Counter-Strike 2 finally revealed, limited test coming soon
After all these years, the massively popular online tactical shooter Counter-Strike is getting a sequel. Vale not only announced that Counter-Strike 2 was in the works, but that it would also be holding a limited test for the game.
Initially released as a mod for Half-Life in 1999 and acquired by Valve in 2000, Counter-Strike has existed in various forms over the years. Instead of straight-up developing sequels to the original, however, Valve instead opted to release technological updates to the game, first porting it to its Source engine with Counter-Strike: Source before giving it another upgrade in 2012 with the current Counter-Strike: Global Offensive.
While each of these updates brought significant changes to the game, they were still at their core the same game people have been playing since the turn of the millennium. Whether Counter-Strike 2 will change that is still up in the air. That said, it’s highly likely that Valve will retain the series’ winning formula considering that the game is set to be a free upgrade to CS:GO. (Read:Here’s what you need to know about Valve’s Steam Deck)
According to Valve, existing CS:GO players will get Counter-Strike 2 as a free upgrade sometime this Summer, or between June and August. When this happens all existing CS:GO skins will transfer over to the new game, complete with upgraded visuals.
The game still looks to bring a number of changes and new features, some of which Valve has revealed. These new additions include:
- Volumetric smoke grenades
- Sub-tick architecture
- Fully overhauled maps
- New Source 2 tools for modders
- Higher-resolution models for guns
- Improved blood splatter
- “Completely reauthored explosions”
- More accurate audio
The most interesting of these is the sub-tick architecture. Shooters like Counter-Strike traditionally sampled players’ actions at regular intervals, called “ticks.” But under the new architecture, Counter-Strike 2’s servers will know the “exact instant that motion starts, a shot is fired, or a ‘nade is thrown.”
“As a result, regardless of tick rate, your moving and shooting will be equally responsive and your grenades will always land the same way,” Valve explained.
To test these features, a select number of CS:GO players will be getting access to the Counter-Strike 2 limited test starting today. But these features being tested in Counter-Strike 2‘s limited test apparently only represent a limited subset of all that is coming to the game according to Valve. The company promises that it’ll be revealing more about the game in the months leading up to its launch.
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