Counter-Strike 2 gets review bombed on Steam

The situation is not as bad as it was in the case of Overwatch 2, which became the worst-rated game on Steam immediately after release. But it’s still pretty bad.

To put things in perspective, Counter-Strike has 7.6 million votes on Steam and the overall result prior to the launch of CS2 was excellent. The approval rate was somewhere between 85% and 90%. In other words, 9 out of 10 reviewers recommended the game.

By contrast, CS2’s initial reviews, which are the game’s recent reviews, are only mostly positive. The percentage drop is somewhere around 15%. Only 73% of those who reviewed the game recently said that they like and recommend it. So why the sudden change?

Counter-Strike 2 is a mess right now

For new players, CS2 feels perfectly normal. The game looks great, feels good to play and has very appealing ranking features. However, for someone who played CS:GO for 5-10 years, the experience is totally different.

First of all, many of the game modes that made CS:GO fun are gone, at least for now. We can still play Wingman, and Deathmatch, but that’s about it apart from Competitive and Casual.

Many of the former maps, including a lot of interesting community maps, are also gone. And they’re not likely to return for at least 6-12 months. This means that veteran players will need to be satisfied with the main game modes.

To be fair, ranking up in CS2 is a lot more fun than in CS:GO. The new game gives you a rank for each individual map and an overall rating that is visible and precise. This means that it is much easier to see and display your progress.

It also means that you get to try as many competitive maps as you want without getting penalized. If you’re a Global Elite on Dust 2, you can compete on Mirage at your Mirage level, which often leads to a very satisfying experience. For strong players, it almost feels like being allowed to smurf.

But overall, CS2 is full of bugs and imbalances. It will take a long time for it to reach a decent state, so the 15% drop makes perfect sense. Players who are reviewing the game feel the need to express their disappointment. Valve made some promises and did not fulfill them. A lot of things are currently missing and many more are quite broken.

Header: Valve