Counter-Strike 2

Counter-Strike 2

Developers
	Valve Corporation
Engines
	Source 2
Release dates
Windows	September 27, 2023
Linux	September 27, 2023
Taxonomy
Monetization	Free-to-play
Microtransactions	Cosmetic, Loot box, Player trading
Modes	Multiplayer
Pacing	Real-time
Perspectives	First-person
Controls	Direct control
Genres	FPS
Art styles	Realistic
Themes	Contemporary
Series	Counter-Strike

Counter-Strike
Counter-Strike	2000
Counter-Strike: Condition Zero	2004
Counter-Strike: Source	2004
Counter-Strike NEO -White Memories-	2005
Counter-Strike Online (series)
Counter-Strike: Global Offensive	2012
Counter-Strike 2	2023

Counter-Strike 2 is a free upgrade to Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, running on the Source 2 engine.

General information

Steam Community Discussions

Availability

Source	DRM	Notes	Keys	OS
Steam		Global version.
Publisher website		China version.

Monetization

Type	Notes
Free-to-play	Base game is free-to-play, but paid Prime status is needed for some features.

Microtransactions

Type	Notes
Cosmetic	Gun skins and player models can be obtained in-game, purchased or traded from other players, and by opening loot boxes.
Loot box	Loot boxes are earned during gameplay, but keys must be bought with real money in order to open them. All rewards are cosmetic.
Player trading	Trading can be done via Steam.

Game data

Configuration file(s) location

System	Location
Steam	<Steam-folder>\userdata\<user-id>\730\local\cfg\ <Steam-folder>\userdata\<user-id>\730\remote\

Save game cloud syncing

System	Native	Notes
Steam Cloud

Video

Video settings

Advanced video settings

Graphics feature	State	Notes
Widescreen resolution
Multi-monitor
Ultra-widescreen
4K Ultra HD
Field of view (FOV)		Default 90°. Hor+. Can be set with the command fov_cs_debug if the server allows cheats.
Windowed
Borderless fullscreen windowed
Anisotropic filtering (AF)
Anti-aliasing (AA)		CMAA2 and up to 8x MSAA.
High-fidelity upscaling		FSR 1.0
Vertical sync (Vsync)		Triple Buffering
60 FPS and 120+ FPS		By default, menus are locked to 120 FPS and gameplay is at 400 FPS. With console, can change fps_max up to 1000; use 0 for uncapped framerate.
High dynamic range display (HDR)		Support Auto HDR. Rendered image uses SDR color space. In-game HDR option refers only to HDR Rendering.
Ray tracing (RT)

• 

  Game settings

Input

Keyboard and mouse	State	Notes
Remapping
Mouse acceleration
Mouse sensitivity
Mouse input in menus
Mouse Y-axis inversion
Controller
Controller support		Controller support has not been implemented in Counter-Strike 2 as of 29/3/2024.

Controller types

• 

  Keyboard and mouse settings

Audio

Audio settings

Audio feature	State	Notes
Separate volume controls		Overall game volume and separate music slider.
Surround sound		Audio output designed for stereo headphones only.
Subtitles
Closed captions
Mute on focus lost
Royalty free audio

Localizations

Language	UI	Audio	Sub	Notes
English
Simplified Chinese
Traditional Chinese
Czech
Danish
Dutch
Finnish
French
German
Greek
Hungarian
Italian
Japanese
Korean
Norwegian
Polish
Brazilian Portuguese
Portuguese
Brazilian Portuguese
Romanian
Russian
Spanish
Latin American Spanish
Swedish
Thai
Turkish
Ukrainian
Vietnamese

Network

Multiplayer types

Type	Native	Players	Notes
Local play
LAN play		10	Use Offline with bots mode and set sv_lan 1 in the console.
Online play		32	10 players in competitive mode 32 players in Community servers and outside competitive mode

Connection types

Type	Native	Notes
Matchmaking
Peer-to-peer
Dedicated
Self-hosting
Direct IP		Open the console (~) and use connect followed by the IP and port.

Ports

Protocol	Port(s) and/or port range(s)
TCP	27014-27050
UDP	27000-27030

Universal Plug and Play (UPnP) support status is unknown.

Issues fixed

Game freezes when push to talk

Turn "Streamlined Push To Talk" option to YES in audio settings.

Repeated UAC prompt for Steam Client Service

Copy the files from <Steam-folder>\steamapps\common\Steamworks Shared\_CommonRedist\DirectX\Jun2010\ to <Steam-folder>\steamapps\common\Counter-Strike Global Offensive\directx_installer. Relaunch the game.

Other information

API

Technical specs	Supported	Notes
Direct3D	11
Vulkan		To enable it, before starting the game, enter -vulkan in the launch options (Properties... > General > LAUNCH OPTIONS)

Executable	32-bit	64-bit	Notes
Windows
Linux

Middleware

	Middleware	Notes
Physics	Rubikon
Audio	Steam Audio
Interface	Panorama, Qt
Input	SDL
Multiplayer	Steamworks	Limited test uses another master server. Final version uses Steamworks.
Anti-cheat	Valve Anti-Cheat (VAC)

System requirements

Windows

Linux

Windows
	Minimum
Operating system (OS)	10
Processor (CPU)	Intel Core i5-750
System memory (RAM)	8 GB
Hard disk drive (HDD)	85 GB
Video card (GPU)	1 GB of VRAM DirectX 11 compatible Shader model 5.0 support

Unofficially, the game can be played on Windows 7 to Windows 8.1. Only offline is playable in these operating systems, as VAC is non-functional in these operating systems.

Since one of the updates, the game requires CPU with SSE4.2 instruction in order to launch.

Linux
	Minimum
Operating system (OS)	Ubuntu 20.04
Processor (CPU)	Intel Core i5-750
System memory (RAM)	8 GB
Hard disk drive (HDD)	85 GB
Video card (GPU)	AMD GCN+ Nvidia Kepler+ 1 GB of VRAM

VK_EXT_graphics_pipeline_library highly recommended.