Counter-Strike 2 (CS2) is a first-person shooter video game developed by Valve Corporation which is a part of the Counter-Strike series. It was announced to the public on March 22, 2023 with an tentative full release for Summer 2023 and a limited test beginning the same day[1]. It was officially released on September 27, 2023.[2]
This is the first game of the Counter-Strike series which utilizes Valve's Source 2 game engine and features major technological advancements since Global Offensive such as "sub-tick" net-code technology, new voxel based volumetric smokes, and a new toolset for developing maps.[3]
Gameplay
Almost all gameplay aspects in CS2 remains similar, if not the same to its predecessor, CS:GO; while features some changes, ranging from minor to drastic, to fully utilize the most out of the Source 2 Engine. Some of which include:
- Graphical updates:
- Better texture and light reflections across the surfaces of the maps, which helps improves visibility without external workarounds (e.g. increases monitors' color profile or use 3rd party software to boost shadows/eliminate dark colors, etc.).
- Support for real-time ray-tracing technology in the Source 2 tools
- Addition of NVIDIA Reflex
- Smokes are now volumetric, with the ability to adapt and interact with the surrounding environment:
- Lighting - spot lights are no longer visible through the smoke. Environment lighting is able to illuminate and cast shadows on certain parts of the smoke.
- Bullets - create small holes for the player to locate enemies in the smoke. This creates new, unique gameplay opportunities and adds risk when spamming smokes.
- HE Grenade - Explosions briefly dissipate smokes, allowing players to see what's behind them. Players can throw an HE Grenade from afar to assist teammates or go for a well timed underarm throw for a brief, risky window of time to shoot through the gap themselves.
- Features "sub-tick" technology, designed to relay information happening between distinct ticks to the server as a time value to be interpreted.
Weapons and equipment
All weapons that are used in the competitive and deathmatch mode in CS:GO have been transferred to the new game with more detailed models. Along with them, CS:GO's cosmetic items such as skins, stickers, and other types of knives were ported, though they still use the older versions of the models.[4]
Game Modes
Counter-Strike 2 contains several multiplayer game modes.
- Classic Casual and Classic Competitive: Classical game modes of Bomb defusal and Hostage rescue. Casual and Competitive have different rules to better suit casual players and competitive players.
- Bomb Scenario: The Terrorists must plant C4 at a bombsite and the Counter-Terrorists must defend the bombsite.
- Hostage Scenario: The Counter-Terrorists must rescue the hostages and the Terrorists must defend the hostages.
- Wingman: 2 versus 2 matches on small bomb defusal maps.
- Premier Competitive: A version of Competitive where the players select Active Duty maps to play through a veto system.
- Deathmatch: A game mode with instant respawns and the stimulation of fast-paced battles.
- Arms Race (added in update): Respawning deathmatch where players must progress through a list of weapons.
It has been confirmed that more game modes will roll out in future versions of the game.[4]
Maps
Map Updates
Counter-Strike 2 maps are classified in three distinct categories. The wide array of maps are designed to give the players some familiar maps like Dust II and Mirage to evaluate new gameplay changes, with others providing the player with entirely new experiences such as Overpass and Italy:
Touchstone
“Classic maps with solid foundations that players can use to evaluate gameplay changes from CS:GO to Counter-Strike 2. These have improvements to lighting and character read, but otherwise haven't been changed.”
―Counter-Strike 2: Leveling Up The World
Upgrade
“These are maps that use new Source 2 lighting, including a physically based rendering system that produces realistic materials, lighting, and reflections.”
―Counter-Strike 2: Leveling Up The World
Overhaul
“The overhauled maps have been fully rebuilt from the ground up, leveraging all of the new Source 2 tools and rendering features.”
―Counter-Strike 2: Leveling Up The World
Bomb Defusal
Active Duty Pool
Reserves Group
- Overpass
- Mills (became official on June 25, 2024)
- Thera (became official on June 25, 2024)
Hostage Rescue
Wingman
- Inferno (Bombsite A)
- Nuke (Bombsite B)
- Overpass (Bombsite B)
- Vertigo (Bombsite A)
- Assembly (became official on June 25, 2024)
- Memento (became official on June 25, 2024)
Arms Race
- Baggage (released on February 6, 2024)
- Shoots (released on February 6, 2024)
- Pool Day (became official on June 25, 2024)
Factions
Unlike Global Offensive, Counter-Strike 2 does not feature map-based factions, instead only two factions appear on all maps by default - SAS for Counter-Terrorists and Phoenix Connexion for Terrorists. However, it is possible is to replace the default faction models with the Agents.
Agents are the custom character models that often include more complex details and accessories, and may also belong to a different faction, as well as have a different gender and voice.
