Counter-Strike 2 shadow-dropped on Steamearlier this week, yanking all CS:GO players into what feels like an extended beta rather than a proper launch. Maps and modes are missing, performance is unoptimised, and there’s nothing new to fill the void that was left.
It’sa worrying trend for live-service shooters to rebrand their games as sequelswhile stripping them back and, ultimately, making them worse. We saw it withOverwatch 2as it adopted a free-to-play model and completely ruined any sense of progression, turning events into glorified storefronts. We’re seeing it again with Warzone 2, as the original shuts down and takes everyone’s paid skins and operators with it.Counter-Strike 2could’ve bucked the trend, but instead it deleted CS:GO to pave the way for its dumbed-down existence.
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Arms Race and Danger Zone are completely absent, and there are far fewer Wingman and Hostage maps. In fact, there are only two of the latter, compared to five originally. There’s also no Mac support, cutting off an entire chunk of the player base, while those left on Windows report stuttering issues, particularly when killing enemies. Hardly ideal if you run into a crowd.
CS2 clearly isn’t finished. It needed more time in the oven but was evidently rushed out due to vague promises of a Summer 2023 release. We’re in September, about to head into October, so it was late anyway and a delay would’ve done it some good. Instead, it barreled onto the scene and crushed CS:GO under its heel. Don’t like it? Tough shit.
Overwatch 2 faced a similar dilemma. It was delayed again, again, and again, stumbling through the pandemic,axing the promised PvE mode, and launching well before it should have. It paled in comparison to the original with its barebones offerings, and everyone wanted to go back. But they couldn’t.
Counter-Strike 2 has ignited those same problems. Mac users can’t play, those on lower-end hardware have been pushed out, and fans of modes and maps that are simply absent have to sit on their thumbs. It wouldn’t be so bad if CS:GO still existed, since all of these players could enjoy the original. But CS2 has swallowed it whole, and shadow-dropping only adds insult to injury since nobody had time to prepare. Those in the middle of getting every Achievementsuddenly had all 167 deleted, and those climbing the ranks just plummeted to the bottom of the ladder.
It’s hard not to be cynical about it all. These ‘sequels’ are clearly lacking, but by tearing away the option to play the original, developers ensure the only way to play is to feed into their new ecosystems. Overwatch 2 and CS2 will still make money on cosmetics and crates, and they’ll still see record-breaking numbers of players because fans have nowhere else to turn. If you like the games, you’ll just stomach the changes and plough on, but that’s hardly an ideal way to treat a hobby.
What makes it even more bizarre is that Valve has done this exact kind of ‘sequel’ in the past without scrapping what came before. The original Counter-Strike started as aHalf-Lifemod, which means it ran on the modifiedQuakeengine, Goldsrc. When Valve developed a new engine for Half-Life 2, it released a port-sequel hybrid, Counter-Strike: Source.
This was the new ‘main’ game, taking over from the original. Valve understandably wanted the community to migrate and bring the competitive scene with it, but it didn’t get rid of the original Counter-Strike to make room. The option remained.
Global Offensive’s jump to Counter-Strike 2 is a similar story - it’s essentially the same game ported to a new engine, Source 2. However, unlike Valve’s previous, more consumer-friendly approach, it did not keep the old game around. If you want to dig through Counter-Strike’s history, there will now and forever be a giant empty space where Global Offensive once was, despite it being by far the most culturally relevant entry in the series. Valve has already proven how unnecessary that is. To this day, people still play CSS and CS 1.6 - Global Offensive and Counter-Strike 2 could co-exist.
Overwatch 2 should not have replaced the original. CS:GO, likewise, should still be available. Instead, Valve has paved over its own history and planted a barebones husk in its place, giving us no choice but to stick with it, cross our fingers, and hope it’s better in a year’s time.
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