Canada
United States
New Zealand
Australia
Ireland
Counter Strike released in 2000. Now that might seem close enough but to put it in perspective, 2040 is closer than 2000 right now. That’s where Counter Strike 2 hails from, the OG FPS that brought a generation together across the world.
CS:GO is probably the best game sequel in any franchise. Valve took the basics of what worked and built on top of it to give gamers more of the same but in a better package and minor changes to make for a better gaming experience.
Counter Strike 2 shows the same effort and it does pay off. CS never looked and felt better. But there’s something off. Read on.
Counter Strike 2 Review: From A Fan to Another
Taking a deep stroke early to ease it out, what made Counter Strike a masterpiece of a game was the reverse psychology at play in it.
CS put up the barebones of a gaming environment from an FPS perspective and simply let players go figure. It’s not realistic or a simulation. It was never supposed to be that. CS was the video gaming timepass before graphics cards were a thing and there were more IBMs than Macs for desktops.
Fast forward to 2023, Valve’s just upgraded the gameplay immersion with quick tweaks to the graphics, some changes to the maps, little updates to the controls and nothing else.
CS 2 is CS:GO 2023.
Valve may have pulled off the biggest game release of the decade (other than GTA 6 of course) by sticking to the simplest of mantras – don’t fix what’s not broken.
Counter Strike 2 looks better from any and every angle. If you’d have quit CS:GO for its grainy graphics, you won’t have much to complain about for now since it looks great and the frame rates are better than almost any FPS out there.
The game’s still infested with hackers and Valve’s done little about that. Maybe that’s what keeps us getting back, the insatiable urge for ‘Rache’ or finding a hacker who’s never happier than taking down mostly other hackers.
Counter Strike continues to represent society as it is, as it always was and always will be, beautiful in its imperfections.
To me, CS 2 is not better than ETF or most other FPS out there right now. But I’ve already clocked a day or so on it, figuring out the new maps, finding the best spots, enjoying the new game physics and often sticking to Dust II after a few matches elsewhere.
Valve, if you’re listening, we want the old maps back. All of them. And we want better AI bots, or at least higher difficulty levels.
But who am I kidding? I’ll still play it right after this Counter Strike 2 review. Why? It reminds me of the times I played it more than I did anything else on weekends, even sneaking in a few hours at night. It’s the last edifice of my generation that has not changed enough to be unrecognizable and does not need to change to stay relatable. So if you haven’t played Counter Strike 2 yet, I’ll see you there. And for no reason at all, this is the best video game ever made. For no reason at all.