Counter-Strike 2 features a total of thirteen unique factions:
Terrorists |
Counter-Terrorists |
Development
Pre-release
Plans for a successor to the original Source engine began in 2007.[5] One of the goals was to port all the games to simplify development and provide more options to implement modern features. The development of the Counter-Strike port to Source Engine 2.0 began before the release of Counter-Strike: Global Offensive and continued for over 10 years, becoming a top priority after the release of Half-Life: Alyx.
The first public mention of Counter-Strike 2 occurred on January 27, 2014, when some illustrations from a closed Valve presentation about Source 2 game engine, held in 2010,[5] were leaked and posted online.[6] On one of the illustrations, projects developed on this engine were written, among which was cs2.[7]
On March 3, 2015, at the Game Developers Conference 2015, Valve officially announced the Source 2 engine.[8] The company demonstrated the gameplay of Dota 2, however other leaked projects, including CS2, were not shown there.
On April 11, 2017, as part of the CS:GO launch presentation in China, it was announced that the game would be ported to Source 2 in Summer 2017 along with the addition of a new UI called Panorama.[9] The Source 2 port was not shipped on time, and the Panorama UI was released a year later on August 2, 2018.[10] The UI itself was back-ported from Source 2 to the Source engine.[11]
In March 2018, a former Valve employee Roger Lundeen posted screenshots of a revamped Dust II development on his website, dated March-April 2013.[12] The highly detailed map design and lighting, as well as the fact that Roger was involved in early development of the Source 2, indicated that the map was made in that engine.
In the years leading up to the game's release, there have been numerous leaks indicating that the game will be coming soon. One of the most famous of these occurred in the summer of 2022, when, due to Steam's "Rich Presence" system, several Valve developers were spotted playing maps with the "_s2" postfix.[13] Another high-profile leak occurred in early 2023, when a reference to Counter-Strike 2 was discovered in the NVIDIA graphics card driver settings.[14]
On March 5, 2023, esports journalist Richard Lewis contacted Valve and confirmed the upcoming release of Counter-Strike 2, as well as revealing details about the game's new features, including an updated anti-cheat and tickrate systems, new competitive ranking and improved graphics.[15]
Post-release
Counter-Strike 2 was officially announced on March 22, 2023, and three videos demonstrating changes made from Global Offensive were released.[3] Later that day, a beta version of Counter-Strike 2, known as the "Limited Test", was released to select Global Offensive players.[1] Throughout the existence of the Limited Test, new aspects of the game were made available for testing via updates, including upgraded maps, the revised weapon loadout system, and new authoring tools that allow players to design custom maps, weapon skins, and stickers. On August 31, 2023, the Limited Test was released to all players that have Global Offensive in Steam library and were active in competitive matchmaking.[16]
Counter-Strike 2 released to the public on September 27, 2023, replacing Global Offensive on Steam.[2] This took Global Offensive down, with the exception of community servers, which are accessible via a "legacy" branch of Global Offensive. Several features from Global Offensive were removed, including the War Games and Danger Zone game modes, many maps, and all 167 in-game achievements. In addition, support for the macOS operating system and older hardware configurations, including DirectX 9 and 32-bit operating systems, was discontinued, with future updates for Counter-Strike 2 being set to release only on 64-bit Windows and Linux systems.
Videos
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See Also
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 @CounterStrike on X - The Counter-Strike 2 Limited Test is now live
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Counter-Strike Official Website - Welcome Home
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Counter-Strike Official Website - Counter-Strike 2
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 Steam - Counter-Strike 2 Limited Test F.A.Qs
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 Keighley, Geoff (2020). Half-Life: Alyx - Final Hours.
- ↑ NeoGAF - l4d3? (Source 2 reveal)
- ↑ Facepunch - Major Update Speculation Thread v23: the mind of the subject will desperately struggle to create speculation where none exists. Archived from the original on 2014-01-29.
- ↑ Valve - Valve Announces Link, Source 2, SteamVR, And More At GDC. Archived from the original on 2015-06-28.
- ↑ PCGamesN - CS:GO presentation confirms next operation in summer, Source 2, and AI cheat detection
- ↑ CS:GO Blog - Panoramic View.
- ↑ Valve Developer Community - Panorama.
- ↑ Roger Lundeen's website. Archived from the original on 2018-03-29.
- ↑ Gabe Follower • EN on YouTube - CS:GO on Source 2 - How we Spied on Devs & Found a Secret Beta Version
- ↑ Gabe Follower on X - Something weird just happened.
- ↑ Richard Lewis' website - Sources: Yes "Counter-Strike 2" Is Real And It's Round The Corner
- ↑ Counter-Strike Official Website - Your Time is Now. Archived from the original on 2023-08-31.
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