Counter-Strike 2 Players Express Disappointment as Many of CS:GO's Key Features Disappear

29.09.2023 - 22:21 / ign.com / Many

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