Counter-Strike 2 officially announced

After months of speculation and numerous teases, Valve has finally given an official update about Counter-Strike 2 (CS2), the sequel to the developer’s extremely popular esports title Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (CS:GO). 

CS2, according to Valve, is the “largest technical leap forward in Counter-Strike‘s history”, and all the new features will be revealed in the summer, when the game is released.

Limited testing for select players gets underway on March 22, 2023. These players will work towards evaluation of a subset of features to get the game ready before its worldwide release.

CS2 will be a free upgrade over CS:GO. 

Among the new features in CS2, those that were announced in the release videos are:

Smokes

CS2 will see smoke grenades become “dynamic volumetric objects”, which will interact with the environment and additionally also react to gunfire, lighting and explosions. 

Bullets and HE grenades will be able to break up smoke momentarily. Smoke will now also take the shape of the environment it will be thrown in, while also reacting to the lighting. The game will have CT smokes in the shade of light blue, while the T smokes will be a brownish shade of grey. 

Sub-Tick

One of the most debated points in CS:GO was the tick rate; CS2 will be tickless, meaning tick rates will no longer matter for shooting, moving or throwing grenades. 

Map updates

CS2 will also see work done on some of the most iconic maps in the game’s history. Maps such as Overpass will go through a complete overhaul and will be fully rebuilt, while maps like Nuke will see upgrades and include new “Source 2 lighting, including a physically based rendering system that produces realistic materials, lighting, and reflections”.

Touchstone maps, or Counter-Strike‘s most iconic maps such as Dust II, will have improvements made to the lighting and character read but otherwise won’t be changed too much.

Valve has also announced that Source 2 tools and rendering features will be made available for community map makers, allowing them to build, experiment and iterate. The developer has also confirmed that the entire CS:GO inventory will be moved to CS2, with all stock weapons having undergone upgrades with high-resolution models, of which some weapon finishes will take advantage.

Additional updates include enhancements and updates with regards to gameplay visuals, environmental effects and UI enhancements.