Online game "Counter-Strike 2"

In September 2023, fans of one of the world's most popular online fighters got an unexpected surprise. Valve closed the Counter-Strike: Global Offensive servers and forcibly updated the game to the second part. The developers explained their decision by the fact that the previous version is outdated, and they just got a more advanced engine Source 2, which will make the shooter more beautiful and allow to realize previously unavailable technical solutions. When people opened the novelty, they realized that they were not told the whole truth - the game really remained free, kept modes and maps, became visually more interesting, but a lot of things changed in it. Let's find out more about what it is, and at the same time we'll find out if the second part can be considered a worthy replacement for GO.

The action of the shooter still revolves around the fight between terrorists and special forces on the maps, clearly balancing tactical opportunities. In other words, neither team has a head start - both teams play in equal conditions. But the tasks of the parties are different. Bandits must hold hostages and plant bombs, and the forces of order, respectively, to free civilians and neutralize explosive devices. Nothing prevents you from winning and grandfatherly way - simply shoot all opponents and thus end the round in your favor. But here the famous "Contra" economy comes into force: the more conditions the team fulfills, the more money it gets, and these funds are used to buy guns, grenades, body armor and other equipment.

If you already had Global Offensive in your Steam library, it updated itself - and it will launch just like before. To play for the first time, you need to find the shooter in the store and add it to your account, and no one will ask you for money, because the game is free. And after installation you can go straight into battle with your Steam friends, who will appear in the lobby. But there is an option for old fans, who are not satisfied with the updates and want to play the classics. Just right-click on Counter-Strike 2 in the library, select "Properties", and then - the "Beta Versions" tab, where you will find the Legacy Version file. Clicking on it will launch the very Global Offensive, which kind of doesn't exist anymore. Servers there, however, are amateur, not official, and support is promised only until January 1, 2024.

But let's return to the second part. Immediately after entering the game you have a choice of whether to turn on the match selection at once or to warm up in the training mode first. If you haven't shot for a long time, it's better to prefer the latter option, because your skills will be tested not only by Contra, but also by your teammates, who can't be bothered to fight in the same formation with a mazila. The shooter still requires knowledge of your role in the squad. One, for example, carries and sets a bomb on a specially marked point, another must know where to throw a smoke grenade, while the partners take their places, the third immediately takes on the fly corridor, which will be attacked by enemies, and so on. In this sense, everything is the same. What has changed is the rules of the matches.

Now the maximum number of rounds in a match is 24, not 30 as it was in GO. This means that two teams of five players play until one team has 13 wins, then the sides change places: who was a terrorist becomes a special forces on the same map, and vice versa. The changes are not so radical, but they make the battle more intense. Here, everyone has less time to swing, which increases the importance of the opening (or, as they call it, the "pistol round", when no one has money to buy powerful guns), and the chances of turning the tide of the battle are reduced. There is an opinion that the developers copied this system in another popular shooter - Valorant. Apparently, they also picked up the new mechanics of purchasing equipment at the start of each round.

They removed the "wheel" from the game - a circle-shaped purchase menu, which had to be called by pressing a key, and then click on the necessary items. For old fans who had memorized the combinations by heart, this method did not cause difficulties. But the newcomers were always making mistakes, missing and buying the wrong gun. Now "purchase" has become more visual, and each item is allocated a separate cell, which makes it easier to calculate the expenditure of virtual bucks and eliminates blunders. On the other hand, there are also arsenal limitations. If in Global Offensive you could buy any weapon if you had the necessary amount of money, here you have to distribute five samples in three rows in advance - pistols, intermediate and rifles - and in battle choose from what you took.

But despite these changes, the game has remained true to tradition. It still requires dedication from everyone. To achieve mastery, the gamer has to memorize every corner of this or that map, know where and what is shot from, get used to the behavior of different types of weapons, use a more or less decent mouse and keyboard, and also learn to act in a team and behave in a sporty way. Because the vote for "kicking", that is, removal from the squad, remained in place. And if you freak out over every little thing, do not understand the goals of the match or just interfere with your friends, no one will want to play with you.

