It’s been a long time coming, and the wait for an unknown launch date since Valve first announced it earlier this year has felt even longer, but Counter-Strike 2 is officially out. Like, right now.
The news comes via a new trailer which just made its debut on the official Counter-Strike account on X, highlighting the journey to this big new release. Check it out below:
As a free upgrade to CS:GO, Counter-Strike 2 is built on the Source 2 Engine and represents a number of huge improvements to the game from updated and reimagined maps, to massive advancements in responsiveness thanks to tick-rate-independent gameplay, new visual effects, dynamic Smoke Grenades and a whole heap more. If you’re coming across from CS:GO you’ll get to keep all of your items, as well.
Smoke Grenades will be a game-changing addition to play, being fully dynamic, volumetric objects that naturally fill space and react to players, objects, gunfire and lighting realistically.
Tick rate, ever a thorn in the side of a CS:GO player, has also been updated to “no longer matter” for moving, shooting or throwing with the game employing a “sub-tick” architecture that means that servers will always know exactly when players are moving or firing to make the game feel more responsive and consistent.
Physically-based rendering gives new life to the maps, making them look and feel better than ever, and some have received full overhauls while others have seen partial upgrades.
You can download Counter-Strike 2 from Steam for free right here.