When CS2 launched in September 2023, hopes were high that we were about to enter a brand-new era of Counter-Strike. Valve made the bold move of replacing CS:GO entirely, ensuring the community wasn’t split between the two games. But let’s face it: almost one year after its release, CS2 is still in a bad state. We’re going to take a look at exactly what is wrong with the game, and how Valve can still fix it.
The CS2 jump bug might be the most egregious bug in the game. The bug can sometimes prevent players from jumping up to a higher level, making a sound cue in the process. We’ve already seen fame lose a clutch to this bug at the PGL Major Copenhagen 2024 against G2.
It’s always frustrating to play the situation perfectly and still lose due to CS2 not working as intended. Valve did release a ‘fix’ for the CS2 jump bug back in April, but as of July 2024, I’ve been able to replicate the bug on Anubis’ A-site and Nuke’s outside route up to heaven, where it seems to happen the most. I know that I’m not the only one frequently encountering this problem, too.
Valve sold CS2’s new subtick system under the phrase “What you see is what you get.” The benefit of hindsight shows what a mistake this marketing move was, and has since been the subject of great schadenfreude in the CS2 community. Make no mistake: what you see is not always what you get. If you’ve ever been left feeling like a shot should have hit your opponent, you might actually be right. There’s no shortage of clips online of players who miss shots that absolutely hit, and it’s another example of why CS2 feels so frustrating to play at times.
While spraying feels much closer to CS:GO now than it did at launch, it doesn’t change the fact that overall hit registration is unreliable. In a tactical shooter like Counter-Strike 2, where all the small details matter, it simply isn’t good enough for where the game needs to be. It isn’t just the pros that suffer here either – this is an issue that even the lowest CS2 Premier ranks can notice on a day-to-day basis.
Credit: Valve
Make no mistake: we’re currently playing in the worst Counter-Strike map pool of all time. Losing Overpass, one of the most tactical CS2 maps, for Dust 2, a map where every match is dictated on spawn points, was a colossal mistake. Dust 2 is simply overplayed, Vertigo’s rework wasn’t enough to save it from being one of the worst maps in the pool, Mirage needs a break after 11 years in Active Duty, and new Inferno just isn’t the same as its CS:GO equivalent. Ancient, Anubis, and Nuke are all still strong, but it’s not enough to make up for the rest of the shortcomings.
Worse still, there are no options to really freshen things up. Train and Cobblestone still aren’t in the game, and while Cache is being worked on by FMPONE, there’s no guarantee it’ll actually come to the Active Duty map pool when it’s finished. It’s just not looking too bright in this regard.
Whether your version of CS2 runs well is total potluck. No matter your rig, it’s possible to suffer from lag in Counter-Strike 2, and you’ll often find it happens at the worst possible moment. Now, it’s understandable that it won’t run as well as CS:GO, which was so well-optimized that it could run on a rotten potato, but the current performance of CS2 at times is inexcusable.
The move from CS:GO to Counter-Strike 2 was supposed to be an upgrade. So why are we missing so much content that was already in the previous game? Danger Zone? Gone. Train, Cache, and Cobblestone? You’ll need to download them as CS2 Workshop maps to play. Retakes? You’ve got to play on third-party servers. Even the server browser doesn’t quite work like it’s supposed to.
Ultimately, the missing content is frustrating, but it’s far from the biggest problem with CS2. But it’s still a problem fully worth mentioning here.
We can’t talk about CS2’s issues and not discuss its cheating problem. There is so little faith in the Counter-Strike community about VAC at the moment. Personally, I’ve never seen VAC Live cancel a match mid-game, and I know I’m not alone here. This is despite playing with numerous spin-botters and blatant wallhackers. It just seems as though the system isn’t working right now.
This isn’t just frustrating for veteran players either. Counter-Strike 2 cheats are a blight on the new player experience, and there is absolutely no point playing without a Prime account. You’re almost guaranteed to face a hacker without Prime, and this is problematic for a game looking to attract new players. If they just face constant hackers in the free version of the game, they’ll just walk away forever. It’s a serious issue that Valve needs to get on top of sooner rather than later.
Do you think we covered everything? Let us know in the comments what you think about the current state of CS2.
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