Changes, as it is easy to guess, touched not only the general rules, because the second Counter-Strike uses the Source 2 engine, and it allows you to implement technically complex things. And the first thing that catches the eye is the evolution of graphics. Familiar maps have remained the same architecturally, but they have new colors, shadows and textures. The details attract attention. It's nice to notice how glass breaks, echoes appear in spacious rooms, how the combustible mixture behaves in a bottle with a Molotov cocktail, and water in puddles has become similar to real liquid. Such moments enrich the experience of getting acquainted with the updated "Contra", but do not distract from the main tasks.

Some changes have a direct impact on the firefight. Take the same Molotov cocktail: the fire after throwing behaves according to the rules of physics, realistically spreading and interacting with the scenery. Smoke bombs, or "smokies", are also interestingly refined. The cloud of them is dispersed taking into account walls, windows and doorways, plays in the light. And if a bullet flies through the smoke or there is an explosion, it locally removes the haze and allows you to see for a moment what is behind it. That is, knowing the map well, the player can briefly pierce a gap in the cloud and, noticing the enemy there, immediately shoot at him. Shadows, which are cast everywhere and according to all the rules, rather than in selected places, add to the worries, so it is now more difficult to be stealthy.

In general, the increased quality of graphics made ambushes more difficult, because it's easier to detect a camper hiding in a dark corner. It seems like a small thing, but for experienced gamers these changes add up to a serious revision of familiar rules. Those who felt like a fish in the water in Global Offensive, now change their habits - up to the choice of the place for firing and throwing grenades at the start of the round. On the other hand, the game's upgrade has caused some problems. There are places where you can climb on the roofs of buildings and run on them, shooting at unsuspecting enemies, and also audio effects are sometimes combined in such a way that it becomes very difficult to identify the enemy by sound. Probably, all this will be fixed by patches.

But the real stumbling block for fans was the system of registering changes on the battlefield. It is also called "tikreit" - it is the frequency of information exchange between the client and the server, which allows synchronizing the effects of all fighters' actions on the map. Global Offensive supported sending 128 packets of data per second, which meant that a shot at a target was registered almost instantly, regardless of the circumstances in which it was fired - whether it was fired while jumping or running, it didn't matter.

In Counter-Strike 2, Valve offered a different approach - Sub-Tick. Theoretically, the difference between the two solutions is that Sub-Tick takes inertia and other factors into account when calculating trajectory. Shooting on the run, for example, slightly deflects the bullet's point of impact in the direction of your character's movement. But in reality the system differs a bit from the developers' idea - because of different connection quality of players. And it looks as if the ticreight of 128 was replaced by 64.

Now only ten maps are available in the game, but all of them are familiar from Global Offensive. The "Sigma" group includes Mirage, Overpass, Vertigo and Ancient. The Delta group includes Inferno, Nuke and Anubis. For "Fight to the death" is allocated location Dust II, and to rescue hostages is offered on Office and Italy. The "Teammates" mode, when two teams of two people compete, has not disappeared either - you can play it on Overpass, Inferno, Vertigo and Nuke. During training, nothing prevents you from exploring any of these areas. As you can see, there is a choice, but old fans still find it insufficient. There is no doubt that in time all the significant maps from the previous version will be transferred to the second part.

One of the main innovations of CS2 is the Premier rating mode. According to the developers' idea, it is in it that the strongest players should be determined and cyber sports competitions should be held. Here in the overall standings grows not a team, but each user individually, there is a vote for maps, so that the chosen location suits both sides, and strict selection of participants by their effectiveness in previous battles, that is MMR (from the English term matchmaking rating). Already available table with the 1000 best users of the shooter worldwide - its top predictably occupied by Asians. But the second "Contra" is being watched by cybersports teams from the USA and Europe, so let's see how the balance will change in the future.

Valve has ended the 11-year history of Global Offensive in one fell swoop, but the only thing that can be blamed on the developers is the sharpness with which they did it. The game objectively became more beautiful and even more technologically advanced than the previous version. As for the reduction of the map set and minor problems, it will be corrected by patches for sure - it always happens. The main thing for the fan of "Counter-Strike" and competitive action games in general is that CS continues to live, to please gamers and require from them, as before, marksmanship, knowledge of locations, reaction and tactical savvy. Therefore, the second Counter-Strike not only challenges the skills of a gamer, but is also able to take the place of the previous one in the list of cyber sports disciplines.

Zarium. October 2023