Counter-Strike 2

Counter-Strike 2 is a multiplayer tactical first-person shooter, in which two teams, the Terrorists and Counter-Terrorists, compete to complete various objectives. The game includes two round-based objective scenarios: bomb defusal and hostage rescue, with the bomb defusal scenario making up the primary gameplay experience. New gameplay features in Counter-Strike 2 include volumetric "smoke physics", a feature where the smoke generated by a smoke grenade grows to fill spaces, and can be altered in real time by gunshots or through the use of hand grenades, and a redesign to weapon reloading, with reloading now discarding all remaining ammunition in a magazine upon replacement, rather than returning it to the reserve pool; players can also perform "silent" reloads that do not produce noise to enemies, but take longer to complete. Additionally, the game features a revised weapon loadout system, which only allows players to bring five pistols, five "mid-tier" weapons (i.e submachine guns and shotguns), and five rifles with them into a match, for a total of fifteen weapons.

In standard bomb defusal matches, the Terrorist and Counter-Terrorist teams each have five players. In these game modes, eliminated players do not respawn until the next round. Within each round, the goal of the Terrorist team is to plant a bomb at one of two bombsites on the map and defend the bombsite until the bomb explodes. The Terrorist team can also win the round by eliminating the Counter-Terrorist team.

Valve developed Counter-Strike 2 with the Source 2 game engine as an update to Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (2012). Various aspects of Global Offensive were updated during development to use the features of Source 2. It is the first entry in the Counter-Strike series in over ten years. In addition to the engine changes, the game was developed alongside new server architecture, allowing for "sub-tick" gameplay that more accurately synchronizes with player input. Mike Morasky also composed new music for Counter-Strike 2; a soundtrack album was released to digital platforms by Ipecac Recordings on November 1, 2023.

Many maps from Global Offensive were given upgrades to take advantage of the features of Source 2, including new lighting and physically based materials. Valve created three different groups to place maps into when reconstructing them: "Touchstone" for maps that were unchanged in layout (ex. Dust II), "Upgrades" for maps given large-scale graphical upgrades with the features of Source 2 (ex. Nuke), and "Overhauls" for maps reconstructed from the ground up (ex.

Counter-Strike 2 received "generally favorable reviews", according to the review aggregator website Metacritic, which calculated a weighted average rating of 82/100, based on 16 critic reviews. OpenCritic determined that 88% of critics recommended the game.

Jake Tucker of TechRadar gave Counter-Strike 2 a 4 out of 5 star rating; Tucker praised the game's "clean" gunplay and "silken" movement, but criticized its hostility to new players and lack of accessibility features. Eurogamer's Will Judd also gave the game a 4 out of 5 star rating, commending its moment-to-moment gunplay and overhauled maps, but critiquing its stability and lack of alternative game modes that deviate from its focus on competitive play. Chris Shive of Hardcore Gamer stated that Counter-Strike 2 is a "mostly positive update to Global Offensive", and gave it a 4/5 rating.