Playing Counter-Strike on your smartphone is a real possibility today. For example, you could run CS 1.6 using an emulator. It sure sounds cool, but we decided to go even deeper. Today, the CS.MONEY blog is going to tell you how Counter-Strike: Global Offensive clones are making their way to smartphones as well as to find out: are those creations even playable?
Borrowed skins
The ideas of Counter-Strike: Global Offensive reached smartphones stage by stage. It all started with the most ‘important’ part of the game’s success — skins. And it was not just small companies that borrowed weapon finishes from CS:GO — the big sharks of the smartphone game market resorted to that, too.
The year 2020 witnessed a story around PUBG Mobile. On the game’s subreddit, the users noticed a suspicious similarity between the Savage Psycho skin from PUBG Mobile and the AK-47 Neon Revolution skin from CS:GO. The resemblance is so strong, in fact, that if you shorten the fore-end of the PUBG Mobile skin and release it in CS:GO, what you get is an M4A1-S Neon Revolution.
Notably, it’s not exclusively Counter-Strike: Global Offensive whose elements have served as an ‘inspiration source.’ The devs of the mobile Battle Royale went as far as to ‘borrow’ finishes not only from games, but even from GTA V mods! Interestingly enough, this skin copying didn’t even lead to any serious consequences. PUBG Mobile is still available in the app store — and still features the aforementioned Savage Psycho.
Map copies
YouTuber Warowl formulated a rule concerning maps: if there are maps in a game, these latter will definitely include a copy of Dust 2. Indeed, it’s hard to imagine a more recognizable map from a shooter than the good ol’ dusty desert. You can find it in a whole bunch of CS:GO clones for mobile devices.
Take Bullet Party 2. Its developers didn’t just copy Dust 2’s general layout (which they could’ve done by mistake). Nah, the legendary CS:GO map was replicated in every detail: even the barrels and crates are all on the same well-familiar spots, let alone the walls, doors, and passageways!
However, there’s barely anything illegal in borrowing Dust 2. You can find various map iterations in dozens of shooters on different platforms, from the previously mentioned Bullet Party 2 to CrossFire and WARMODE. What’s more, you can even play a copy of the map in the Napoleonic War mod for Mount & Blade: Warband.
The Bullet Party 2 case is especially curious for one particular reason. Namely, the developers didn’t even bother with the name: in the menu, it’s simply called Dust! They could at least have called it Desert — or something along those lines.
Gameplay
Some mobile games don’t confine themselves to cloning the outer shell of Counter-Strike: Global Offensive and copy gameplay into the bargain. One of such clones is Standoff 2. On the face of it, it’s indistinguishable from CS:GO. Judge for yourself: rounds of about two minutes, freeze time at the start of each round, 40-second explosion timer, economy system, and even a store with similar prices, with the Deagle costing 700 bucks, and the Kevlar + Helmet priced at 1k!
Small wonder that reproducing every single aspect of Counter-Strike: Gobal Offensive is no feasible task. Bunny hopping is pretty hard even with a keyboard and mouse; on a smartphone, it’s downright impossible. Physics imposes its limitations, too, so you wouldn’t be able to pull off certain CS:GO tricks in Standoff 2. But even with all these bottlenecks, the smartphone game looks like an actual mobile spin-off from the main Counter-Strike series, rather than just another clone.
Another noteworthy detail: besides the gameplay, the game copied the skins mechanics. There are cases, skin collections, and even a wheel-spinning game when opening one. Such precision when cloning can only be achieved in labs — or game studios specializing in apps for smartphones.
Clone or successor?
The latest clone to date is Critical Ops. Unlike previous titles, this one looks more like a reimagining of Counter-Strike: Global Offensive than its direct port or clone. While the maps bear a distant resemblance, there’s no copy of Dust 2. There’s your gun store and an economy system, but the M4 is cheaper than the AK-47. The same goes for many other things — the gameplay elements are similar yet different enough not to qualify as a blunt ripoff.
Naturally, weapon finishes are in place as well. Critical Ops has its own knives and, just like Counter-Strike: Global Offensive’s Danger Zone, even its own axes, as well as skins for the regular guns. Obviously, all of these drop from cases; nevertheless, the opening process is different from CS:GO. The biggest difference: when getting a duplicate item, the player gets special currency they can spend on skins.
Our study of various Counter-Strike: Global Offensive clones for smartphones has lead us to the following conclusion: it’s almost impossible to transfer the CS experience to the smartphone screen. You could copy skins, maps, or even the gameplay in its entirety, but it’s simply unreal to reproduce all the nuances.
One of those unique nuances is the skins market. Valve was able to create a full-fledged ecosystem that coexists with the rest of the game. The skin market is not only suitable for buying a new look for the AK, but also for earning money. To this end, you’d need to become a trader — read our separate posts about that. Check out, say, our tips for a novice trader in CS:GO.
