Let me start with this: The CSGO fanbase is incredibly toxic and averse to change. The fact that the release is as relatively smooth as it's been is truly a miracle. I think it's because as much as people love to complain, there are plenty of genuinely incredible aspects to this title. I'll start with the bad, because there are some genuinely negative aspects to CS2's release, even if I overall think that this is a huge step forward.

-With no memes, the loss of mac support is quite bad, I know Dota 2 which had something similar happen has mac support now, but it's quite unfortunate that CS could've been your favorite game, and due to this update it's just simply gone.
-I think overall, subtick is extremely good, but the visual feedback received feels a bit delayed. I think people feel the game is sluggish due to some small limitations between client/server/game engine. I imagine this will improve overtime, likely with *under the hood* changes to Source 2 itself.
-The game released with less features than CSGO had. Fewer maps, fewer gamemodes, no way to play workshop maps (as far as I can tell).
-There was no new case, operation, or really anything new.
-Performance still needs improving, the game is very well optimized overall, but things like the water splashing effects are very poor and even with a decent PC, my game drops from 140-ish to 40fps when leaving spawn on ancient.
-My royal paladin doesn't look as good as other skins :(

-The visuals are so good, some people won't like how bright the game looks, but I love it personally. A gamma slider would be nice for people who want to be staring into a dark hallway for the rest of their lives. Also the maps look genuinely incredible. Italy and Inferno are some standouts with some very nice changes that keep the map fresh.
-The feedback, getting a headshot or a one tap or an AWP kill feels truly incredible. I don't think there's another shooter that nails that level of diagetic (something happening in game, not like in the UI or outside of the game like a hitmarker sound, or a DUN DUN sound for a kill) feedback so well.
-Smokes, the interactivity is very very good, there's a lot of creativity and layers of depth added while keeping the core mechanic very much in-tact.
-Subtick (overall), the technology is kind of genius. I'm surprised it's not the standard among all shooters. Yes, it needs some tuning, but people getting shot around corners can sometimes be unavoidable, it's literally the nature of time and ping. It's not something any one system can solve, there will always be a delay between what you see and what the enemy sees, it's truly not a problem that any one game or system can solve, and I know that's not what CSGO players want to hear, but I think the tradeoff for overall consistency with what I see is a good tradeoff for very occassionally dying when I'm 3 inches past a wall. Coming from call of duty, where you die literally like 5 feet after running past a wall, this is a handed improvement and adds a lot of consistency. As an aside: people are quick to blame this system for a lot of shortcomings surrounding the game, but I do believe it's a scapegoat for a lot of issues. A lot of players (especially toxic ones) need something to blame for their poor performance, and it's just an easy thing to blame right now. Let Valve work out the issues. CSGO took 10 years for it to get to where it is, and CS2 is 10x better than CSGO on release.
-The buy menu, a much needed change. During beta, going back to csgo felt so bad, not being able to sell weapons back when your ally calls a mac10 rush after you already full bought. The loadouts are smart, and I like being able to equip the A1-S and the A4 while giving up something like the autosniper. Very good change. As someone who played CS for a long time, this one is so much faster and more intuitive, I don't need keybinds to blindly buy what I do every round, I can buy anything, all within seconds, even without keybinds. A *default buy* or sub-loadout system would be cool. To click one extra button at the top to buy a gun, util, and armor or something depending. That'd be a neat change too, imo.


Overall, CS2 is a huge improvement over CSGO, and I very much understand them not wanting to segment their playerbase as with 1.6 and GO. I don't know if the game is "esport ready" but think it's overall a very good change and I'm glad it's here, and we didn't have to wait many more months for everyone to be able to experience it.

[h1]A genuine review for CS2[/h1] Let me start with this: The CSGO fanbase is incredibly toxic and averse to change. The fact that the release is as relatively smooth as it's been is truly a miracle. I think it's because as much as people love to complain, there are plenty of genuinely incredible aspects to this title. I'll start with the bad, because there are some genuinely negative aspects to CS2's release, even if I overall think that this is a huge step forward. [h3]The Bad[/h3] -With no memes, the loss of mac support is quite bad, I know Dota 2 which had something similar happen has mac support now, but it's quite unfortunate that CS could've been your favorite game, and due to this update it's just simply gone. -I think overall, subtick is extremely good, but the visual feedback received feels a bit delayed. I think people feel the game is sluggish due to some small limitations between client/server/game engine. I imagine this will improve overtime, likely with *under the hood* changes to Source 2 itself. -The game released with less features than CSGO had. Fewer maps, fewer gamemodes, no way to play workshop maps (as far as I can tell). -There was no new case, operation, or really anything new. -Performance still needs improving, the game is very well optimized overall, but things like the water splashing effects are very poor and even with a decent PC, my game drops from 140-ish to 40fps when leaving spawn on ancient. -My royal paladin doesn't look as good as other skins :( [h3]The Good[/h3] -The visuals are so good, some people won't like how bright the game looks, but I love it personally. A gamma slider would be nice for people who want to be staring into a dark hallway for the rest of their lives. Also the maps look genuinely incredible. Italy and Inferno are some standouts with some very nice changes that keep the map fresh. -The feedback, getting a headshot or a one tap or an AWP kill feels truly incredible. I don't think there's another shooter that nails that level of diagetic (something happening in game, not like in the UI or outside of the game like a hitmarker sound, or a DUN DUN sound for a kill) feedback so well. -Smokes, the interactivity is very very good, there's a lot of creativity and layers of depth added while keeping the core mechanic very much in-tact. -Subtick (overall), the technology is kind of genius. I'm surprised it's not the standard among all shooters. Yes, it needs some tuning, but people getting shot around corners can sometimes be unavoidable, it's literally the nature of time and ping. It's not something any one system can solve, there will always be a delay between what you see and what the enemy sees, it's truly not a problem that any one game or system can solve, and I know that's not what CSGO players want to hear, but I think the tradeoff for overall consistency with what I see is a good tradeoff for very occassionally dying when I'm 3 inches past a wall. Coming from call of duty, where you die literally like 5 feet after running past a wall, this is a handed improvement and adds a lot of consistency. As an aside: people are quick to blame this system for a lot of shortcomings surrounding the game, but I do believe it's a scapegoat for a lot of issues. A lot of players (especially toxic ones) need something to blame for their poor performance, and it's just an easy thing to blame right now. Let Valve work out the issues. CSGO took 10 years for it to get to where it is, and CS2 is 10x better than CSGO on release. -The buy menu, a much needed change. During beta, going back to csgo felt so bad, not being able to sell weapons back when your ally calls a mac10 rush after you already full bought. The loadouts are smart, and I like being able to equip the A1-S and the A4 while giving up something like the autosniper. Very good change. As someone who played CS for a long time, this one is so much faster and more intuitive, I don't need keybinds to blindly buy what I do every round, I can buy anything, all within seconds, even without keybinds. A *default buy* or sub-loadout system would be cool. To click one extra button at the top to buy a gun, util, and armor or something depending. That'd be a neat change too, imo. Overall, CS2 is a huge improvement over CSGO, and I very much understand them not wanting to segment their playerbase as with 1.6 and GO. I don't know if the game is "esport ready" but think it's overall a very good change and I'm glad it's here, and we didn't have to wait many more months for everyone to be able to experience it.