Counter-Strike 2 forgot about me.
So Counter-Strike 2 came out and I have a lot of thoughts about it. I was excited for it, have been for years with all of the Source 2 leaks. But then it came out and, well, let's just say it's not what I expected.
But first, let's take a look at what came before.
Counter-Strike: Global Offensive.
I'm a weirdo... and a Silver.
As a player, I kind of stand out for this game. I don't have that many hours in it, and that's despite having been part of its closed beta. I am not a fan of the classic defusal mode. I don't like playing in Competitive as I find it's too much pressure for me to handle. So what am I doing here?
Yeah, I am kind of a weirdo for this game, but I love the basic simple moment-to-moment gameplay this game offers. Its precise control. Its simple mechanics. No sprinting, no aiming down the sight, no sliding, nothing like that. It is very simple and efficient.
I played this game mostly in Team Deathmatch, Gun Game and even Demolition. I know, sue me, I actually liked this game mode. I also played a lot against bots on workshop maps. And I had a blast. Again, sue me, I don't care. Mappers were really creative with this game and installing custom maps was extremely easy. Bot support is improved compared to Counter Strike Source and I don't have to go into the files or whatever. I just subscribe and bam.
But for competitive, well, I never got past Silver, to be honest. I never got into it, I played with friends from time to time, but I could tell I was dragging them down and felt bad about it. I never tried to go solo for the same reasons, I didn't want to expose myself to the abuses of other people for being bad. Being good and not letting my team down was too much pressure for me to handle and it sucked all the fun out of the game for me. So it wasn't for me. I get why people love it though and I love watching it.
Steam Deck, Part 1.
I also bought a Steam Deck, which I love and it's actually replaced my PC which died. I could dock it to my monitor, plug my mouse and keyboard in, and I could suck at competitive with my friends just like before as if nothing's changed. And when I wanted to play more casually, I could play in handheld. And I know playing CS with a controller sounds like heresy, but A, this game had surprisingly good controller support, and with gyroscopic control, I could easily hold my own against other players online in Team Deathmatch. And B, it's fun. Once again: sue me. I'm having my fun my way.
I was excited for the future.
I was always excited for the new maps. For the updates. I was excited when the game became free when so few people were. I was excited for danger zone, which I actually found to be quite fun. I was excited for the new engine especially and talked about it to my friends for years before the leak finally came true.
I was always optimistic for what Valve was doing with this one. I am not a CS streamer or a pro player who kicks and screams every time something change about this game. I am not one to say that Counter Strike as a whole is dead because you changed one tiny thing because. This playerbase can be dramatic, but I am not like that.
You get it? I am not the complaining type with this game. And I was genuienly excited for Counter-Strike 2....
Counter-Strike 2.
Competitive... and that's it.
So why me, this weirdo bot demolition enjoying silver who never reviews anything on Steam is leaving a negative review on this game, then? It's because Valve... you took my game away from me. I bought it was just 13 bucks back in the days, but I bought it. And you took it away from me. This isn't the game I used to play.
Counter-Strike 2 is not what I expected. I don't think it's what anybody expected. I thought it'd be some kind of engine swap and a rebrand, but that's not what this is. This is CSGO with a new engine... and only standard competitive/casual mode with Deathmatch for warming up. And the skins, of course, these are of course, all there.
But that's it. So, no more Gun Game, Demolition, Danger Zone, Community Servers... No fun allowed. It's all pressure now.
Don't tell me that this is my fault, that Counter Strike was always about the competitive aspect (that's not true but, whatever) and that I was stupid to get this game for anything else. I don't care, it was all there and I could have never figured out that they would one day rip it all out. Valve took CSGO away, none of this is on me.
But it seems that Gun Game is coming later. Maybe some other modes too, but some of the GG maps can be seen on the website and trailers, so it's coming. Some day. It does begs the question as to why Valve accompanied notoriously known for delaying and being late at everything for some inexplicable reasons felt the need to rush this one.... But fine, whatever. It's coming. It's extremely annoying and extremely modern gamingβ’ of you to do this Valve, but whatever. Moving on.
I'm still mad though, because it all should've been there but there's something else...
Steam Deck, Part II.
Performance on the Steam Deck is atrocious. The game struggles to reach 50 fps even with everything on low. The game doesn't run well in the menus for crying out loud. So even going out in competitive and sucking at it with friends but enjoying it because it's my friends, well, that too I can't do anymore.
But silly me, I guess. Why would I expect that a game made by Valve, would run well with an engine made by Valve, on hardware made by Valve? How stupid of me. How could I be such a fool!
...there is no reason why this 5v5 games with these graphics should be a problem, when 1080p60fps 64 players intense Battlefield 1 is possible on this thing.
But that's not all! Because this game also has zero controller support. All of the efforts that was put in CSGO to make it controller/Deck friendly are just gone!
You took CSGO away from me and you left me nothing. I know I didn't play it that much. I don't have as many hours as some people did, but I loved it nonetheless. It was comfort food for me and you took it away from me. You might have as well just removed the game from my library altogether. It wouldn't make any difference for me because ever since CS2 came out I haven't been able to play it due to how bad it runs for me.
All of this is just disappointing. And at the same time it is leaving me wondering: What happened? Valve has been a strong β and I do mean strong β supporter for Linux for a long time. So strong in fact that gaming on Linux is basically a reality because of them, at this point. The Steam Deck runs linux and proved that Linux Gaming was so good that it was now ready to become mainstream. That's how committed Valve is to this. So what happened?!
Because Steam Deck-wise, this game had absolutely no effort put into it. And I am not being hyperbolic, I do mean it. There is zero effort put into the Steam Deck optimization of this And again, let me nail this point home that we are talking about Valve own game on Valve's own engine running on Valve's own hardware. And we are also talking about great support which the game this one replaces already had...
Conclusion
I was all for this game replacing the previous one. I thought it was a good move. I thought that replacing it would prevent the community from being divided once again. I thought that this would maybe help kickstart a new era for Counter Strike.
This new engine would bring better performances, easier map making, new and expanded game modes like Danger Zone, basically a game that could run well without having to work around its old engine.
And it does look incredible. The maps are beautiful. And those Smokes look incredible. Which... they better do considering that they evidently came at the cost of all the game modes that disappeared, the community servers and the whole controller/Steam Deck optimization...
So, yeah. Negative review. Can't even play the thing anymore, so...
Thank you for reading.
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PS: Valve, please fix.