Steam operator Valve launched Counter-Strike 2 on September 27th, replacing the long-running and popular Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. However, the launch hasn’t gone without a hitch, as Counter-Strike 2 is now Valve’s lowest-rated game on Steam.
Counter-Strike 2 criticized for technical problems and replacing Global Offensive
Every other Valve game has a Steam rating of “Mostly Positive” or better. That’s technically true of Counter-Strike 2’s lifetime score due to having inherited Counter-Strike Global Offensive’s Steam page. However, Steam’s Recent Reviews, which take the average from the last 30 days, are only Mixed.
According to Steam, only 68% of the 165,160 recent reviews were positive, and that’s including positive reviews from before the 27th. In fact, while there was a significant spike in positive reviews on the 27, many were last-minute reviews of CS: GO. It is possible that the new Counter-Strike’s score would be much lower if it weren’t using Global Offensive’s page on Steam.
Granted, many of the negative reviews were criticizing how Counter-Strike 2 replaced Global Offensive rather than talking about the game itself. Fans were rightfully upset when Blizzard did the same with Overwatch and Overwatch 2. As one review from the 27th points out, it’s only fair that Valve gets the same criticism. Another review from the same day complains about how CS2 benefits unfairly from CS: GO’s positive reviews.
However, those are far from players’ only criticisms of the newly released Counter-Strike 2. The new game reportedly has a severe cheating problem, and players complain of broken matchmaking. Others criticized the removal of private servers and third-party matchmaking. CS2 also lacks several of Global Offensive’s game modes, only having six of CS: GO’s nine. Counter-Strike 2 also suffers from technical problems, including poor performance and issues with hitboxes. Some users also report aiming bugs, which is a pretty big problem for a first-person shooter.
