While no popular title is free of controversy, Counter-Strike 2 is one of the few titles where its many controversial elements do not get enough attention, which is most likely the result of the gaming community’s unhealthy obsession with Gabe Newall and, by extension, all things Valve.
Playing as a Terrorist: In a post-9/11 and ISIS world, forcing 50% of the players in each match to play as bomb-planting/police-murdering terrorists is either a very bold move or an incredibly stupid one, especially when the comparison could be avoided by creating fictional factions.
Gambling: While Valve does not officially endorse the massive gambling rings that surround Counter-Strike 2 and has made several half-hearted attempts at corraling it, the fact that teenagers and even children are getting hooked on gambling is concerning, especially when Valve could simply make all items bind to account, and effectively destroy the third party black market overnight.
Image credit Counter-Strike: Global Offensive - Published and developed by Valve.
Money Laundering: Counter-Strike has always had a problem with money laundering, and while Valve attempted to address this issue in 2019, the criminal syndicates operating within Counter-Strike have continued to launder money at an alarming rate.
While several more steps are now involved, and their profits are reduced, many criminal rings in developing countries have no better avenue for laundering their ill-gotten gains.
Valve has previously admitted that around 95% of all marketplace transactions are either money laundering or the result of illegal gambling rings, which should concern any responsible adult, considering that Counter-Strike is played by millions of children and teenagers every day.
Image credit Counter-Strike: Global Offensive - Published and developed by Valve.
While hackers are nothing new, Counter-Strike 2 is the ultimate carrot on a stick for those who are too lazy to earn an honest income, and as a result, there are thousands of scammers preying on unsuspecting Steam users at any given time, resulting in hundreds of compromised accounts every day.
From a purely logical point of view, it’s easy to see why they do it; with Counter-Strike 2 items reaching as much as six figures on third-party websites, stealing just one moderately sized inventory every day could sustain a small third-world operation indefinitely.
In June 2021, a player paid over $780k to purchase two rare skins, which is the equivalent of 318 years’ salary for an average working-class Indian, which makes it easy to see why so many scammers hail from developing countries.
Image credit Counter-Strike: Global Offensive - Published and developed by Valve.
Counter-Strike 2 looks decent for a game that first launched in 2012, but a lack of common FPS mechanics such as ADS (aim-down sights), attachments, and sprinting, coupled with an insanely fast TTK (time-to-kill), makes it feel more like a title from the late 1990s, which make sense considering that Counter-Strike first released as a mod of Half-Life in 1999.
Counter-Strike 2’s massive community seems unphased by the lacklustre Source 2 Engine, with over 5 million players logging in daily despite the limitations of the engine and the abundance of mechanically better games in the market.
While many in the community have settled on 1440p/120 FPS being the sweet spot for competitive gaming, Counter-Strike 2 pros prefer to play at ridiculously low resolutions and insane framerates, with some preferring to play 360p/500 FPS, which is frankly equal parts impressive and terrifying.
Image credit Counter-Strike: Global Offensive - Published and developed by Valve.
While free players have access to all modes (except ranked), players who owned Counter-Strike: Global Offensive before its free-2-play relaunch also gain access to ranked playlists, among other benefits, including priority matchmaking, XP gain and weekly item drops.
Counter-Strike 2 Prime Status can be purchased via the in-game store or from Steam for $14.99 for those who started playing after its free-play relaunch.
Part of Counter-Strike’s longevity is due to its openness towards community-created content, including but not limited to new maps, modes, weapons, character skins, stickers and more.
Being able to rely on the community to release a steady stream of new content is good for the developers and players, potentially unlocking a flood of content that would not otherwise have been made available.
A perfect example of this is the recently released community-created CS-GO Karts mode, which sees players racing around a map in a fully armed and operational go-kart that combines the fun of Counter-Strike with Rocket League and Mario Kart.
This openness towards community-created content has at times backfired, such as when bad actors were able to include malware, keyloggers and illegal pornographic content on Counter-Strike Global Offensive community servers; however, the method used for this exploit appears to have been addressed, and no further instances have occurred since 2018.
Image credit Counter-Strike: Global Offensive - Published and developed by Valve.
Counter-Strike: Global Offensive is a shooter video game developed and published by Valve, it was released on 21 August 2012 and it is Free-2-Play.
Counter-Strike: Global Offensive is available exclusively on PC.
Counter-Strike 2 remains in active development, with a massive relaunch occurring in 2023, which saw Counter-Strike: Global Offensive relaunched and rebranded as Counter-Strike 2, introducing a slew of new features, including global leaderboards, new items, remastered maps, and a wide variety of far-reaching gameplay improvements.
As of January 2024, around 10,00,000 people play Counter-Strike: Global Offensive on a fairly regular basis.
Counter-Strike: Global Offensive is extremely active, and instantaneous matchmaking is possible in most regions 24/7; however, in very remote regions, there may be wait times of around one minute to find a full lobby.
Counter-Strike: Global Offensive is wildly popular, with daily peaks of 1M+ players and an average ccu of over 600k players. CSGO is one of the most active PC-only titles and certainly one of the largest games on Steam, having not left the top ten most popular titles since its launch in 2012.
Counter-Strike 2 does not support cross-platform multiplayer.
Counter-Strike 2 offers the following matchmaking options:
The Counter-Strike 2 in-game store sells:
Counter-Strike: Global Offensive is one of the few modern games to still offer premium lootboxes (cases), with each requiring that players purchase a key ($2.50) to receive its randomly generated contents.
If not for the fact items can be resold on the Steam marketplace, this system would be appalling, considering most items are worth much less than the $2.50 required to access them.
Adversely, some items are worth exorbitant amounts of money, which is the carrot that ensures players spend more than they can afford on keys, and professional criminal enterprises continue to operate from within the game.
Image credit Counter-Strike: Global Offensive - Published and developed by Valve.
The following peripherals are officially supported:
Counter-Strike 2 is rated PEGI 18+ and contains the following:
Counter-Strike: Global Offensive is iconic, and while there are much better games on the market (with far less explosive monetization models), I feel fans of the first-person shooter genre owe it to themselves to at least give it a try, even if they swiftly move onto greener pastures.
