The shareware competitive shooter Counter-Strike 2 from Valve studio recently received a relatively small update, which nevertheless caused a strong reaction from the fan community.
Image Source: Valve
The change that has excited fans is the first item on the official list of improvements and is located on the Dust 2 map: “Modification of the pile of containers near the special forces base towards bomb site A.”
Since Dust 2’s debut in 2001, counter-terrorists have been hooking each other up by using said containers to jump onto the bridge leading to Point A (or towards the center of the map) – a common tactic at the beginning of a round.
23 years later, in an update on July 22, Valve changed the position of the containers: now players (whether special forces or terrorist) do not need the help of a teammate in order to jump onto the bridge.
The change will affect the counter-terrorist strategy at the beginning of the round, make it easier to reach the bridge when playing, for example, with random users, and also open up new tactical opportunities.
The reaction to a minor change with big consequences was mixed, but no one remained indifferent (examples from the Reddit forum):
- «The more I think about it, the more upset I get,” COYGodzilla shared;
- «They just broke Dust 2,” says Loosecun;
- «They are solving a problem that does not exist,” TalhaOne is sure;
- «“It’s just crazy,” assesses the scale of changes safe5k;
- «Rest in peace, Dust 2,” N1c3Wh says goodbye;
- «Because of the muscle memory, it feels wrong on so many levels, but it also opens up new possibilities,” Trsnaqe can’t decide;
- «A small change that will have a major impact on how the map plays,” predicts tarangk.
Dust 2 is the most famous map in the history of Counter-Strike, which even 23 years after its debut is quite popular among players. The arena was designed by designer David Johnston.