Valve has today officially lifted the lid on Counter-Strike 2, aka CS2, including some major overhauls to the game systems – plus a limited test.
CS2 will run on the Source 2 game engine, with improvements to maps, shooting and movement (with improved tick rates), smoke grenades and more.
The audio has also been reworked, and all of the visual effects have been updated.
CSGO players will also be able to bring their inventory across to CS2, and they will look shinier than before thanks to Source 2 lighting and materials.
The news of CS2’s existence was first revealed by Richard Lewis earlier this month, and today Valve has publicly revealed the title with a series of videos and details.
Valve said:
“Counter-Strike 2 is the largest technical leap forward in Counter-Strike’s history, ensuring new features and updates for years to come.”
Valve
“With Source 2 lighting and particle systems, there’s an all-new look and behaviour for water, explosions, fire, smoke, muzzle flashes, bullet tracers, impact effects and more.”
The game’s Limited Test begins today (March 22nd 2023) and the full game is set to launch in Summer 2023, as a free upgrade to the existing CSGO game.
“Players are selected for the Counter-Strike 2 Limited Test based on a number of factors deemed important by the Counter-Strike 2 development team, including (but not limited to) recent playtime on Valve official servers, trust factor, and Steam account standing.
“During this testing period, we’ll be evaluating a subset of features to shake out any issues before the worldwide release.
“Beware of scams. The only way to check for Limited Test access is to launch CSGO through Steam and check the Main Menu. Do not log into third party sites claiming to check your Steam account for access or offering Limited Test access or keys; there are no Limited Test keys.”
The news comes a few weeks after a UK CSGO player’s bomb defuse blunder at Epic.LAN went viral.
What’s new in CS2: maps, movement and more
In terms of CS2 maps, there are three types: Touchstone (classic) maps with improvements to lighting, Upgrade maps that use new Source 2 lighting and more realistic reflections, and Overhauls – the oldest maps that have been ‘fully rebuilt from the ground up’, with tools that community map makers can also use.
Valve also claims it has made substantial improvements to tick rates, with sub-tick updates meaning the server will know exactly when an input has been made, and ‘the server will calculate your precise actions between ticks’.
CS2’s new engine will also introduce much more advanced changes to smoke grenades and the smoke clouds they produce.
Smoke grenades are now ‘dynamic volumetric objects that interact with the environment, and react to lighting, gunfire and explosions’.
Valve has also said that jump throws are possible in CS2 and ‘consistent without a bind, therefore there is no jump throw bind’.
This thread on CS2 has also outlined some interesting new additions and differences.
ESL ‘excited to explore opportunities CS2 provides to esports’
Following the announcement of Counter-Strike 2, the Commissioner of the ESL Pro League, Alex Inglot, said: “The global Counter-Strike community has been anticipating this new edition for weeks and there’s high excitement from pro players and teams now that it has been announced.
“Based on what we’ve seen so far, Counter-Strike 2 looks to offer visual and technical changes that have the potential to further upgrade the competitive experience. Based on this first impression, esports fans can expect Counter-Strike matches with new, fast-paced strategies, executed in the upgraded visual landscape of the Source 2 engine.
“Following close to the current version, CSGO, which just saw an all-time high of more than 1.4m concurrent players on the servers, the new version seems likely to reinforce the leading role of Counter-Strike in the modern esports space.
“In the Louvre Agreement, we are excited to further explore and analyze the game updates over the next few weeks and learn more about the opportunities Counter-Strike 2 provides to the competitive ecosystem.”
Dom’s thoughts on CS2 and what it means for esports
ENUK editor Dom Sacco shares his thoughts
This is a superb reveal by Valve, and in my opinion just what Counter-Strike needs.
Despite competition from Riot’s similar team shooter, Valorant, which launched almost three years ago (and has seen some CS players hop across to it), CSGO is still one of the top-tier esports, and deservedly so. It’s still fun to watch, with a resilient esports scene and community.
While it has stood the test of time, CSGO is more than a decade old now, and a new lick of paint is needed. But from Valve’s announcement today, this looks to be more than that – Valve has clearly put the work in to overhaul some of the systems. I love what they’ve done with smokes and tick rates, and it all looks beautiful on the Source 2 engine.
I think CS2 will continue Counter-Strike’s solid legacy, and we should be in for plenty more classic CS esports moments in the future. The hype is certainly there around this new game too, and it’ll pull in players new and old.
I can’t wait to see the full launch and what everyone thinks of the game, especially the UK CS community.
I have huge respect for CS and am excited for its future – here’s to the next decade of Counter-Strike.
There’s more on CS2 on Valve’s official website
Dom is an award-winning writer and finalist of the Esports Journalist of the Year 2023 award. He graduated from Bournemouth University with a 2:1 degree in Multi-Media Journalism in 2007.
As a long-time gamer having first picked up the NES controller in the late ’80s, he has written for a range of publications including GamesTM, Nintendo Official Magazine, industry publication MCV and others. He worked as head of content for the British Esports Federation up until February 2021, when he stepped back to work full-time on Esports News UK and offer esports consultancy and freelance services. Note: Dom still produces the British Esports newsletter on a freelance basis, so our coverage of British Esports is always kept simple – usually just covering the occasional press release – because of this conflict of interest.
