shroud praises Counter-Strike 2 for its “smoother” gameplay but raises concerns over smokes

Former CSGO pro turned streaming superstar Michael ‘shroud’ Grzesiek was among the first to compliment Counter-Strike 2 on launch day, highlighting its “smooth” gameplay upgrades. Though he isn’t completely sold on one particular change yet, questioning smokes in the new port.

CSGO fans rejoice, Counter-Strike 2 is finally a real thing and it’s already playable, sort of. If you’re among the lucky few with early access to Valve’s limited beta, you can jump in right away and start getting familiar with the new FPS port. For everyone else, however, including some of the biggest names in the scene, waiting patiently is all that can be done.

Lumped into the former group, CS legend shroud was straight into the action on March 22 having gained access right away. Instantly checking out all the new features and updates, the veteran was quickly impressed after a few games in the Source 2 engine.

Heaping praise on the port for just how much of an upgrade it really is, he was complimentary towards a vast majority of the day one experience. Though not everything was worthy of praise, however, as shroud did highlight a few particular gripes.

“So far it is a lot smoother of an engine update than I would have thought,” shroud said early into his all-day broadcast on Twitch. From renovated maps to new server systems, this new version of the game only seeks to improve on CSGO’s foundations, rather than establishing a whole new rhythm.

That said, smaller additions across the board certainly caught his eye, including a shiny new visual flair that signifies your kills throughout a match. Say you get a multi-spray, or even an ace, this new element hypes those moments up all the more.

“Woah, you guys see this? Valorant?” shroud joked. “I was saying this yesterday, give me some gas when I get an ace. Sometimes you don’t even know you got an ace, now we’re finally getting some f***ing gas.”

On the other hand, a few new tweaks did raise eyebrows as shroud got more familiar with the new version of Valve’s iconic FPS title. In particular, he questioned the jump from regular tick-rates as we know them, to a new method completely removing the need as servers look to match your actions quicker than ever before.

“They got rid of tick rates completely… have fun,” he joked sarcastically. “The server performance is super interesting. Definitely not as good, but that’s probably because they have a lot of hiccups right now.”

Last but not least, he also expressed concern over new smoke grenade systems in the port, admitting the changes “look f***ing dope” in action, but could be detrimental to performance. “Bye bye FPS,” he said. “That’s gonna hurt. Luckily Counter-Strike already runs great so it’s not that big a deal.”

After playing for a few hours, he remained hesitant on the new smokes as a whole. While he continued to praise how “awesome” they looked in action, especially when throwing grenades to dissolve the effect, or even when shooting through them, he’s not completely sold over the traditional CS smokes just yet.

Obviously, it’s worth taking these early impressions for what they are, early. With thousands of hours pumped into the original version of the game, any slight change is going to be massively noticeable for a player of shroud’s ilk. But over time, there’s every chance those opinions change as he acclimates to the new version of Counter-Strike.