Fans have been wanting a Source 2 version of Counter-Strike: Global Offensive for years now, and one modder has made it a reality before Valve.
Modders and content creators have given fans a taste of what Source 2 would look like for the game on several occasions in the past. This has been done by taking Source 2 games like Half-Life: Alyx and transferring in guns and maps from those games. A new creation from YouTuber and modder Gabe Follower goes a step further by creating a fully playable CSGO game in the Source 2 engine.
Gabe Follower effectively remade CSGO within the Source 2 engine using s&box. Though it reuses assets from CSGO including levels, guns, and character models, it doesn’t use any of CSGO’s existing code. This gives fans an idea of what the baseline is for a hypothetical official release, and what it might look like in action.
What does Source 2 CSGO look like?
A five-minute-long video of the s&box version of CSGO was posted on YouTube by Gabe Follower, allowing players to see what CSGO really looks like in Source 2.
Graphically speaking, it isn’t radically different. CSGO has been heavily overhauled since its initial release and that makes the game look relatively good despite its increasing age. There are a couple of significant differences, most notably the elaborate particle effects popping up with each bullet that lands. In a few moments, firefights around the A-long entryway become very difficult to track because so much dirt is kicked up from bullets hitting walls and doors. Though CSGO already has particle effects, the ones in Source 2 are much more elaborate and visually noisy, making some fights more difficult to see and understand.
Perhaps the greatest difference between the two games is the movement. This is one of the biggest potential changes that could be coming to CSGO in a Source 2 move as movement plays a huge role in how shooting works in the game. Gameplay being hugely impacted by a port was recently discussed by a former CSGO developer, and this latest translation of CSGO to the Source 2 engine is demonstrative of that possibility.
Though this may be intriguing, it doesn’t forebode an official “CSGO 2” release. Data miners have uncovered evidence of a port being in the works by Valve, but it’s unclear how far along this is in development or whether it would come out at all.
