brighter and it’s much easier to see the enemies. It’s much smoother and clearer compared to CS:GO.

Network

It’s now running in a sub-tic system. It’s still 64 ticks but there are a lot of technicalities to it. They explained it in their “Moving Beyond the Tick Rate” video. But when playing the game, it still really depends on your own internet. Players with good connections don’t really have any problem but a lot of rubberbanding is happening with bad connections.

Skins

You still get all your skins from CS:GO and there are changes. The skins are now a little less plastic looking and it looks cleaner to be honest. This is really an objective take, some people like the new look and some people don’t. It’s really up to you whether you like it or not.

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Conclusion

Overall, CS2 is nowhere near the level of CS:GO as of the moment. Yes it looks way better but it’s clunky, it feels weird and the shooting has a lot to improve upon. But worry not, CS:GO launched at a worse state before and over time became the greatest shooter ever created.