It’s official. Counter-Strike 2 is no longer just a myth, a rumour or a game in its testing phase. Instead, Counter-Strike 2 has just replaced the decade-old legendary 5v5 competitive FPS on Steam.
Counter-Strike 2 rings the shooter into Valve’s Source 2 game engine, which means cleaner and brighter maps, more particle effects, volumetric smoke grenade smoke and more.
As of writing this, CS:GO is done. It’s had its final hurrah and is now gone for good, something that Valve confirmed in the early hours of this morning with some gif-based tears for the game many of us have grown up playing:
https://t.co/5RM9G9e4Od pic.twitter.com/8DwgjlPrv4
— CS2 (@CounterStrike) September 27, 2023
Some of the significant features players can expect when they dive into Counter-Strike 2 are:
Upgraded lighting and materials
Updated maps
Overhaul of visual effects like fire, bullet tracers, and muzzle flashes
A new ranking system
The maps available on launch are:
- Mirage
- Overpass
- Vertigo
- Ancient
- Inferno
- Nuke
- Anubis
- Dust 2
- Office
- Italy
Counter-Strike 2 is now free for everyone to jump in and play on Steam. Players who played CS:GO also won’t be losing any of their skins in the transition.
Since going live today, Counter-Strike 2 has already reached 1,265,615 concurrent players. Were you one of them? Let us know in the comments.