The tenth anniversary of Counter-Strike: Global Offensive is looming on the horizon. On the occasion of the previous anniversary, Valve released a Retro variation of Dust 2. The CS.MONEY Blog doesn’t know what the company has prepared for the community this time, but we have three ideas that would be easy to implement and make great additions to the game. That said, Valve doesn’t necessarily have to drop these maps for the upcoming big date.
Before we get to the modes themselves, one more thing is to mention. When gathering ideas, we started from the ones that have already been brought to life using the Source engine, sometimes even in Counter-Strike: Global Offensive itself. So it’s not difficult for Valve to reproduce them in our favorite game.
Zombie mode
Zombie apocalypse is a crystal-clear idea. Someone turns into a zombie and then proceeds to infect everyone else until only the living dead are left standing. While the idea sounds extremely simple, it has generated tons of content over the past decades, from books and comics to movies and video games. Obviously, this theme hasn’t bypassed Counter-Strike.
The first zombie mods emerged back in the days of Counter-Strike 1.6. From a basic concept, they quickly evolved into a full-fledged game mode, somewhat reminiscent of Left 4 Dead. Over time, various game modes, zombie abilities, and survivor abilities popped up, resulting eventually in a full-fledged game within a game.
Zombie mods differ significantly gameplay-wise from the usual match. And it’s not just that there’s no C4 and two bomb sites. The match itself turns into a confrontation of strong and tough zombies, who can only fight in close combat, against the survivors, much more fragile, but capable of long-range combat.
Like the aforementioned Left 4 Dead, the zombie mode in Counter-Strike predominantly tests your ability to communicate and coordinate actions in an ever-changing environment. The team that acts more coherently will be victorious in the end.
Teleports & 2 in 1
June 2019 saw the release of Dust 2 (Retro). Valve added it to the game to celebrate the series’ twentieth anniversary. Interestingly, only half of the rounds in a match are played on the Retro variation. The reason is that the version of the map changed from Retro to regular and vise versa at the beginning of each round. To pull off a trick like that, the devs made two maps in one. Both the familiar version of Dust 2 and the new counterpart were located on top of each other, ensuring that switching between rounds was seamless.
But what if the map version change happened not at the beginning of the round, but rather at the player’s request? It sounds crazy, but what’s even crazier is that this practice already exists, but in another game using the Source engine. We’re talking about Titanfall 2 and specifically the Northstar mod for online play. The mod includes a separate game mode called Flipside. Its main feature is that each player has the ability to instantly move between the map in the present and future. To bring this idea to life, the devs had to take a symmetric map, divide it in half, and provide a transfer between the ‘halves’.
A trick like that would be very much in order in Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. Just imagine those sick firefights with the ability to teleport between the old and new version of Inferno!
Hide and Seek
Taking an unexpected position, hiding, and catching your opponent unawares is a standard trick that’s a staple in regular Counter-Strike: Global Offensive matches. Still, you can’t win the round by hiding alone in competitive matchmaking. What about building a game mode around hide-and-seek?
As with the zombie mode, the idea of implementing hide-and-seek in Valve’s shooter has been around since the Counter-Strike 1.6 era. In every single match, the gameplay tickled your nerves and made you rack your brain to win. Counter-Strike: Global Offensive features hide-and-seek, too, but like in 1.6, the classic maps like Mirage or Nuke are way too cramped.
All that has changed with the advent of the Danger Zone maps. In spaces this big — and with additional tools like the parachute and area-revealing grenades — hide-and-seek was brought to a new level. TheWarOwl recently released a video featuring hide-and-seek on an island — and man, is it awesome! The Hide and Seek mode looks exciting and isn’t difficult to implement, and yet, it turns the whole gameplay upside down. After all, in Hide and Seek, it’s the one who avoided engaging in a firefight who wins the race, not the one who shoots better.
We don’t know yet what exactly Valve has prepared for the tenth anniversary of Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, but odds are, it won’t be any mode from the list above. In any event, here’s a question for you: if you could choose which mode to add to the game, which of the three would you choose: zombies, teleports, or hide-and-seek? Answer this question in the comments and invite a friend to answer as well! Maybe your answers will coincide, in which case — go and play together on the game’s community servers with the right mod!
