Counter-Strike 2 is here and free on Steam

For more than two decades, Valve’s Counter-Strike: Global Offensive has offered its global community a unique competitive experience. Millions of gamers around the world have played this legendary game, and some people consider the best pure multiplayer shooter ever.

Fans have waited patiently for a new chapter for several years, and now the beta phase for Counter-Strike 2 is over. You can now officially download and play it for free on Steam.

Massive Counter-Strike facelift

Counter-Strike 2 is not a completely new game, but a massive update for the the original CSGO. It upgrades the game to the updated Source Engine 2 and brings reworked and redesigned maps, improved grenades, network functions, reworked sound, upgraded community workshop tools, and more — including overhauled, physics-responsive smoke grenades that can be pierced by bullets and explosives. That’s sure to shake up the meta.

Gameplay-wise, a few things have also changed and improved. There’s an updated Prime mode (for a fee) with a new CS rating, a global and regional ranking list, and — most importantly — gameplay runs independent of the tick rate. You can transfer your earned items from CS:GO to CS2 as well, so all those expensive skins you paid up for will look even better now. You can see more about Prime Mode in Valve’s video:

Release for Windows, SteamOS and Linux

You can download and play the game on Valve’s gaming platform Steam right now. The size of the update is around 27 GB. In addition to the version for Windows 10 and 11, Counter-Strike 2 is also available for SteamOS and Linux (from Ubuntu 20.04).

This article was translated from German to English and originally appeared on pcwelt.de.