CS2 used to be my favorite game. Now it feels more like a social experiment to see how much frustration one player can take before uninstalling.

And that’s what makes it even worse. When CS2 first released, it was a complete mess technically. Bugs everywhere, weird hitreg, random issues every match. But somehow, it was still fun. There were barely any cheaters, matches actually felt fair, and people just played the game. I had time off back then and put in over 160 hours in two weeks. It was chaotic, but it was probably the best time CS2 ever had.

Let’s start with the anti-cheat, or whatever Valve wants to call it. VAC Live is apparently this revolutionary system, except it only seems to work when a Valve employee is personally spectating your match. The rest of the time, you are up against players spinning like helicopters, prefiring through two walls, and casually deleting your team for 13 rounds straight. Very competitive. Very fair. Truly inspiring gameplay.

And the best part? You are stuck there. In a 5v5 competitive match against a blatant cheater, you have exactly zero options. You either sit through 15 to 45 minutes of pure nonsense, or you leave and get punished for it. Your trust factor drops, you get a cooldown, and somehow you are the problem. Getting trapped in a game that is obviously compromised and then being penalized for not wanting to waste your time is next level design. Absolutely brilliant.

But hey, at least we are getting important updates. More skins, more questionable community maps, and my personal favorite, you can now rescue dogs. Because when your competitive shooter is completely falling apart, the logical next step is clearly a virtual animal shelter. Priorities, right?

Premier matchmaking is another masterpiece. If you do not queue as a full five stack, you are basically volunteering for psychological damage. Communication? Optional. Teamplay? Nonexistent. Instead, you often end up with teammates who either do not communicate at all, or only use voice chat to argue, insult, or have full conversations in their own language with friends while the rest of the team is left out. So you mute them, because you have to, and now you are playing a team based competitive game in complete silence. Amazing design.

And honestly, I would just love to sit down for five minutes and ask "Lord Gaben" what the actual plan is here. What happened? Does anyone at Valve still care about the state of this game, or is everything just running on autopilot at this point? Is CS2 supposed to be a competitive shooter, or just a storefront with a matchmaking button attached? I genuinely want to know what is going on behind the scenes, because from the outside it feels like nobody is steering the ship anymore.

It is honestly impressive how far the competitive experience has fallen. The core community that made this game great feels completely ignored, while everything around it gets polished and monetized.

CS2 could have been incredible. Instead, it feels like a bad joke that just keeps going and somehow gets worse every time you queue.

Not recommended. Completely broken. Still my favorite game.

The game is infested with cheaters.

Counter Strike ✘
Aim Bot Strike ✔