CS2. 15 best free online shooters to play in 2024

Everyone knows Counter-Strike. This game started out as a fan mod for the first Half-Life and remains wildly popular. It is still one of the most important disciplines in esports and has also been made totally free, thanks to Counter-Strike: Global Offensive.

If you've slept through the last year, we inform you that CS2 is not so much a sequel to the legendary first installment, but a huge update to CSGO. The gameplay has hardly changed, even when compared to the original from over two decades ago. Terrorists and anti-terrorists fight each other in several different modes – mostly bomb diffusion/arming, while still using the same iconic guns. Even the same maps that were crowded at the turn of the millennium are still popular on servers – if you fought endless battles on de_dust2 and de_aztec in middle school, you will instantly feel at home.

Valve finished transforming CSGO into CS2 on September 27, 2023. Unlike its direct predecessor, the sequel has been available for free since the beginning of its existence. How are they making money, then? Skins, as usual, as well as on a paid premium upgrades and access to operations, providing a lot of useful attractions.

Currently, Counter-Strike 2 is doing great. The game practically doesn't fall from Steam's number one in the most popular games. In addition to what players already knew well, the update also introduced a lot of new elements. They are primarily located in the graphic design - the move to the Source 2 engine has allowed for improvements in lighting, character models, and texture sharpness. The audio layer has also jumped to a higher level, although you need the right equipment to hear it. We also got a new ranked match format, Premier mode, and improvements in the system for detecting cheating players.

1. Counter-Strike 2 in our encyclopedia