A rant about the state of this game in 2025

Some good updates:
Competitive ranking system feels about as generous as CSGO now, at CS2’s launch I was getting Silver 1-4, now I’m averaging around Silver Elite-Gold 2
Some GO features like Workshop and right hand are back

Missing content/features from CSGO, over 1 year after CS2 release:
No short matches, no Demolition
No unranked competitive for Prime players - why should I have to make a smurf if I want some unranked practice?
Community server browser still has issues, hard to access
Cache is still missing. Just pay a team to help the guy do it FFS
They erased all GO achievements (disrespectful)

Gameplay issues due to server architecture:
Official servers are 64-tick and subtick introduced more problems than it’s worth.
I get that bhopping/strafing is viewed as a happy little accident by Valve but it’s basically impossible to do consistently since the update that removed macros/aliases/whatever TF that was. Feels massively disrespectful to CS’s legacy, movement was a huge part of 1.6/Source and it was fun. Movement tricks make almost any game more fun, and bhopping in GO only provided a slight advantage, either remove it completely or make it consistently work at this point.
I’m still getting headshot by people who should not be able to see me. The prediction model they’re using doesn’t work and makes peeker’s advantage TOO insane.

Cheating:
This game has been around for way too long and makes too much $$$ to not have a half-decent anti-cheat. It was the biggest issue CSGO had and it’s not even 1% better in CS2. I have to assume a reason for this is because Valve would never do a kernel level anti-cheat like Valorant because they’re an invasive security concern and wouldn’t work on Linux. Invasive anti-cheat is cringe and I respect that they won’t do it, but Valve has the revenue of a small country and they aren’t doing the bare minimum.
I hope Deadlock gets bombarded by cheaters so they consider doing something.

The Armory, Cases and Gambling:
Every other live-service game has a consistent way to earn cool looking ♥♥♥♥. With the Armory Passes, you’re paying 15$ (needs to be 10) for what are essentially gambling chips. It’s the lamest implementation of a battle pass system of all time and they don’t even update the content you can win often.
Having an economy around a game is cool. I love that you can have items that have actual value and are fully tradable - but you can’t deny that the CS community is rooted in gambling/gacha ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥. I like Valve’s relaxed approach to the Steam community vs EA/Xbox banning you for talking ♥♥♥♥. But facilitating an environment where kids can develop gambling addictions is really cringey, and the $$ they make from this is the reason they hardly work on the actual game.

TL;DR
still worse than CSGO. The aspects of GO that needed improvement IMO were better networking/servers, better matchmaking/ranking system, and better anti-cheat. MM is about the same as GO now but networking is iffier than GO and the game is still plagued with cheating. In my last review I was excited for the future of CS2, now I know better

Valve has more money than God and they’re busy working on HLX/Deadlock/whatever else, but they could easily setup a bigger team dedicated to CS. Valve’s well-known “culture” of working on 1-2 projects while putting others on the backburner isn’t an excuse. They have no incentive to do anything because the case/skin economy around the game is still massive. Stop ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ opening cases, open an Acorns account, donate to a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ politician if you want, just spend your money somewhere else.

A rant about the state of this game in 2025 Some good updates: Competitive ranking system feels about as generous as CSGO now, at CS2’s launch I was getting Silver 1-4, now I’m averaging around Silver Elite-Gold 2 Some GO features like Workshop and right hand are back Missing content/features from CSGO, over 1 year after CS2 release: No short matches, no Demolition No unranked competitive for Prime players - why should I have to make a smurf if I want some unranked practice? Community server browser still has issues, hard to access Cache is still missing. Just pay a team to help the guy do it FFS They erased all GO achievements (disrespectful) Gameplay issues due to server architecture: Official servers are 64-tick and subtick introduced more problems than it’s worth. I get that bhopping/strafing is viewed as a happy little accident by Valve but it’s basically impossible to do consistently since the update that removed macros/aliases/whatever TF that was. Feels massively disrespectful to CS’s legacy, movement was a huge part of 1.6/Source and it was fun. Movement tricks make almost any game more fun, and bhopping in GO only provided a slight advantage, either remove it completely or make it consistently work at this point. I’m still getting headshot by people who should not be able to see me. The prediction model they’re using doesn’t work and makes peeker’s advantage TOO insane. Cheating: This game has been around for way too long and makes too much $$$ to not have a half-decent anti-cheat. It was the biggest issue CSGO had and it’s not even 1% better in CS2. I have to assume a reason for this is because Valve would never do a kernel level anti-cheat like Valorant because they’re an invasive security concern and wouldn’t work on Linux. Invasive anti-cheat is cringe and I respect that they won’t do it, but Valve has the revenue of a small country and they aren’t doing the bare minimum. I hope Deadlock gets bombarded by cheaters so they consider doing something. The Armory, Cases and Gambling: Every other live-service game has a consistent way to earn cool looking shit. With the Armory Passes, you’re paying 15$ (needs to be 10) for what are essentially gambling chips. It’s the lamest implementation of a battle pass system of all time and they don’t even update the content you can win often. Having an economy around a game is cool. I love that you can have items that have actual value and are fully tradable - but you can’t deny that the CS community is rooted in gambling/gacha bullshit. I like Valve’s relaxed approach to the Steam community vs EA/Xbox banning you for talking shit. But facilitating an environment where kids can develop gambling addictions is really cringey, and the $$ they make from this is the reason they hardly work on the actual game. TL;DR still worse than CSGO. The aspects of GO that needed improvement IMO were better networking/servers, better matchmaking/ranking system, and better anti-cheat. MM is about the same as GO now but networking is iffier than GO and the game is still plagued with cheating. In my last review I was excited for the future of CS2, now I know better Valve has more money than God and they’re busy working on HLX/Deadlock/whatever else, but they could easily setup a bigger team dedicated to CS. Valve’s well-known “culture” of working on 1-2 projects while putting others on the backburner isn’t an excuse. They have no incentive to do anything because the case/skin economy around the game is still massive. Stop fucking opening cases, open an Acorns account, donate to a fucking politician if you want, just spend your money somewhere else.