The Counter-Strike Series has always been down-to-earth. Real weapons, real Special Forces, and real places. Well, almost. Of course, CS2 maps are not copies of real places, but the original map creators clearly drew inspiration from existing locations. So which IRL places inspired CS2 maps? CS.MONEY Blog has answers.
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Dust II
- Real location: Ouarzazate, Morocco
At first glance, Dust 2 resembles of a place located somewhere in the Middle East. But in fact, this is not true. If you look closely at the architecture, especially the towers, it becomes clear that the creators of the map drew inspiration from the North African country of Morocco.
Mirage
- Real location: Marrakech, Morocco
Mirage is also a desert-themed map, but its origin is much easier to establish. Look at the gate at point A and compare it to the image of Bab Agnau, one of the 19 gates of Marrakesh, which we attached. They are as similar as two peas in a pod!
Inferno
- Real location: San Gimignano, Italy
In CS:GO, the first ever version of Inferno was inspired by a place in California, USA. The CS2 Remake moved to Europe. The closest to the landscapes of Inferno is the Italian city of San Gimignano. It has narrow cobbled streets, high towers, and of course green hills, which are visible from the CT base.
Vertigo
- Real location: New York, USA
Skyscrapers cutting through the horizon, yellow taxis and endless construction sites? Of course, hundreds of cities in the USA fit this description, but it seems to us that Vertigo was created primarily with New York in mind. Or Chicago, but most likely, it’s New York.
Anubis
- Real location: Suez, Egypt
Anubis is a mixed one. On one hand, it is absolutely clear that it’s inspired by Egypt and its mythology or history. On the other hand, it’s not easy to pinpoint the exact city or IRL place for this CS2 map. It could be either Suez or Cairo, but we settled on the first option.
Ancient
- Real location: Palenque, Mexico
Another map whose location is given away by the towers. With Ancient, the towers are clearly inspired by the buildings in Palenque, resembling the ruins of the Mayan kingdom capital. This World Heritage Site is located in the Mexican state of Chiapas.
Overpass
- Real location: Berlin, Germany
There are two clues on the map that almost 100% point to the real location. First, it’s the One UP graffiti near the T-side base. 1UP is the name of one of the most famous graffiti crews in the world located in Berlin. The second clue is the TV broadcasting tower, basically copying the appearance of the Berlin TV tower.
Nuke
- Real location: Louise, USA
North Anna is a nuclear power plant located in Virginia, USA. It’s still operating. It also has several domed buildings, a large parking lot, and a river running nearby. Too many coincidences, right? By the way, the station looks more beautiful in CS2 than in real life. In order not to waste all your frames per second on this beauty, check out our CS2 Settings Guide.
Tuscan
- Real location: Manarola, Italy
It’s really simple with Tuscan, because the map is named after a region in Italy. In addition to the name, the rocks, sea and colorful buildings immediately point to a specific city, Manarola, a small picturesque IRL town in northern Italy, which was definitely the inspiration for the creator of this CS2 map.
Thera
- Real location: Oia, Greece
Thera is named after a Greek island in the Aegean Sea. As with Tuscan, we didn’t just find the approximate placement, but pinpointed the exact location. Most likely, it’s the small town of Oia. The white houses with blue domes, the mill, the water… All indicate that FMPONE and MF_Kitten were inspired by this location when creating the map.
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