Counter-Strike 2

Counter-Strike (CS) is a game I really enjoyed playing, because of the competitive aspect. The game has a really easy concept to understand; 5 players attack and plant a bomb, the others try to stop this. Easy to learn, very hard to master.

CS has infinite strategic opportunities, people are always finding new smoke line-ups to create uncertainty for the enemy team, throwing decoys in certain places, faking bombsites, and so on. This is what I loved, I spent hours on end in a server by myself with infinite utility trying different line-ups, cooking up different strategies. The fact that that was possible made this a great game for me.

I've always enjoyed grinding the ranks and playing with friends, as well as our in-house 5v5 matches were always a lot of fun

With the release of Counter-Strike 2 (CS2) in March '23 came a different era of CS.

Built on Valve’s Source 2 engine, CS2 pushes the series forward with noticeable graphical upgrades: maps have been visually reimagined with improved lighting and textures, and this also meant the game no longer ran on a basic PC..

Volumetric smoke grenades were added and now dynamically interact with bullets and explosives, adding layers of tactical depth previously impossible in CS:GO. Which was a great addition, because you could now use your grenades in a different way than just doing damage to players. The introduction of a sub-tick server system should've given the game a smoother run, but personally makes it feel sluggish.

The transition hasn’t been without controversy. Many players were disappointed that CS:GO was fully retired, and the initial launch saw performance issues, missing features, and a reduced pool of community content such as classic Workshop maps. All in all I think the change to Valve's Source 2 engine was the correct step, but there's been a lot of things that could've gone better.

To end things, I do really believe that they can keep polishing the game to where it feels like the old CS with improved graphics