Counter Strike Global Offensive Review

Counter Strike: Global Offensive is an FPS (First-Person Shooter) game released way back in 2012.

It has withstood the test of time and remains one of the most popular tactical FPS games. The game is free and fun to play.

In this review, I will delve deep into the tactical gameplay of CS2 (Counter Strike 2, the upgrade to Counter Strike: Global Offensive) and share my verdict on the best and not so good side.

Let’s get into it.

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Counter Strike: Global Offensive Review

Counter Strike: Global Offensive has been renamed as Counter Strike 2. It’s the same game, but with some improvements on map quality and visuals.

Modes

Counter Strike 2 has several modes, but the most popular one is the Competitive bomb scenario mode.

In CS2, there are two teams: terrorists and counter-terrorists. If you’re on the terrorist team, you need to plant a bomb on one of the bomb sites.

If you’re on the counter-terrorist team, you need to prevent the terrorists from planting the bomb. Once a bomb is planted, you have 40 seconds to get to the bomb site and defuse the bomb.

By eliminating members of the opposite team, it will be easier to achieve your objectives in the game.

Another popular game style is Hostage. Again, there are two teams, but in this mode, the terrorists have a hostage they have captured while the objective of the counter-terrorists is to rescue that hostage.

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Competitive is the classic game mode that Counter Strike has always been best known for.

In Competitive, each team has five members, and there are 30 rounds to the match, but the first team to win 16 rounds will win the match.

If you don’t want so many rounds to a match, you can opt for Casual mode, which allows you to drop in and out at your leisure. There is also Wingman, which features 2v2 play, allowing you to play with a buddy, and various other game modes.

However, some modes, like Team Deathmatch, were removed in CS2, which frustrated many players.

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Weapons

There are only a few categories of weaponry in the game, but that helps keep it simple. The weapons serve a wide variety of purposes.

For example, while pistols don’t do as much damage as some other weapons, they have a high degree of accuracy. Meanwhile, sniper rifles offer the advantage of a high level of damage and a long-distance range, but they aren’t as portable.

Usually, weapons and other equipment are available to purchase at the beginning of games and at other times during gameplay when you earn in-game currency.

The equipment only varies slightly for the two teams (obviously, you need different equipment to defuse bombs than to set bombs).

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Matchmaking

For competitive play, CS2 offers decent matchmaking. It goes a step beyond standard matchmaking and offers a service called Prime matchmaking.

With Prime, people can only sign up to one account with a verified phone number. This helps ensure that you don’t get matched with smurfs.

Smurfs are experienced players who create new accounts with lower rankings for the purpose of getting matched with less experienced players and defeating them. It’s often done for an ego boost, but it can be frustrating if you’re a lower-ranked player.

With Prime, you will only get matched with other Prime members.

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Community Contributions

With the community workshop, players can contribute weapons, maps, and more. There are also community servers, which often offer unique rules and modded gameplay.

Some may be more suitable for beginners, for example, which is helpful due to the long learning curve commonly associated with CS2.

It also gives you endless possibilities for new modes and gameplay styles, keeping things fun, exciting, and fresh.

Of course, since these servers are created by the community, quality can vary. Some may offer a better gameplay experience than others, while some may not do the best job at preventing cheating.

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Monetization

CS2 makes money by selling cosmetics. You can buy directly from the game or from other players via the Steam community trading market.

In addition, you can unlock cases by buying keys, which only cost a few dollars.

Overall, though, the impact on monetization on gameplay abilities is not that high; for example, you can also trade items via trade-ups.

There is also Prime, as mentioned, which comes with advantages such as a better matchmaking system and fewer cheaters.

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What I Liked About Counter Strike 2

There are plenty of good things to say about CS2. There’s a reason it’s still popular over all these years, and since the update, it’s gotten considerably better.

Now, CS2 offers a clean and easy to navigate interface with upgraded texture in its maps and better performance overall.

The overall gameplay experience is great as well. It’s smooth and easy to play, without many lags.

There are many maps available, and there are also many community servers, which helps keep things exciting. You can play CS2 for a long time and not get bored.

It has a great sound design as well and an active esports community.

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Best of all, it’s free to play. It used to cost around $15, but the fee was removed long ago.

Skill plays a big role in CS2. You can earn some advantages by paying, but they are not as significant as in many other FPS games.

Finally, while cheaters do exist, Valve (the developer of CS2) is always getting better at detecting and banning cheaters. Besides, you can always get Prime to avoid cheaters (some will always slip through the cracks, but it mostly prevents the issue).

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What I Didn’t Like About Counter Strike 2

Performance is decent but can still be a bit of an issue depending on your operating system. Moreover, while Valve is doing quite a bit to prevent cheating, there is still a fair share of cheaters and hackers, so be prepared for that.

The fact that you need Prime to really avoid cheaters is a significant flaw. Prime Status currently costs $14.99 on Steam, and I believe that if an anti-cheating system was developed, it should have been made available to all players.

Putting it at a premium price isn’t fair, as it puts free players at a disadvantage. If you want to avoid getting matched with a smurf, you might have to pay up.

On the flip side of the coin, people also get banned from matchmaking due to false pretenses, despite doing nothing wrong, which is a serious flaw of the anti-cheating system.

The players can be quite toxic at times. You might want to turn off the chat, as you will have people screaming for no reason in the voice chat, which can be quite disturbing.

There is also a fair share of cyberbullying going on, so if you have young kids playing the game, please monitor their gameplay and ensure their mental health is not suffering.

Customization is an issue. Compared to games like Fortnite, character development is limited.

If you enjoy customizing your characters, you will find CS2 a bit disappointing in that regard. Furthermore, many of the cosmetics available can be quite costly.

Finally, I would say that CS2 has quite a bit of a learning curve. It’s not as bad as Dota 2, for example, but you will suck for several months before you get any good.

And, if you are not willing to pay for Prime Status, you might get matched with smurfs during that time, which can be quite a letdown.

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Conclusion

Overall, the pros outweigh the cons. Counter Strike 2 remains one of the best first-person shooter games out there, even though many people don’t like the new look compared to the old style before the CS2 update.

It’s free to play, and while you do have to pay for Prime Status, it’s not that expensive. Skill plays a big role, so do be patient while you improve your skills and rankings.

With many game modes and maps to choose from, you won’t get bored any time soon, so have a go at it!