In Counter-Strike 2, Valve could have simply created my dream game
On: March 23, 2023
Following weeks of teasing, Valve at present introduced Counter-Strike 2, the following step for the best and hottest aggressive FPS in historical past. As a long-term Counter-Striker that is one thing that’s each deeply welcome, and naturally barely worrying. The factor about Counter-Strike is, and I do know that is barely hyperbolic, it already appears as near an ideal aggressive FPS as you are going to get. No matter iteration is your explicit poison, the basics of this game are so robust that altering them in any method is each thrilling and fraught.
The very first thing I observed about Valve’s announcement is the way it laser targets sure elements of the game that the group has lengthy felt had been overdue an improve. Within the 11 years because the launch of CS:GO the venerable game has seen a bunch of challengers come and (principally) go: You need to shout out the large successes like Valorant, as a result of among the enhancements it launched—comparable to elevated tick price—have in the end pressured Counter-Strike to do its personal leapfrogging.
The three movies that Valve launched at present alongside the announcement deal with questions that gamers who already play Counter-Strike may have, slightly than attempting to promote the game to a wider viewers (loads of time for that nearer to launch). The most important reduction for us veterans is how considered Valve has been on this overhaul: The extra issues change, on this case, the extra they keep the identical however higher.
Smoke ’em should you received ’em
The sexiest characteristic by far is the brand new dynamic smokes. Smoke grenades are key to Counter-Strike ways as a way of blockading areas for a restricted time, disguising approaches, and the rest groups can consider. Groups that do not use smokes on this game, or do not use them nicely, get smoked themselves.
The smokes in CS:GO created a one-size-fits-all cloud that sat in place, whatever the surrounding location, and lasted for a sure time. Smoke grenades in Counter-Strike 2 now create volumetric 3D objects on this planet which react to the atmosphere and what is going on on round them. In different phrases, the smoke fills areas and could be moved by exterior forces comparable to a grenade explosion or the riptide of bullets.
A number of examples of this voodoo are proven within the video and all I can say is: Straight to my veins child. This impact is unbelievable and, if you see a sniper clear Mud 2’s centre doorways of smoke with a nade so as to snipe somebody, or watch bullets fired by means of a cloud that additionally disrupt that cloud, it is abundantly clear what a game changer that is.
Tick, tick, increase
Phew, I want a chilly bathe after that. Or possibly simply to speak about tick charges. The tick price in a multiplayer on-line game refers to how typically the game updates the server with participant enter info. Personally talking, I haven’t got the talent stage where CS:GO’s tick price ever appeared an issue, however you must settle for that high-skilled gamers have been virtually unanimous in complaining concerning the game’s 64-tick servers to the extent there are worthwhile thirdparty companies who present 128-tick Counter-Strike servers.
Valve’s methodology of addressing that is to mainly remove tick price totally. Gabe solely is aware of how the technical aspect of it really works however, where beforehand there have been these infinitesimal fractions of time where actions might get ‘misplaced’ and never register totally precisely, the game is now continually taking participant inputs between ticks into consideration, which in follow ought to see the dialog (in Valve’s personal phrases) “moving past tick price.”
Whereas I’ll not discover this enchancment in follow, past a normal sense that issues are smoother, I am fairly sure I’ll pay attention to it as a part of the opposite aspect of Counter-Strike fandom, specifically the excellent aggressive scene. I nonetheless watch just about each Counter-Strike main and it is these gamers who stay on that razor’s edge between ticks, and it is them who’ll be the happiest a couple of change that goes right to the guts of CS as a aggressive expertise.
That sense right here with tick price, of Valve not simply addressing a group concern however going above and past in the way it thinks concerning the answer, bodes terribly nicely for the longer term. The esports scene now’s unrecognisable from 2011 (when CS:GO launched) and Counter-Strike 2 has been constructed in order that aspect of will probably be industry-leading at launch. Clearly, Valve is laying the foundations right here for many years of aggressive CS to construct on.
Maps, 3 ways
Valve places the map adjustments coming in CS2 into three classes: Touchstones, Upgrades, and Overhauls. That is just about a sliding scale where the primary group get basically a visible overhaul, the second obtain extra substantial tweaks, and the third group are rebuilt from the bottom up.
Once more it appears to me like precisely what I would like from a brand new Counter-Striker as a result of, and curse me out should you like, I nonetheless love taking part in Mud 2 and do not understand how I would really feel about it being messed with an excessive amount of. Effectively, I do understand how I would really feel: Childishly upset. Counter-Strike has such an extended historical past with a few of these maps, and realizing them right down to the final pixel is so embedded within the expertise of the game, that it merely would not be Counter-Strike with out this stable core of the classics at launch: Spruced up, please and thanks, however in any other case as completely balanced as ever.
The maps Valve has chosen to tweak and overhaul additionally principally align with what I would need to see. Nuke’s a kind of where the visible overhaul is unbelievable and virtually adjustments the atmosphere with out essentially altering the geometry. All these reflective surfaces are going to hit method totally different, and I am very interested by whether or not they will alter the T-side inside strategy to A (or as my buddies and I typically name it, slaughterhouse).
Past performance, the standout factor about these maps is simply how beautiful they give the impression of being now. The aesthetic is in fact much like what we all know and love, however this appears to have a brighter color palette than CS:GO and people traditional maps really feel like they have been given the love and care they deserve on this update.
My fast response is that Counter-Strike 2 is a considerable backend and engine improve, with some very nice perks layered atop it. Valve clearly understands what it has right here, a game where the basics are so good that to alter an excessive amount of would threat throwing the kevlar-armoured child out with the bathwater, and has been extremely cautious about what it is added and improved.
Counter-Strike gamers are their very own breed, each deeply in love with the game and endlessly grousing about its issues, and one factor Counter-Strike 2 did right off the bat is deal with a number of longstanding complaints. This seems like nothing lower than my dream game, and the actual fact it is each going to be free and every little thing I’ve in CS:GO will carry over is greater than I might’ve requested for.
Us Counter-Strikers give Valve a tough time as a result of it may be a little bit of a silent monolith in the way it maintains and updates its longstanding in style titles. However all alongside, it seems, Valve wasn’t listening: It was on the point of blow our minds.
