Image: Valve
Counter-Strike 2 has replaced CS:GO, but fans are unhappy that their favourite maps and game modes are missing from the sequel.
Counter-Strike 2 is finally in the hands of players everywhere after months of limited tests, but some feel that the game isn’t quite ready for release yet. The game is Steam’s most-played game right now with about 800,000 more players than DOTA 2, having hit a 1.4 million player peak in its 24-hour launch window. Despite its popularity, the game has replaced Counter-Strike: Global Offensive without nearly as much content on offer. Some players have mixed feelings about that.
Counter-Strike 2 is an upgrade over the original in many ways. Thanks to the move to Valve’s Source 2 engine, its visuals are a lot cleaner and brighter, and several maps have been overhauled to address years of player feedback while mixing things up. Smoke grenades work differently thanks to smoke being more reactive to gunfire now, and competitive modes have received some tweaking to make matches flow more quickly.
However, the game has launched without quite a few modes and maps that CS:GO received following years of patches from Valve’s side. Counter-Strike 2 has Deathmatch, Casual, Competitive, Wingman and Premier in its array of launch modes, which doesn’t make for slim pickings at all. However, there are a few glaring omissions here that longtime players might notice; mainly the lack of War Games, Arms Race and a few other more niche modes. These weren’t the most popular modes in the game, but their exclusion still stings for the players who enjoyed them.
Counter-Strike 2 launched with a bevy of maps for players to try featuring various new additions and tweaks, ranging from Office and Overpass to Mirage and Nuke. However, it didn’t launch with all of CS:GO’s maps by a long shot - fan-favourite maps like Cache and Train are notably missing here. Mac players have suffered especially with the sequel’s launch, as Counter-Strike 2 currently doesn’t support the platform while CS:GO did. Mac users have effectively lost access to an entire game without any replacement for it.
All one has to do is hop online to see that the game’s launch has generated mixed feelings across the board. One of the most highly-upvoted posts on the CS:GO subreddit right now is simply titled ‘This is really disappointing’, with its writer listing all the features Counter-Strike 2 lacks before saying, “Calling this a full release by deleting [CS:GO] is just an insult to the whole playerbase from casual players to professionals.” One user posts, “I miss Cache,” while another comments, “I just feel bad for mac users, period.”
However, one Reddit user has pushed back against these arguments, saying that, “There’s no way you guys actually care about Danger Zone,” and that they have, “seen more complaints about these modes missing in CS2 than actual discussion about these modes 5+ years after their release.” The counter-argument to this, of course, is that the people who liked these modes had nothing to complain about when they were actually playable.
Professional esports players aren’t terribly smitten with Counter-Strike 2, either. Complexity’s Elige has rattled off a list of launch problems he’s spotted so far:
Meanwhile, major winner Dupreeh argues that while there are, “things to add,” the game is still, “very exciting.”
Valve has already released a patch to sort out some early launch day bugs for the sequel, and it’s likely that we’ll see these missing maps and modes be added back in over the next few months (and years). Until then, what we have now will just have to do.