The community reacted well to the return to a more traditional shape.
Valve released a new update for Counter-Strike 2 (CS2) on Tuesday (August 15) and made changes to the Smoke Grenade. Now, it has a more compact format that matches the one players are used to seeing in CS:GO.
The modification comes after part of the community complained during the last few months about the shape of the smoke. According to them, it was considerably bigger than what they were used to in CS:GO, which affected directly strategies and gameplay.
The update in the smokes was received well on the CS:GO community on Reddit. Some users even said that the previous format of the smoke in CS2 was one of the few complaints they had about Valve's new game.
When you look to the pro scene, the opinions are the same. Astralis' in-game leader, Benjamin "blameF" Bremer, for example, was thrilled with the update. He considered it to be one of the biggest changes in CS2 since the game's beta was released.
CS2 smokes are one of the biggest changes in the game
Even after this change to make the smoke more similar to CS:GO, the utility still is the main topic of many debates in terms of changes that CS2 will bring. In the new version of the game, utility such as smokes use the "responsive smokes" tech, and will interact with bullets and hand grenades.
It is still up for debate whether this is a good thing. Until recently, there was no common ground, since part of the playerbase was eager to see how the new smokes will affect the meta, and the other part is strongly against changing it.
As of now, we're all used to ''walls" of smoke. But in CS2, spraying bullets in it will allow enemies to see through the smoke. Throwing a hand grenade will cause the same effect but in a larger area.
All utility plays an important part in CS's strategies, but the smokes are, by far, the one item that bring most impact. Valve's decision to change it was bold, but only time will tell if it was good. At least, they can always take a step back to leave things close to what they are now, just like they did with the smoke shape.
Stay tuned to esports.gg for the latest CS2 news and updates.