After a surprise announcement earlier this year, Valve surprised players once again by suddenly releasing Counter-Strike 2 as an update to Counter-Strike: Global Offensive on Wednesday after a long beta period. Along with several new gameplay aspects, Counter-Strike 2 brings a few major changes, like weapon refunds and overhauled graphics, to the model that helped its predecessor become one of the most-played Steam games of all time.
Unfortunately for quite a few players, though, the original Counter-Strike: Global Offensive was completely replaced by Counter-Strike 2 (aside from being playable as an offline “demo”), which seems to be missing quite a few beloved features from the original game. Now, players caught off guard are taking to Reddit and X/Twitter to share their concerns about the game’s current state.
Just hours after CS2’s release, players began taking note of missing features. Reddit user u/cosmictrigger01 compiled a list of larger aspects of CS:GO that have mysteriously disappeared from CS2, which includes several competitive and Wingman maps, workshop maps, and entire game modes like Arms Race, Flying Scoutsman, and Danger Zone. In the replies, and across Twitter and Reddit, other players have now joined in on wondering where these modes went and if they’ll return.
“I played Arms Race so much, usually with the same group of guys who just happened to be on at the same time as me,” Reddit user u/theicarusambition commented. “So many strangers turned friends, and so many good times. It’d be a real shame if CS2 nixes it.”
As GamesRadar pointed out, some Arms Race maps were leaked, hinting at the potential return of the mode in the near future. Still, these players felt concerned that Valve took away these modes without warning.
Aside from removed features, a small chunk of CS2’s playerbase can’t even access the game at all anymore — Valve also removed support for players on Mac, with no word on if it’ll be re-added or not.
Players have also raised issues about other technical features, including commands like the bob animation-changing “cl_bob,” the absence of which sparked outcry during CS2’s beta.
Other players have complained about CS:2’s servers. While Valve upped CS2’s tick rate with a new system, some international players have noted that the game’s servers have led to an “almost unplayable” game in comparison to CS:GO.
“My agent and enemy agent lag very hard, can’t switch weapons sometimes…, can’t jump sometimes when I try to throw a grenade and there a lot of lags like these,” Reddit user u/ykoonab (who mentioned that they’re playing from Central Asia) posted.
For its part, Valve has acknowledged the server issues, having “hit server capacity in different regions.” They said they’re adding more server capacity “as fast as possible.”
Turns out a lot of you want to play Counter-Strike 2!
If you’re having trouble finding a match it’s because we’ve hit server capacity in different regions.
We’re adding more server capacity as fast as possible. Thanks for your patience while this is being addressed.
— CS2 (@CounterStrike) September 28, 2023
As with other Counter-Strike games, quite a few players also have felt like Counter-Strike 2 just hasn’t added enough new features since its beta version (or since the original CS:GO entirely).
They basically released no NEW content with the launch.
And I guess to not divide the audience they completely removed CS:GO, so the only game we’re left with is the seemingly rushed CS2.
Very weird how all of the hype for the last few weeks lead up to… basically nothing.
— Anomaly (@anomalyxd) September 28, 2023
“Very weird how all of the hype for the last few weeks lead up to… basically nothing,” streamer Anomaly said on Twitter.
Of course, the reaction to CS2’s surprise launch hasn’t been all negative. Twitter and Reddit are also filled with players praising the game’s overhauled graphics, discussing new features like responsive smoke grenades, and (of course) sharing some impressive clips.
Still, though, the players that are disappointed have been pretty vocal, and Valve hasn’t yet responded to concerns about the game (other than threatening to ban cheaters and their friends). Now, it’s just a matter of waiting to see if Valve brings these missing features back, or if this is just what Counter-Strike will look like going forward. Valve has not yet responded to IGN’s request for comment.
IGN has reached out to Valve for comment.
Amelia Zollner is a freelance writer at IGN who loves all things indie and Nintendo. Outside of IGN, they’ve contributed to sites like Polygon and Rock Paper Shotgun. Find them on Twitter: @ameliazollner.
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