Valve releases Counter-Strike 2: How to play and everything you need to know

After giving us over 10 years of exciting gameplay, lore, and hours of fun, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive has finally been succeeded by the new Counter-Strike 2. The much-anticipated release of the latest edition to the Counter-Strike franchise comes after months of anticipation. It started with reports in March, with the Limited Test for Counter-Strike 2 starting on March 22, 2023.

The Counter-Strike franchise has been a staple in the world of eSports, especially FPS eSports, for over 20 years now. The game has been through several different iterations. CS 1.6, CS: Source, and Counter-Strike: Global Offensive are the three biggest ones to have been released.

Now, after a decade of CS:GO fun, and about half a year of testing the CS2 beta, we are finally entering a new era of Counter-Strike with the release of Counter-Strike 2.

What’s new in CS2?

The biggest change in CS2, over CS:GO is the addition of the Source 2 game engine. This has brought in a host of new changes, including new lighting, smoke grenades, and many more quality-of-life changes which retain the essence of Counter-Strike, while giving the game a new feel.

Over the three months of testing, Valve had made several changes to the Beta, slowly adding players to the limited test. Most of these changes are covered in the following articles –

• Counter-Strike 2: Valve adds Premier mode to CS2 Limited Test and opens gates to a ton of new players in the latest CS2 update
• You can play all the maps in Counter-Strike 2 – Find out everything new in the latest CS2 Limited Test update
• Valve adds Italy to CS2 Limited Test Beta – Is a CS2 release coming soon?
• Valve adds de_overpass to CS2, and it looks phenomenal
• Source 2 finally coming to CS:GO? Here’s what we know about ‘Counter-Strike 2’

With the full release of Counter-Strike 2, Valve has enabled a number of already available features, and added some new content into the game. Here’s a quick look at what has been added to CS2 –

• You can now open cases and sticker capsules, do trade-ups, and modify the items in your invetory.
• Valve has enabled competitive matchmaking with each map having its own individual ranking system. Private matchmaking and Wingman matchmaking is also live.
• Players who played CS:GO, atleast a week before the launch of CS2 have been rewarded with the “Global Offensive Coin” and a CS:GO music kit, celebrating the legend from the past.
• Chickens now fall off the map, Vertigo 😂
• For the weekly XP rank-up rewards, players can now choose two rewards that they want, out of a set of four.

To check out the complete update notes published by Valve, click here.

How it happened?

Valve has been really clever with the announcement of CS2. It started with the changing of banners before the launch of the Limited Test Beta back in March. At the time, they changed their Twitter banner in the buildup to the release, teased players by updating their depot files and adding a new branch called “today”, right before the big announcement was made.

With CS2’s release, the Seattle-based game giant seems to have taken a similar route. They started with an update to their Twitter banner and then added and quickly deleted a branch labelled as “today”, before dropping the big update.

Now, to announce the full release of the game, Valve has put out a video on their Twitter handle, @CounterStrike.

pic.twitter.com/SM57ZVCTmI

— CS2 (@CounterStrike) September 27, 2023

How to play Counter-Strike 2?

All you need to do to play Counter-Strike 2 is visit – this link – and add the game to your account. If you do not have an account on Steam, you will need to create one. After that, install the Steam client on your PC, download the game, and you are all set. If you are looking to access additional features like Ranked Matchmaking and XP Based game rewards, you will need to purchase a “Prime Status” upgrade for your account, which will cost you ₹1,190.

Also Read: Looking back at three plays from CS:GO Majors that were immortalised by Valve

What does the future hold for Counter-Strike 2?

Right now, the Sun is rising, and the forecast looks nothing but clear in the world of Counter-Strike. Apart from doses of criticism from a few, the Counter-Strike 2 Limited Test was appreciated by many. A lot of players who have been around for years drew parallels to the CS:GO Beta when it was released over a decade ago.

The next Counter-Strike Major is confirmed to be played on CS2 in Copenhagen between March 17 and 31, 2023. The player numbers are at an all-time high, and the community, much to the surprise of many, is receiving the game well. What more can you ask for a game that has been around for more than 20 years? It is older than I am! 

The only thing that I see going wrong for CS2 during its initial release days is the community being split, with one faction calling for the return of Global Offensive and the other sensibly moving to Counter-Strike 2. With time, this divide will also end, and everyone will be playing CS2. 

I am excited for the future of Counter-Strike. Let us know what you think about the release of Counter-Strike 2 in the comments section below. And, if you have some memories from the now-gone CS:GO, we would love to read them too!